Month-long children’s Yakshagana festival ends in Udupi

The valedictory ceremony of the ‘Kishora Yakshagana Sambhrama-2023’, a major children’s performing art festival organised by Udupi Yakshashikshana Trust, was held at the government junior college at Kundapur in Udupi district on Friday.

The performances were hosted at six different locations in Udupi district covering Udupi, Kaup, Shirva, Brahmavar, Kota, and Kundapur over the past one month, beginning December 7.

The chief organiser of the festival, Murali Kadekar, said in a release that more than 2,500 students from various schools in Udupi district actively participated in the festival which helped develop an appreciation for Yakshagana among the high school students and encouraged them to gain knowledge and awareness about Indian mythological stories.

As many as 31 experts in Yakshagana trained the students for over four months and a total of 69 school teams gave performances on 70 different Yakshagana episodes, he added.

The Yakshagana Kalaranga, an organisation dedicated to promoting Yakshagana theatre and education, established the Yaksha Shikshana Trust in 2007. The festival is a major step in the organisation’s tireless commitment to the preservation and advancement of Yakshagana, Kadekar said.

The Kishora Yakshagana Sambhrama received good support from MLAs Yashpal Suvarna, Gurme Suresh Shetty and Kiran Kumar Kodgi of Udupi, Kaup and Kundapur constituencies respectively, he said.