Festember
Several celebrities and dignitaries have graced the festival, including Illaiyaraja, Javed Ali, Naresh Iyer, Anuradha Sriram and Ganesh and Kumaresh amongst others.
Festember '14 was the first edition to host the ProShows in a newly constructed open-air theatre, named the Golden Jubilee Convention Hall (GJCH), with a capacity of more than 5,000 people.
Ganesh Venkatraman, Ehsaan Noorani, Haricharan, Nikhita Gandhi, Jaaved Jaaferi, Harun Robert Ashwin Sanghi , Nithya Menen , Aruna Sairam , Karthik , Karan Arjun Singh, Shakthisree Gopalan Jonty Rhodes, Baradwaj Rangan, Michael Karp Mahesh Dattani, Suresh Triveni, S. Sowmya, Pratap Pothen, Sean D’Mello (Pages) Harish Iyer, Anita Ratnam, Unni Krishnan Parthiv Shah, Ananda Shankar Jayant, Kaneez Surka, Alicia Souza, Anu Sridharan Over the past few years, Festember has served a huge number of disquisitions to the populace.
'Carpe Diem' (derived from the Latin phrase for 'seize the day'), the primary guest lecture series of Festember, was introduced in 2014 with the aim of bringing down some of the most inspiring, talented and accomplished individuals from around the world, to get to know them on a personal level and draw motivation and encouragement from their journey to success.
Carpe Diem has hosted various eminent personalities in the past, including Jonty Rhodes (former South African cricketer), Sid Sriram (Indian-American music producer, playback singer, and songwriter), Mahesh Dattani (Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Indian director, actor, playwright and writer), Kaneez Surka (stand-up comic), Baradwaj Rangan (renowned film critic, former deputy editor of The Hindu), Prashant Bhushan (Indian lawyer, activist and politician) and many more.
One of the main highlights was the guest lecture by Nathan Schroeder (a renowned concept artist, and the mastermind behind the illustrations of Hollywood's greatest blockbusters, including Captain America: Civil War, Jurassic World, X-Men and The Avengers ).
Festember 2018 saw the blossoming of a new Guest Lecture series, Vox Populi (derived from the Latin phrase for 'the voice of the people'), which aims to bring down the unknown heroes of our country and give them a platform to make sure their awe-inspiring stories don't go unheard.
The second edition of Vox Populi was honoured by Rathika Ramasamy, the first woman to strike an international reputation as a wildlife photographer and also the only woman to be chosen as one of the Top 20 best photographers of India by “The Birds of India.” The third virtual edition of Vox Populi had the honour of hosting Sanjay Pinto, An advocate, columnist, author of three books and former resident editor of NDTV 24×7.
The series hosts an eclectic mix of gifted personalities from around the world and gives its audience an opportunity to hear firsthand about their aspirations, inspirations and life experiences.
Festember kept up the hype and delivered on it every weekend throughout the series by hosting the likes of Jaaved Jaaferi (Veteran Bollywood actor and comedian), Sanjana Ganesan (Miss India finalist and sports reporter who hosted the 2019 Cricket World Cup), DJ Shaan (popular DJ, dubbing artist, talent show host and singer-songwriter), Nikhita Gandhi (leading Bollywood playback singer and songwriter), Haricharan (a much sought-after playback singer and vocalist), Ehsaan Noorani of the popular musical trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy (a veteran music composer and guitarist) and Ganesh Venkatraman (model, actor and reality TV star) 'ProShows', Festember's most anticipated events, make a spectacular end to an event-filled day of Festember.
All four days of Festember feature a ProShow that showcases many prominent celebrities and artists, including Amit Trivedi, Sachin and Jigar, Guns n Hoses, Ambi Subramaniam, Karthick Iyer, Motherjane, Euphoria and many more.
The final ProShow of Festember ‘15 saw the Golden Jubilee Convention Centre filled to capacity as popular Bollywood artists including Pritam Chakraborty, music director of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Abhijeet Sawant and Antara Mitra of Indian Idol fame, and singers Nakash Aziz and Aditi Singh Sharma take over the audience.
Festember ‘20 had one last trick up its sleeve, concluding the 46h edition with “Finale”, where Stephen Devassy engaged the crowd with his electrifying music and Malavika ‘Mali’ Manoj followed the next day with her compelling performance.
Tarangini, the singing competition of Festember, regularly attracts droves of budding artists, who bring the audience to life with their peppy, feet-tapping playlists of Tamil and Hindi songs.
Another event called Mr and Ms Festember also started for individuals to showcase their personality, ramp walk and talents, similar to the format of a beauty pageant.
Rochak Mantrana, Vaad Vivaad, Antakshari, De Dana Dan, Halka Fulka and Taatkalik Bhashan are just a few of the thirteen-odd Hindi literary events conducted.
It is a two-day cinematic extravaganza with several workshops sure to enthrall young film makers and actors who will get to interact with experts in the industry which is sure to help them hone their skills and talents.
With over 250 entries from across the globe, the movies were judged by the late Biren Das Sharma, Professor, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata.
The panel discussion on OTT vs traditional film platforms also received high acclaim due to the names associated with KC Anand, Anthony Gonsalez, Arun Chidambaram and Dilip Kumar, along with Nikki Galrani organising an enthralling live show.
Gigahertz is a semi-pro rock band that draws enormous crowds and provides a great opportunity for Festember to spread its wings beyond Trichy.
Pages was social responsibility outreach conducted by Festember in Chettinad Vidyashram School on 2 September 2016 in association with the NGO Teach for India and popular children's magazine Tinkle.
The event was launched with the sub-editor of Tinkle, Sean D'Mello, as the chief guest who later conducted a small workshop with the school students focusing on story writing.
A small step towards this was the Young Astronomers Talent Search organized by Festember Social Responsibility at St Johns Vestry Anglo Indian High School in association with Tata Steel and Space Kids.
Booklets were made from the remaining sheets and distributed to Illuminate; a government certified charitable trust that aims at developing the lives of the children of the marginalized communities.
In true "therukoothu" style, the team brought out the importance of physical activity for children of the current generation, complete with meaningful songs, relatable characters, and humorous wordplay.
In 2013, in an attempt to increase awareness about social issues in the area of a large audience, the FSR team headed to Trichy and commenced Metrole.
They marched on the streets of Trichy and conducted a rally to educate the masses about the depreciation of the Indian rupee, and what the common man could do to alleviate the problem.
In its first edition in 2017, 50 volunteers brought smiles and laugh to the gifted students at Vidivelli Special School in Trichy during the Autistic awareness month of April.
A nominal registration fee is collected from each participant and the accumulated amount is directed to charities to help the blind, handicapped and people in all walks of life.
In the 2020 edition of CCC, students from participating schools took part in seven activities, and the proceeds collected were donated to CRY (Child Rights and You), which works towards providing education to the underprivileged.
