Held at the YMCA Grounds in Nandanam on Saturday, August 29, the food and music festival marked 387 years since Madras came into being, and did so the way the city knows best: through sound, spice, and sheer multi-plurality. Chennai does not so much celebrate its birthdays as it hums them into being, and that hum — equal parts spirit and stillness — defined The Hindu ’s Made of Chennai festival this year.
What began at 4 p.m. as a seemingly relaxed evening of DJ sets and food stalls lining the periphery of the ground soon transformed into something far more resonant, both for the enthusiastic crowd, whose energy reverberated with every beat, and for the musical artistes who performed, among them Paal Dabba, Anthony Daasan, joined by his wife Rita, and the pop-rock band Makka. By the time the last set faded, Chennai had once again proven that its truest festival is simply the sound of itself, undiminished, at 387 and counting. The show-stopper of the evening, however, was Chinmayi, her eclectic and cross-lingual performance carrying an added charge of homecoming for the crowd. along with the echoes of Ilaiyaraaja and Rahman’s timeless compositions, charmed many in attendance, it was ultimately the tapestry of the evening as a whole, its people and its unhurried mannerpresentness, that emerged as the true highlight While the Carnatic and retro-rock strains of band Vihara. The intent behind this was unmistakable: to draw the crowd out of their virtual worlds and back into the reality around them. The food stalls, meanwhile, offered a mix of the familiar and the new — Chennai classics such as Murugan Idli and Tibb’s Frankie alongside newer favourites such as Ciclo, Oye Hoye, Bien Butter, Ricky’s Cookies, and Kulfiwallah. The festival also featured a varied showcase of Iftar fare, with Habibi’s Iftar snacks, Mannady’s Nombu Kanji, and offerings from Al Noor Café rounding out the spread.
People playing snakes and ladders and other board games at the food and music festival held at the YMCA Grounds in Nandanam on Saturday. | Photo Credit: R RAVINDRAN The festival’s game zone brought back long-forgotten games such as pallanguzhi and nondi (hopscotch) alongside snakes and ladders, bowling, ludo, tic-tac-toe, and jenga.
