Curtains will go up on the 49th edition of Soorya Festival on October 1 in spite of the passing away of its founder, Soorya Krishnamoorthy. A statement issued here by the organisers stressed that the festival, featuring dance, music, cinema, talks, exhibitions, discourses, workshops, literary events, theatre and more, will continue to bring the best of artistes from across the country to Thiruvananthapuram. All events are at Ganesham, Thycaud.

The hallmark of the festival has been that all programmes begin exactly at 6.45pm. It is considered the longest arts festival in the world and during the pandemic, the festival switched to online mode, airing recorded programmes.

The current edition will kick-off with a Carnatic music recital by KS Harisankar. Till October 10, there will be performances by classical dancers and musicians of repute such as Harish Sivaramakrishnan, Meenakshi Srinivasan and Janaki Rangarajan among others. A Women Talk Festival and a women-oriented film festival will be from October 11 to 15. Among the speakers are snake rescuer Roshni GS, former Minister KK Shailaja, and MLA Fathima Thahiliya. While the choreography festival, showcasing classical thematic dance productions, is from October 16 to 20, the Jalsa Ghar Hindustani chamber concerts is scheduled from October 21 to 25.

Leading names of Carnatic music will take the stage at the Carnatic music festival from October 26 to 31. Artistes include Sudha Raghunathan, Abhishek Raghuram, P Unnikrishnan-Uthara Unnikrishnan, Trivandrum Krishnakumar-Binni Krishnakumar, Shashank Subramanyan and Rahul Vellal.

Dance festival featuring duos is from November 1 to 10. Composer M Jayachandran presents Madhu Saukumaryam, a music festival curated in memory of his parents, from November 11 to 13. Artistes are Ranjini-Gayathri, Kalayamapuram S Aravind and Ganesh-Kumaresh.

National theatre festival is from November 14 to 20, starting with Kaatriniley Varum Geetham, a play on MS Subbulakshmi. Malayalam-Tamil film festival is from November 21 to 30.

Art Gate, which includes exhibition and sale of paintings, live painting, lectures, workshops and demonstrations, will be from December 1 to 20.

Talks, group dance presentations, short film festival, Sugatham, a literary festival to commemorate poet-activist Sugathakumari, lecture series by Mullakkara Ratnakaran, Mohiniyattam festival (December 27 to 31), and youth festival featuring up-and-coming classical dancers are among other events.

Indian Panorama film festival from January 11 to 20 will showcase 20 films screened at the International Film Festival of India.

The festival will conclude with a Carnatic vocal jugalbandi by M Jayachandran and Kavalam Sreekumar on January 21, 2027.

The organisers also pointed out that the golden jubilee celebrations of the festival will be held on a grand scale next year.