Quick, you can still make it to The Pondicherry Heritage Festival featuring home-grown fashion, nocturnal walks, food tours and performances

The eighth edition is on till March 27, and the finale includes a performance by Anita Ratnam

How often do you get to stay overnight in a forest, forage for breakfast, or watch a movie in a jungle hut?

The ongoing Pondicherry Heritage Festival makes all this possible, with the intent of letting people know that there is much more to this sunny coastal town than a promenade, cocktails and crepes. 

Started in 2015, the festival is in its eighth edition, and has never skipped a year. Even with a pandemic-struck calendar, it managed to take place in a part virtual-part live format.

“The idea of the festival is to celebrate and preserve our heritage,” says Sunaina Mandeen, co-founder of People for Pondicherry’s Heritage and PondyCAN. Explaining the origin of the festival she says, “The People for Pondicherry’s Heritage collective (which organises this festival along with INTACH and PondyCan) was formed after the Mairie Building, which was more than 140 years old, collapsed in November 2014. People felt that heritage was being taken for granted. Kakoli Banerjee (co-founder of People for Pondicherry’s Heritage) put up a post on Facebook calling for action; 30 to 45 people turned up for the meeting.” Thereafter, 3,000 people showed up for a tribute event to Mairie, with flowers and candles. 

From there on, The Pondicherry Heritage Festival took shape. In its initial years it featured talks and presentations for which people flew in from across the country. This year, the theme is ‘Celebrating natural and cultural heritage’ and the festival spans three weeks, with activities till March 27.

In its last week there is plenty to keep attendees engaged: a village tour, the launch of a book, Trees of Pondicherry, a sit-down Pondicherry creole meal at Chez Pushpa, a heritage cuisine trail, and an overnight stay at Sadhana forest. Made in Pondicherry, featuring local craft, is back in a new avatar. On March 27, the festivities will come to an end with Colour Play, an evening of dance and storytelling by Anita Ratnam and friends. 

Venkata Subramanian of Pondicherry Beach Escapes is organising an overnight camping experience on March 26 and 27. It will include a visit to a reforested land, a bonfire, barbecue and dinner, as well as nocturnal walks and star gazing. “The next morning we will take participants bird watching, and along the way identify edible weeds such as nannari, wood sorrel , ponnangani, kuppai meni, followed by tea and breakfast,” he says.