The genesis of the Kerala School Youth Festival was in an inter-university arts festival in Delhi in 1956. The celebration of youth so excited Dr C.S. Venkiteswaran, the then director of Public Instruction in Kerala, that he wanted to replicate it for the school students of Kerala.
Back in Thiruvananthapuram, Venkiteswaran called a meeting of district education officers and several school headmasters in November to moot the idea of a youth festival for the schools in the state. A month later, youth festivals were conducted in all 12 districts of Kerala.
» The first state-level school youth festival was organized in the Government Girls' High School in Ernakulam on January 26, 1957. About 400 students participated in 13 items in the festival.
» There was no canteen to feed the student-participants. They were given food coupons and sent to a nearby restaurant. They were given travel allowance though.
» The second youth festival happened eight months after Kerala's first government was formed. Education minister Joseph Mundassery personally monitored the three-day festival held in the Government Model School in Thiruvananthapuram. Palakkad and Kozhikode hosted the next two festivals. Then there was a break.
» School youth festivals had to be canceled in 1966 and 1967 because of the war with Pakistan. Even the 1972 festival had to be called off because of the war.
» The school youth festival became high-profile from the 10th edition as the state government took an active interest in it.
» The 1976 festival in Kozhikode was marked with a colorful procession. That became the hallmark of later festivals.
» The competition items doubled in number in 1982 when T.M. Jacob was the education minister.
» The festival became more glamorous by 1986 when individual excellence was marked by the title of Kalathilakam for the highest-scoring girl and Kalaprathibha for the highest-scoring boy. The titles were suggested by poet Chemmanam Chacko.
» The rules for selecting the top scorers were changed in 1999.
» Ponnambili from Kollam and R. Vineeth from Kannur won the first Kalathilakam and Kalaprathibha titles.
» A 117.5 sovereign gold cup was promised for the winners in the festival held in Kozhikode in 1987. The Thiruvananthapuram district team took home the cup that year.
» Thiruvananthapuram holds the record of winning the festival 18 times, while Kozhikode has been champions in 17 festivals. Since the cup was introduced, Kozhikode has won 16 times.
» The individual titles (Kalathilakam and Kalaprathibha) were done away with from the festival held in Tirur in 2005. The next year, a grading system replaced the winner and the runner-up to thwart the unhealthy competition that came to define the youth festivals.
» The school youth festival grew in size in 2009 when the higher secondary, Sanskrit and Arabic festivals were added to it. Meanwhile, the TTI youth festival was hived off from it.
