THRISSUR POORAM – AN EVENT MANAGEMENT CASE

INTRODUCTION

Thrissur Pooram Festival, a globally known Cultural Event in Thrissur in Kerala State, has been watched for professional reasons, by a number of management experts due to a variety of complex management situations. Some of them have even wondered how the Event, conducted in a traditional way, has been a success in the last more than 200 years. The Event spread over 4 to 5 days, would require accurate planning and monitoring, as a number of sub events are included in the main event. The interconnectivity of the activities or sub events and tight scheduling of such activities require a high degree of management skills. ‘Event Management’ has become almost a special subject for management teaching and management development programmes. The writers of this case study thought a detailed study of the management aspects of Thrissur Pooram Festival would be useful for management students and corporate executives to understand the complexity of Event Management in a developing country like India.

PROFILE OF THRISSUR

Thrissur or Trichur, known as the cultural capital of Kerala, situated very near the geographical centre of this State, is a beautiful city with an enviable topography, abundant with scenic grandeur of nature. The city is built around the famous Vadakkunathan Temple, the oldest temple in South India, with lofty masonry walls, imposing gopurams, sculptures, murals and other structures, all in the typical Kerala style of architecture. The temple is surrounded by a 64 acre maidan, bordered by a circular road, from which fan out roads in all directions. Many other sacred temples, churches and mosques of architectural grandeur are situated in the city. Thrissur with a number of educational institutions, starting from the Gurukula type mutts for vedic education to the modern type arts, science and professional colleges, including an Agricultural University and a Medical University, is a light house of learning too. The city which accommodates the three cultural academies – one for literature, one for music and drama and one for fine arts of the State Government, has within its boundaries a zoological garden, art gallery, museum, indoor stadium, aquatic complex, a football stadium and a few historical monuments also. The famous Sree Krishna Temple of Guruvayur and the Kerala Kalamandalam are just 40 minutes drive from Thrissur. This city where one can witness a happy communion of the ancient traditions and modern progress is also an emporium of hinterland trade, commerce and industry. Religious harmony is the insignia of Thrissur.

FESTIVALS

In Kerala, the period from 15th of November to 1st of June is a season of festivals in the various temples, churches and mosques, of which the two months from March 15 to May 15 mark the most hectic schedule in Central Kerala. Among such festivals, the most glamorous and crowd pulling one is the Thrissur Pooram, celebrated in this city during April-May. Thrissur Pooram is not just a temple festival now. It is a festival of national importance and international fame. Thrissur Pooram, consisting of colourful and gorgeous processions of fully caparisoned elephants, incomparably grand percussion orchestra like Panchavadyam and Pandimelam and dazzling fireworks display, has its name and fame spread beyond national boundaries. Pooram is recognized today as one of the ‘spectacular and enchanting festivals on this planet’. During Pooram season, Thrissur literally turns itself into a veritable paradise on earth. People from different parts of the world, reach this metropolis to share and enjoy the joy and gaiety of this two centuries old festival. This year the actual day of Pooram - the 24th April 2010.

ACTIVITIES IN THE EVENT

It was almost 200 years ago, the Cochin State Maharaja, Sri Sakthan Thampuran organized the now famous Thrissur Pooram. Even though 10 temples in Thrissur take part in the event, the major role is played by two temples, the Thiruvambady and Paramekkavu temples.

The day starts with a procession of 3 well decorated elephants from Thiruvambady temple at about 7.00 a.m., which will reach a temporary camp called “Madom” near the western side of the circular road.

In the forenoon around 11.30, both the temples organize processions and finally reach the Vadakkunathan temple in the centre of the city one after the other. Around 5.00 p.m., both the temples have a Face to Face event with 15 elephants on each side, just outside the Vadakkunathan temple, on the maidan, bordering the Swaraj Round. This is the time, the famous ‘Kudamattam’ (change of umbrellas) event takes place starting around 5.30 p.m. and lasting around one hour.

There are repeat processions in the night. This is usually followed by the fireworks by both the temples in the main maidan at about 3.00 a.m.

On the Pooram day, another 8 temples located in different parts of Thrissur city also arrange decorated elephant processions from their respective temple premises finally reaching the Vadakkunathan temple.

On the next day morning, both the temples arrange processions with decorated elephants from Vadakkunathan temple and terminating in their respective temples. During this sub event, there are limited fireworks in the main maidan by both the main temples. The event finally gets terminated by around forenoon, say around 11.00 a.m.

The following points may be mentioned to highlight the various activities

1. There is a healthy competition mainly between the two main temples. This covers the quality of elephant decorations, size especially the height of the elephants, quality of the orchestras (panchavadyam and pandimelam), variety of umbrellas and quantity, quality, sound and colours in fireworks.

2. Devaswom Authorities have to arrange around 75 to 100 elephants, properly maintained as far as health and durability is concerned, by the owners. To avoid unhealthy competition, the final choice and line up of elephants for all the temples is done by both the devaswoms jointly. This has helped to reduce hiring costs. Normally, the main temples spend around Rs.5.00 lakhs each for this activity, which includes hire charges for elephants, cost of mahouts, assistants and food and medicines.

3.Elephant decorations include the face covering, umbrellas (silken parasols), peacock feather fans (2 nos.) and yak tail bunches (2 nos.) for each elephant. Such decorations cost around Rs.11.00 lakhs for each main temple. While some items are purchased new every year, some are repaired or repolished. Each main temple will need around 25 sets of umbrellas for 15 elephants, totalling around 375 umbrellas. The parasols are shiny, bright, layered, patterned, striped and painted and cost around Rs.2000 to 3000 per piece. Activity of selection and sourcing various items of decorations would take around 3 to 4 months.

4.The orchestra (percussion concert from the ethnic instruments) broadly classified into panchavadyam or pandimelam would need around 300 pieces of instruments and the same number of players for each main temple in the sub events. The instruments include drums, cymbals, horns and pipes. Normally, the instruments and players are sourced well in advance, say, a month, by committee members.

5.In the main circular road, there will be three pandals or shamiyanas by both the main temples. They are well decorated and illuminated. There will be backup generators. Cost of main pandals and the ones in the temple premises will be around Rs.3.00 lakhs for each temple. Cost of illuminations and hiring of gensets will be around Rs.2.00 lakhs for each temple.

6.There are many other minor items like food, water, medicines and side decorations which will have to be planned and sourced in time. It may be mentioned here that all the items listed above will have to be finalized, sources identified and transported in time to different venues by contractors and volunteers. This activity requires very careful planning, monitoring, quality checking and final placing at locations specified.

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Not to scale

MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

There are concepts like ‘Preventive Management’ and ‘Joint Management’, which are visible in Thrissur Pooram management. The preventive management practices normally take care of the various problems which are likely to arise during the event. Crowd management, precautions during fireworks, behaviour of the elephants and availability of hygienic food and drinking water are some of the areas where better focusing and sufficient control systems are required. Precise planning, execution and continuous monitoring can avoid or prevent catastrophes which could arise due to human or animal error. Even if a crisis arises, there has to be systems for crisis management. Rains can create problems for events like music or dance festivals or product launches in open air areas, but in the case of Pooram, the sub events like Face to Face, Changing Umbrellas, playing of Different Orchestras and Fireworks will need not only cancellation if rains come abruptly, but replanning of the subsequent events. In one year, due to heavy rains, fireworks were postponed to a subsequent day.

The concept of ‘Joint Management’ by the temple authorities, started as early as 1962, was designed to avoid higher costs and inconveniences due to unhealthy competition. In business situations, there are concepts like associations and consortiums like consortium of banks, where the competitors come together and agree on certain common approaches or actions to avoid unnecessary competition. A more or less similar arrangement is visible in the case of joint management agreed to by the two main temple committees. Through this arrangement, they were able to cut down the spiraling costs for elephant hiring, remuneration for orchestra members and even fireworks. This arrangement has also helped the temple managements to resort to joint bidding and even planning with specific contractors mutually agreed upon. The coordination activity also became easier due to mutual discussions and agreements.

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The following methodology was adopted for collecting the basic data, information about the event and also some sort of a feedback from visitors and business community.

-  Discussions with authorities like Mr.Venugopalan, DySP (Office – Administration) of Police Department in Thrissur.

-  Exhaustive discussions with key managers like Mr.K.K.Menon, President, Exhibition Committee, Mr.Madhavan Kutty and Mr.M.C.S.Menon from Thiruvambady Temple Committee.

-  Discussion with Mr.E.Salahuddin, Special Correspondent from Mathrubhumi for role of the media.

-  A detailed discussion with Dr.P.B.Giridas, Veterinary Doctor incharge of the team of the doctors for animal welfare.

-  Groups of students also met and discussed, with the help of questionnaires, the visitors and guests for the event and business community in the city.

Throughout the discussions and data collection, there was a heavy emphasis on management aspects for planning and conducting the event and understanding the types of problems envisaged and solutions to be provided in case the problems arise.

The discussions and the interactions helped the case writers to understand the various sub activities planned for the event and the system of checks and balances developed over a number of years.

THE EVENT ORGANISERS

Temple Committees

The main participants in the Thrissur Pooram are the deities from two main temples in Thrissur city, namely Thiruvambady Temple and Paramekkavu Temple. Since the planning for the event starts quite early, both the temples form their own event management committees. The population of the city is split into two major areas depending on the location of the temples. The management committee normally has around 100 members for each temple drawn from the population identified as support areas for the temples. Once the management committees are finalized, they form special activity committees covering matters relating to elephants, decorations, arrangement for the different orchestras, decorative shamiyanas or pandals including illumination, arranging food, selection and sourcing of umbrellas, sourcing and organizing fireworks, finance and participation in Exhibition. The activity committee members have special responsibility to see that their respective activities are properly managed within the budgets allocated. They are also responsible for coordinating the different activities including the actual scheduling and sourcing and arranging the materials and participants for their sub events.

Alongwith the main event of Thrissur Pooram, there is also an exhibition organized by both the temple devaswoms in the centre of the city. For organizing and conducting this exhibition which will last for 40 to 50 days, there is a separate exhibition committee, which has nominees from two devaswoms and the general public.

All the committees have structured organization including the President, Vice President, Secretary, Joint Secretary and Treasurer, all honorary positions.

The Police Department

Since proper law and order has to be maintained and to ensure the different activities are properly carried out, spread over 4 to 5 days, the Police Department is another organization involved in the event management. The Police Department also discusses the various arrangements with the temple committees and the exhibition committee.

The Collectorate

Since the event attracts a lot of visitors from different parts of the country and even abroad, the District Collector along with his officers is responsible for proper administration and management of the event. The District Collectorate staff also will discuss the various activities with the temple devaswom committees to ensure that the event is managed without any problems.

The Animal Welfare Doctors

Since elephants play an important role in the event, there is a group of veterinary doctors appointed for the purpose of ensuring proper health and behaviour of the elephants numbering around 75 to 100, required for the event.

Since the main event of Thrissur Pooram has a lot of sub events and different event locations and attracts around 3 to 4 lakhs visitors from areas outside the city of Thrissur, the above organizations and their representatives meet frequently to finalise the detailed planning of the event. The sub committees formed for coordination purposes, hence will have administrators and security personnel, well wishers, business community representatives and media representatives from TV channels and the Print media. Decisions are normally taken by the committee officials after detailed discussions and will invariably incorporate positive inputs from different segments of the population. Problems and inconveniences experienced in the previous years will also be a guide for the committees.