Planning a school or campus kalolsavam and dreading the registers, chest-number lists, and late-night tabulation? This step-by-step guide shows how to set up and run a complete arts festival on eTalenter — using the platform’s real building blocks: age groups, event levels, competition items, judging, tabulation, and result publishing — so the whole event stays paperless, accurate, and on time.

A kalolsavam is an Arts event in eTalenter (competitions are judged and scored). The same flow works for a single-school arts day or a full district festival — you only change the event levels.

Step 1 — Create the event

Open Manage Event and create your festival (for example, “School Arts Festival 2026”). Set the name, dates, and venue, and choose Arts as the competition type. Turn on the options you need — chest-number/ID generation, grades, registration fee, awards, appeals — right here.

Step 2 — Set up age groups

Go to Age Groups Setup and add your groups by age range. For a school kalolsavam these are typically LP, UP, HS, and HSS — each defined by an age (from/to) and cut-off date. Every candidate and every competition is tied to an age group.

Step 3 — Define your event levels (the hierarchy)

Under Event Levels, build the participation hierarchy for your festival by naming ordered tiers. This is where the setup differs by scale:

• Single-school festival — add a School → House structure. Create a House level and add your houses (e.g. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow). Every candidate is classified into a house, and house points roll up automatically.
• Sub-district / district festival — build District → Sub-District → School. Here there are no houses; the participating units are the schools, and results are compiled school-wise up to the district.

Each unit (a house, a school, a sub-district) is added under Unit / Sub-Unit Management. Note: event levels lock once candidates are added, so finalise the hierarchy first.

Step 4 — Build your competition items

In Competition Categories and Competition Items Setup, create the catalogue of items you will conduct — Solo Song, Group Song, Classical Dance, Elocution, Painting, Mono Act, Quiz, and so on — grouped into categories (Music, Dance, Literary, Fine Arts…).

Step 5 — Assign competitions to groups

This is the key step. In Assign Competitions to Groups, pair each competition item with an age group and set its rules — language, gender, participant type (Individual or Team), time limit, maximum entries per unit, maximum score, and fee.

• Individual items (Solo Song, Elocution) — a single candidate competes.
• Group items (Group Song, Group Dance) — a team of several candidates competes as one entry.

Tip: the built-in AI Competitions & Group Generation helper can draft this whole structure for you to review.

Step 6 — Configure scoring and ID cards

Set grades, ranks, and points in Scoring Setup, then set your chest-number/identity prefixes in ID Card Configuration so numbers generate automatically.

Step 7 — Register candidates

Open the Public Registration Form so schools and candidates enter online, or add them in Candidate Management / Bulk Participant Management. Each candidate is assigned an age group and a unit (their house or school). eTalenter generates chest numbers and prints ID cards.

Step 8 — Build teams for group items

Group items are entered as teams, and you build them as part of registration — not on a separate screen. In Bulk Participant Management a step-by-step process lets you create a team and add its member candidates; teams can also be created right in the Public Registration Form, where a parent or guardian can start a team and assign existing candidates or add new members. Each team has its own name (not just the house colour), and a unit or house can enter several teams in the same item — for example Green A, Green – Vasantham, or Athira & Party. Each team registers as one entry.

Step 9 — Assign judges and staff

Invite and assign judges to competitions, and set up your team: sub-coordinators for each level, draw masters, and projector access for live stage display.

Step 10 — Schedule, tokens, and draw

Use Time Management (with automatic scheduling), Event Stages, and the Token System to run stages on time and announce participant IDs. Run the Draw to fix chest-number order for each item.

Step 11 — Judge and tabulate

Judges log in and score online from any device using your scoring criteria — no paper score sheets. eTalenter tabulates in real time, calculating points, grades, and winners, and rolling them up by house or by school at each level. Manual counting errors disappear.

Step 12 — Publish results

In Results Status, review and assign winners, then publish. Results go live instantly — online, on a podium view, for individual candidates, and as social-media result cards — while Calculate Awards settles the point championship.

Step 13 — Print certificates and trophy stickers

Finish with Champion, Rank, and Participation certificates plus trophy stickers, all customisable in the Designer and ready to bulk-print.

Run your kalolsavam on eTalenter

From a single-school arts day with houses to a district festival compiled school-wise, eTalenter handles age groups, event levels, competitions, judging, tabulation, and results in one place. See the kalolsavam management software, message us on WhatsApp, or email support@etalenter.com for a free walkthrough.