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NERMA Kalolsavam (Edmonton) — Youth Arts Festival for Ages 12-22: Dance, Music, Speech, Writing, Art and Theatre

NERMA Kalolsavam (Edmonton): The Edmonton Malayalee Association's youth arts festival for ages 12-22: 20 real items across Folk, Music, Verbal, Literary,...

e By Luke Justin October 31, 2026 4 min read

New here? Start with the basicsAge groups, competition categories and how to set up your event.

Kalotsavam · Malayalee Association

The Edmonton Malayalee Association’s youth arts festival for ages 12-22: 20 real items across Folk, Music, Verbal, Literary, Fine and Theatre Arts, built from NERMA’s own dated Kalolsavam Events and Bylaw document, including its real points-based ranking scheme.

A ready-made youth festival for performers aged 12 to 22: eighteen items and twenty classes across folk and classical dance, music, speech, writing, drawing, painting, sculpture and stage acts, with set time limits and a points scheme for individual and group placings.

This template models a multi-day youth arts festival run by a community association in Canada, built from the organiser’s own printed events and bylaw document. It has one age group, Youth, open to everyone from 12 to 22. There are eighteen items; because Classical Music and Light Music are judged separately for female and male entrants, they become twenty classes. Entries are open to any language except where the rules fix English.

The items fall into six families. Dance has Classical Dance, Folk Dance, Oppana, Thiruvathira, Marggam Kali and Cinematic Dance. Music has Classical Music, Light Music, Group Song (Indian) and Group Song (Western). Speech and writing have Elocution, Poetry Recitation and Essay Writing, all in English. Fine arts have Pencil Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (Clay Modelling). Theatre has Mono Act and Mime. Oppana, Thiruvathira, Marggam Kali, Cinematic Dance, both group songs and Mime are team classes; Classical Dance, Folk Dance and every other class is an individual entry.

Time limits vary a lot because the programme mixes stage performances with on-the-spot work. Most stage classes run to ten minutes; Light Music, Elocution, Poetry Recitation, Mono Act and Mime are capped at five. The written and visual classes are sit-down items: sixty minutes for Essay Writing and Pencil Drawing, ninety for Painting and two hours for Sculpture. Only a maximum is printed for each class, so there is no minimum and no warning bell is installed. The bylaw adds a uniform 30-second grace period on top of every limit, which is a rule for your stage manager rather than a scoring setting.

Placings carry points. An individual class awards 10, 8 and 6 points for first, second and third; a team class awards 14, 12 and 10. The bylaw also gives a placed group’s members a further share of the group’s points and fallback awards for non-placing A-grade and B-grade performances, but it prints no score cut-off for those grades, so the template installs no grades. Each class is set up with a nominal score of 10; the detailed judging criteria for each item are in the organiser’s own document and are not copied, so a coordinator can add each item’s criteria in the event. Fees are installed as zero, and dates and venue are not part of the template.

Where this event is run

Youth arts festivals that mix dance, music, speech, writing, art and theatre in one programme, with a single wide age bracket and a points scheme for individual and group placings, are run by community associations, cultural societies and parent groups wherever families from the Indian diaspora settle, notably in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Gulf. This template comes from one Canadian festival, so its item list, time limits and points scheme describe that festival. Elsewhere, organisers usually split the age range into junior and senior bands and set their own scoring rubric for each item.

Canada

Key facts

Eighteen items and twenty classes for one age group of 12 to 22; Classical Music and Light Music are split into female and male classes
Team classes: Oppana, Thiruvathira, Marggam Kali, Cinematic Dance, Group Song (Indian), Group Song (Western) and Mime; all other classes are individual
Elocution, Poetry Recitation, Essay Writing and Group Song (Western) are in English; every other class accepts any language
Ten-minute limit on most stage classes, five on Light Music, Elocution, Poetry Recitation, Mono Act and Mime; sixty minutes for Essay Writing and Pencil Drawing, ninety for Painting, two hours for Sculpture
Placing points: 10, 8 and 6 for individual classes and 14, 12 and 10 for team classes; no grades are installed because no cut-off score is printed
Each class carries a nominal score of 10; per-item criteria are not copied, and fees, dates and venue are left to your registration rules

Age groups: 1
Competition items: 18
Competitions: 20
Grade bands: 0
Rank awards: 6

Age groups

Every candidate is placed into one of these groups by age, and competitions are run per group.

Youth

12From

–

22To

Candidates aged 12 to 22 compete in this group

Competition items

The events themselves — each with the category it belongs to and how judges score it.

Competitions by group

The full schedule matrix, sectioned by age group then category — which item runs for whom, and for how long.

Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Youth
Classical Dance
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Classical Dance	Individual	—	—	10	10 min
Dance
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Folk Dance	Individual	—	—	10	10 min
Oppana	Team	—	—	10	10 min
Cinematic Dance	Team	—	—	10	10 min
On Stage
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Thiruvathira	Team	—	—	10	10 min
Marggam Kali	Team	—	—	10	10 min
Elocution	Individual	—	English	10	5 min
Mono Act	Individual	—	—	10	5 min
Music
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Classical Music	Individual	Female	—	10	10 min
Classical Music	Individual	Male	—	10	10 min
Light Music	Individual	Female	—	10	5 min
Light Music	Individual	Male	—	10	5 min
Group Song (Indian)	Team	—	—	10	10 min
Group Song (Western)	Team	—	English	10	10 min
Literary
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Poetry Recitation	Individual	—	English	10	5 min
Literacy
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Essay Writing	Individual	—	English	10	60 min
Art
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Pencil Drawing	Individual	—	—	10	60 min
Painting	Individual	—	—	10	90 min
Sculpture (Clay Modelling)	Individual	—	—	10	120 min
Action
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Mime	Team	—	—	10	5 min

Grades and ranks

How scores turn into grade bands, and how many points each placing is worth.

Rank	For	Points
First	Individual	10
Second	Individual	8
Third	Individual	6
First	Team	14
Second	Team	12
Third	Team	10

Frequently asked questions

Can I change this template after installing it?

Yes — installing it creates a fully configured, live event, not a locked package. Every age group, competition item, rule and scoring setting can be edited afterwards to match exactly what your event actually needs.