Cultural festival begins Tuesday in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2003, 02:30 GMT]
The five-day music, dance and drama festival of the Association of Art and Culture is to begin Tuesday at the Trincomalee Orr's Hill Vivekananda College auditorium. More than four hundred and eighty Tamil and Sinhala artistes are expected to participate in the festival, Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, head of the Art and Cultural Department of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Saturday.

District Political Heads of LTTE in Jaffna, Batticaloa-Ampara, Vavuniya and Trincomalee Messrs S.Ilamparithi, Kowshalyan, Elilan, S.Tilak and the most senior member of the LTTE Mr.K.V.Balakumaran are scheduled to deliver keynote addresses on the five days of the event. Messrs M.I.A.Jabbar, N.Sri Devi, N.Anandaraj, Kuralamutham K.Vinayagasothy and Attorney-at-Law K.Sivapalan will preside over the festival for five days, sources said.

Messrs Ilayathamby Thayananda, Professor Ammankili Murugathas, Raja Tharmarajah, Professor A.Shanmugathas will address the festival during the first four days. Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai will deliver the concluding address on the final day, Saturday, organizers said.