Nishagandhi Dance Festival in Trivandrum

The Nishagandhi Dance Festival is Kerala Tourism's annual week of Indian classical dance, staged at the open-air Nishagandhi Auditorium in the grounds of Kanakakunnu Palace. It began in the early 1990s and brings one or two leading soloists or ensembles to the stage each evening across Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam and Kathakali, with a Kathakali festival traditionally held inside the palace alongside it. The Nishagandhi Puraskaram, the state's award for a lifetime in dance, has been presented during the festival since 2013, when the first recipient was Mrinalini Sarabhai. The festival is held early in the year. It was long fixed in the last week of January and has also been scheduled in February in some recent years, so treat late January to mid-February as the window. The dates and line-up for 2027 had not been announced when this page was written. Past editions have been free, with unreserved seating. Around the festival, the city's dance calendar is busy in its own right: the Soorya Festival's dance segment in October, programmes at Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan and Bharat Bhavan, and arangetrams and school productions at Tagore Theatre. This page lists classical dance performances and festivals in Thiruvananthapuram.