Koottam 2025 Volunteer | Photo source: Special arrangement
“Kuottam 2025 is a celebration and volunteering is central to the stage,” said Gautham Ravindran, CEO and co-founder of Volunteers of India (VIF). The banquet is scheduled to be held at the Tagore Theatre in Tiruvanat County from April 26 to 27 and will be opened by Kerala Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Gr Anil.
Kuottam is touted as the country’s largest volunteer music festival, and was born out of the conversation between Vif, Ramalingam Natarajan and Gautham, which is “how to make volunteering easier for people to volunteer.”
Founders of Indian Volunteers, Ramalingam Natarajan and Gautham Ravindran | Photo source: Special Arrangements
“Our discussion led to the concept of volunteer service carnival. On regular carnivals, everyone is fun in entertainment, gaming, etc. – bringing the community together. We want to add the idea of ​​volunteering to this environment, especially when people avoid volunteering without understanding what it really means and make it too serious. We want to make it interesting.” He added that VIF is an organization that aims to transform socially through structured volunteering.
The vendor is divided into two sections — while one is focused on volunteering, consisting of workshops, stalls by NGOs, and so on, the other will have elements of a carnival with a pop-up market, game and activity zone and Kutti Koottam, a designed space for children, where storytelling sessions, improve, origami workshop, open mics and so on will take place.
The festival will also have a volunteer service station where people can participate in 20 to 30 minutes of volunteering to get hands-on volunteering. “These activities are as easy as upgrading a T-shirt to a bag or making seed balls that can be taken home,” Gautham added.
“About 34 NGOs booked stalls this time to introduce their work by participating in the event. We will also have group discussions on politics, content creation and its impact on society,” Gautham said. There will also be workshops related to sustainability.
The Carnival held two fundraising concerts for the Sufi band Mehfil-e-Sama and Jassie gifts from April 26 to 27 respectively. These are the only ticketing events at the Carnival, and the money will support a project called “Gifts” run by VIFs and focus on building libraries for vulnerable groups.
This is the second edition of the Carnival. Last year, it was organized at the Loyola school in Sreekariyam, working with about 16 NGOs and participating in about 2,000 people in 2000.
Participants in Koottam 2024 | Photo source: Special arrangements
“The idea is to slowly develop it into a larger festival where people from all walks of life come together and celebrate. But in the long run, we want smaller events throughout the year.”
He added that the Kuottam community has been active over the past few months, such as beach cleaning and food distribution drives, with about 400 volunteers participating in the event.
Register via www.volunteerforindia.com/koottam-carnival. Tickets for the concert can be found on bookmyshow.com.
publishing – April 23, 2025 at 4:02 pm IST
