Chennai celebrates its 387th birthday with food, music, and community at Made of Chennai festival

The Hindu's Made of Chennai festival drew crowds to YMCA Grounds in Nandanam on Saturday, August 29, with a day-long celebration of food, music, and traditional games marking the city's 387th birthday.

The event, which kicked off at 4 p.m., evolved from a relaxed afternoon of DJ sets and food vendors into a high-energy evening anchored by performances from Paal Dabba, Anthony Daasan alongside his wife Rita, and pop-rock band Makka. Singer Chinmayi headlined the night with an eclectic, cross-lingual set that organisers described as carrying "an added charge of homecoming for the crowd". Band Vihara's Carnatic and retro-rock fusion, featuring compositions by Ilaiyaraaja and A.R. Rahman, also drew strong responses from attendees.

Games and community rituals

A game zone revived pre-digital pastimes including pallanguzhi, nondi (hopscotch), snakes and ladders, bowling, ludo, tic-tac-toe, and jenga, designed to "draw the crowd out of their virtual worlds and back into the reality around them".

For members of the city's ultimate frisbee club, a group of attendees in their 20s and 30s, Made of Chennai has become an annual fixture, a day that pulls them away from busy schedules "to come together in reverberation and reminiscence".

Food offerings blend old and new

Food stalls spanned Chennai staples like Murugan Idli and Tibb's Frankie and newer entrants including Ciclo, Oye Hoye, Bien Butter, Ricky's Cookies, and Kulfiwallah. The festival also showcased Iftar fare through Habibi's Iftar snacks, Mannady's Nombu Kanji, and items from Al Noor Café.

The event underscored the city's preference for marking its founding, August 29, 1639, not through grand spectacle but through what organisers called "sound, spice, and sheer multi-plurality," a gathering whose "unhurried manner" and collective energy formed the evening's core.

Source: The Hindu