The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is a 12-day festival of South Indian classical music and dance in Cleveland, Ohio, and is held each year around Easter weekend. The festival is a celebration in honor of Tyagaraja, the famous composer of Carnatic music, who composed thousands of devotional compositions, most in Telugu and Sanskrit language . The festival began in 1978, and has since grown to become the largest South Indian classical music and dance festival outside of India.[1] The festival draws its audience from all over the United States, as well as from Canada and other parts of the world.