Hundreds of men painted to look like tigers danced through the streets of Thrissur, Kerala state, in this vibrant folk festival.

Captured on September 1, the footage shows artists meticulously painting the performers in orange and black.

The dance is known locally as Pulikali, meaning tiger dance, and features dancers moving in time to drums making an entertaining spectacle.

Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, is no stranger to festivities. Be it the Pooram or Onam carnival, people here love to celebrate life. Nowhere else would one see such a cultural spread and the most attractive number, of course, is the “Pulikali” or the tiger dance as it is popularly known. People dress up as the puli or a tiger and prance around the streets of Thrissur. And it is not just people from Thrissur that participate. People from across the globe participate in the pulikali to the accompaniment of drums and frenzied people.

It’s so colorful that you get to see the chubbiest of tummies, heaving up and down painted with tiger heads, walking rhythmically to the beats of sounding drums. They are the male tigers, wiggling their ample bellies, trying to look asmenacing as they can. Although this display of the art of Pulikkali may be one of the quirkiest festivals in India, it's actually a very serious business. The theme of the performance is playing hide-and-seek with a hunter wielding a gun. The event generates a great deal of excitement both for the spectators as well as the performers.