A Jallikattu Premier League will be organised in Chennai on January 7, organisations of the bull-taming festival announced on Thursday. The Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Peravai and the Chennai Jallikattu Amaipu also unveiled the event logo, The Times of India reported.

Jallikattu is a traditional sport in Tamil Nadu. A bull is released into a crowd, and participants attempt to grab the animal’s hump.

Around 500 participants from 17 districts are expected at the January 7 event. It will be organised at a plot opposite the Madras Crocodile Bank on East Coast Road in Chennai. The Jallikattu Premier League will be free for all.

“A majority of people in Northern Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, have not witnessed jallikattu,” programme host Rajmohan Arumugam said. “Although thousands of students gathered on the Marina Beach to demand a law allowing the sport to be held last January, not many had seen it.”

Around 500 bulls will be used for the event, including some belonging to Tamil Nadu MPs and MLAs, the organisers said, adding that the state government had given permission for the event.

This comes even as the Supreme Court is hearing a case challenging the law that legalises jallikattu and categorises bulls as performing animals. A Constitution bench is likely to decide whether jallikattu is a cultural right.

The organisers told The Times of India that “influential people” will inaugurate the Jallikattu Premier League. But they refused to name them because the Model Code of Conduct was in place for the RK Nagar bye-polls on December 21.