Zara hat ke: themes and schemes for college fests

BANGALORE: It has to be unique, different and creative, yet fit the budget. Fests, an integral part of college life, are events where students catch up with friends, showcase their talents and above all, chill out!
It takes months of preparations to conduct one major fest, where the budget runs into lakhs of rupees! What's more, a new team is constituted every month, so they come up with a unique, different theme for the fest and give it the zing of success.
MVJ College of Engineering conducts two major fests every year -- Swayam, the cultural fest, and VertechX, the technical fest. The other fests are department events.
The department fests are held over a day as the participants are mostly MVJ students only. Swayam is spread over two days while VertechX, the national tech festival, is conducted over three days. Students from across the country participate. "It requires more than one day to filter down the winners -- the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals in each category of events,'' said Anjali Uttappa, cultural committee president, MVJ College of Engineering.
According to her, one of the reasons for restricting most fests to a one-day affair is because the huge preparation that goes into them. "We don't want the students to spend too much time away from their studies. That's why only two major fests are conducted over two to three days," she said.
The college takes care of the entire sponsorship. For Swayam, every year, one national band performs a rock concert on the last day of the fest, which is ticketed at a basic price of Rs 200-300, and goes towards sponsorship of the fest. "While Swayam requires Rs 15-20 lakh, VertechX takes Rs 6-7 lakh to be put up,'' Anjali said.
Every year, a new team is assigned to handle and organize the event. The team works on a unique and different theme every year. The focus is to be different from cultural fests held in other colleges.
MORE THE MERRIER
Other colleges too focus on their big fests. Some, like T John College, conduct four small fests and one big fest, the annual cultural show going by the name of Blaze. Here too, most of the fests are held over one or two days, while Blaze is spread over three days. "Sponsorship for the fests are collected from the college students, faculty, management and corporates. The cost varies from a minimum Rs 85,000 per festival to a maximum of Rs 8 lakh,'' said Akhil E K, student representative, T John College.
R V College of Engineering has about 12 fests, conducted by each department, with the major one being Eight Mile, organized in March. The fests here are generally held over two or three days, and Eight Mile takes five days as it includes inter-college participation even from outside Karnataka.
"Getting sponsors is one of the most important and tough jobs. Since ours is a reputed college, it gets quite easy to get sponsors. Every department contributes to bringing in sponsors. For example, the telecommunication department tries to get in a mobile company for their department fest, and helps bring them for Eight Mile. Department fests cost around Rs 3 lakh but Eight Mile takes up 15-18 lakh,'' said Nakul Sangolli, 4th year telecommunications department and cultural activity team student coordinator at RVCE.
VARIETY AT MCC
Mount Carmel College has about 12 fests and the major one held in December called Cul-ah! spread over three days. The remaining are only for a day or two. "Sponsors are brought in for the fests by students. We do have fixed sponsors but every year, with the help of the previous members on the cultural committee, we get to know about new ones and work on them,'' said Meera Shankar, cultural secretary of MCC.
On an average, department fests costs around Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, but for Cul-ah!, the budget is Rs 4-8 lakh. "We are also trying to start up more exhibitions and workshops in the coming days. Just like the Science Fest that happened two days ago, was basically on designing toys and working with kids suffering from AIDS. It was named `Materials and Myth','' she added.
SECOND COMPONENT: PIX BY CHETHAN
Golden girl Shruthi
She couldn't stop smiling. Her hard work had finally paid off. Last week, Shruthi DP won 10 gold medals for various subjects during her Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course.
A student of Government Dental College and Research Institute, Shruthi said she would like to pursue her Masters in clinical subjects. "I am yet to decide which one, however, I would like to study in India itself,'' she said.
Shruthi attributed her success to her dad and teachers. "It's with my dad's support that I could do so well. I was not always into studies. I did take part in all extra-curricular activities and concentrated on studies too,'' she added.
Three students -- Karthikeyan Gokulachandran, Aatish Thennavan and Shruthi DP -- were awarded `Best Outgoing Students'.
WHAT'S ON CAMPUS
* Christ University, Kengeri, is hosting its national-level management fest and corporate conference called Chrizellenz -- Destination Excellence on October 8 and 9. This two-day extravaganza will witness the coming together of the finest managerial acumen as compete in a series of events to emerge victorious.
Chrizellenz is also an MBA management fest which comprises competitions like finance, marketing, HR and operations events. Apart from this, the fest includes cultural shows, carnivals and a DJ night. Call 9620256259.
* IIM-Bangalore's premier business festival, Vista 2010-11, is gearing up for its launch from October 1-3. The fest will run for three days, and expects more than 10,000 students and professionals from 170 colleges and 80 corporate houses during this time. The business festival has been organized around a theme every year, and this year's topic is `Scripting the Future'. Vista also hosts various events, a gamut of on-the-spot events that participants can turn up for. The Third Side, which tests your ability to advertize a product; Finesse, a private equity focused game; Get Nashty, an event about decision-making strategy; Pratibimb, a marketing game; Optimus, an operations simulation; and Retailer, as the name suggests, tests retailing skills.