Students participate in large numbers at Symbiosis college festival; Day One was all about music, brands and innovative events
Students participate in large numbers at Symbiosis college festival; Day One was all about music, brands and innovative events
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The event that was organised on a high-end budget of Rs 68 lakh (as told by the student organising committee) lived up to its reputation and expectations. The event opened up on a serious note with an event called SIMUNC (Symbiosis International Model United Nations Conference), where teams from various colleges formed mock UN councils and deliberated on world policies and issues confronting the international community.
However a few participating teams felt that the event was a bit raw and needed some more serious planning.
"There were teams from other countries as well and I think the issues discussed should have been more global and broad in nature.
The issues discussed were a bit stale and we think there would have been better interaction if the topics of discussion were selected carefully," said Yash Dugar, a second year student of Jaihind College, Mumbai.
Besides SIMUNC, all other events at the fest were fun-based. A food and business festival was going on in one corner of the college, while the auditorium saw performances by more than 18 college bands across the city.
At the food festival, where one of the finalists from MasterChef India, a popular TV cookery show, judged the contestants, besides cooking interesting dishes, students had to come up with unique and innovative ways to sell their food also.
While students from one side tried selling their golas by offering to click a photograph for every purchase, other teams tried to do so by selling drinks in cutting chai cups at same costs. A team of international students from the Berlin School of Economics tied up with a local NGO to sell their products at whatever price the buyers offered and in fact turned out to earn the maximum revenue. However the highlight of the festival was the music event titled 'Battle of the Bands'. On Day One the elimination round was held and more than 18 bands performed.u00a0 Members of the popular band Silver were there to select a handful of bands to perform in the finale tomorrow.
The event would have been more fun had the bands been able to perform in the open amphitheatre area, permissions from the police and the civic authorities held organisers back, committee members said.
The event had some good performances by upcoming bands though most of the music was limited to hard metal and rock; there wasn't much variation in the kind of music on offer.
Aishwarya Thapa, a student of SCMS, who had come to hear the bands, was disappointed. "I expected a lot given the hype about the event but it was restricted only to hard metal or rock music. There wasn't much variation and it all sounded pretty much the same. In fact, I think some of the bands hadn't even composed original music, many tracks sounded like they had been lifted off some less popular tracks," she said. However, some like second year student Darshan Nagrani were enthralled by the music."I had attended this fest last year too and I didn't expect them to do so well this year. There were more bands and much better ones. A few were bad but largely it was a good show," he said. As Day One got off to a good start, organisers promised that forthcoming days would be bigger with big names like Shankar Mahadevan and Remo D'souza performing on Day Two of the fest. Celebs like Ritesh Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jackie Bhagnani have also promised to drop by.
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