Hackneyed events take toll on college fests Teen audience bored with similar themes and events year after year

Hackneyed events take toll on college fests

Teen audience bored with similar themes and events year after year

It was with much anticipation that Gautami Moghe, an SYJC student of Vaze College at Mulund, procured passes for the inter-collegiate festival Malhar. However, the event organised by the students of one of city’s premier education institutes, St Xavier’s College, fell way short of Gautami’s expectations. After queueing up for nearly one-and-a-half hours to gain entry to the second day of Malhar, famous for the slew of cultural events, Gautami said, “The fest was so bad that we came out of the campus within an hour, mostly owing to boring events and haphazard venues.” The review of NM College’s youth festival, Umang, too is hardly enthusiastic for the organisers. Kick-started on Sunday, the poor show soon became talk of the town. Abhishek Mehta of Hinduja College said, “My friends attended the first day of Umang, but the events were so boring and tasteless that I dropped the idea.” Thousands pouring in to see ‘the’ Malhar or Umang expecting fun, innovation and ‘greatness’, were disappointed. From planning to the choice of events, nothing appealed to the young visitors. Repetition of events bored the audience which was looking for something ‘new’, while organisers seemed to have copied the same themes and events, like street dance, band, treasure hunt etc. rather than thinking out of the box. “The most-hyped Malhar event, I have heard, has a Rs5 crore budget, but it sure did not show,” said Rohit Shenoy, a commerce graduate from SK Somaiya College. Professing his love for the Malhar conclave for its good speakers, a participant said, “Commercialisation has turned the fest into a promotional event, with company stalls hijacking it completely.” Though tight-lipped about the budget as always, Malhar and Umang organisers admitted that the slowdown made it tougher to get sponsors. This, even as sponsor said the poor showing might force them to review the deal next year.