By Sourabh Jyoti Borah
The 57th edition of Spring Fest is scheduled to be held from January 29 to February 1.
Spring Fest is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Kharagpur.
The first edition of Spring Fest was held in 1960, making it one of the oldest cultural festivals in India.
Over the last 55 years, it has grown exponentially, encompassing the aspirations and enthusiasm of students from all across the country.
With a plethora of more than 130 events covering over 9 genres, Spring Fest offers students a platform to showcase their versatile talent and competitive spirit.
The last edition, Spring Fest 2015, saw a footfall of over thirty thousand people, and participation from over one hundred and fifty colleges.
Spring Fest has been successful in raising funds for its activities through corporate deals with companies. The previous edition had over a hundred sponsors and partners.
Spring Fest has also associated with organizations like CRY, UNESCO, Ministry of Environments and Forests and Green Peace to forward its social causes.
Star Nights are one of the biggest attractions of Spring Fest. Previous editions have played host to Bollywood singers like KK, Vishal Shekhar, Salim Sulaiman, Sunidhi Chauhan and Shankar Mahadevan and rock bands of the likes of Monuments and TesseracT (U.K), Parikrama and Goddess Gagged. Other notable performances include Advaita, The Raghu Dixit Project, Mrigya, Paradigm Shift and the Indian Ocean.
Owing to the overwhelming participation, Spring Fest organizes its nationwide prelims, Hitch-hike which organizes five nationwide events – Wildfire – the rock band competition, Nukkad – the street play competition, Shuffle – street dance competition, SF Idol- the solo singing competition and Shake-a-leg- the solo dance competition in 7 cities around the country.
With the enthusiasm of the organizing team and the palpable excitement in the air, this edition promises to be the biggest so far.