BITS Pilani Goa's cultural fest 'Waves' promises experience of a lifetime

Touted as one of the nation’s fastest growing cultural festival, BITS Pilani Goa’s ‘Waves’ turned 10 earlier this month as the ’complete 72 hour experience’ concluded with the last of the special nights on November 6, 2016. 

With 35 events spanning 10 different panels, the famous Waves Big-4 and scintillating professional nights, Waves 2016 commemorated its tenth anniversary by completely redefining the ‘college fest’ experience and by providing revellers with what can truly be called, an experience of a lifetime.

Leveraging the powerful tools that are nostalgia and memories, Waves 2016, themed ‘Tides of Time’ aimed to take attendees back into time, and rekindle their warm and endearing childhood memories through a wide selection of competitions and performances alike. 

A spirited array of events in literature, music, dance, dramatics and arts provided for the perfect cultural confluence, as the headlining Big-4 events – personality contest Mr. and Mrs. Waves, fashion parade FashP, group dance competition Natyanjali, and India’s biggest semi-professional band showdown Searock saw some of the nation’s most talented youngsters battle it out on the grand Waves stage.

Waves 2016 - Tides of Time, besides showcasing how the world of music, cartoon, cinema, etc. has evolved from the 90s, also portrayed how Waves as a whole has grown into one of the country’s most awaited cultural fests and a one of a kind experience facilitated by the relentless efforts of the students that comprised the Organizing Committee. Waves witnessed a football exceeding 40,000 and participation from colleges across the nation, transcending geographical barriers.

A grand inauguration ceremony and an enthralling performance by the Mime Club, BITS Goa marked the beginning of the 3 day extravaganza as the convenor flagged off the fest. With events scheduled through the night, Waves 2016 ensured that the fest was always abuzz with activity and that attendees never faced a dull moment.

A fest meticulously ‘engineered’ to appeal to every sense of every attendee, Waves has undergone a monumental change over the last decade. Starting out as a small scale fest, it is now known all around the country for its wide array of events in addition to the glitzy stars it is known to attract. 

While its previous editions have seen mesmerizing performances by artists of national and international repute including international DJ Candice Redding, South African rock band AKing, the inimitable Shankar Mahadevan, talented music duos Salim-Suleiman, and Vishal-Shekhar, Blackstratblues, Baiju Dharmajan and Dead Letter Circus to name a few, this year’s fest was headlined by Bollywood sensation Amit Trivedi and trendsetting DJ Nucleya. 

While they enchanted the crowd with the sensational musical performances, comedians Kenneth Sebastian and Zakir starred in the thoroughly entertaining Waves Comedy Night (which has featured the likes of AIB, EIC and TVF in the past).

In addition to the plethora of events and the exuberant special nights performances, Waves also saw a host of informal events, workshops and activities including the popular Waves Ball, impromptu flash mobs, stimulating Virtual Reality set-ups, food challenges and lots more that topped off the Waves experience.

What participants took back from the festival was not limited to the live performances and the competitions they participated in but the truly eclectic and exhilarating atmosphere that the festival managed to create for three extremely memorable days.