Genre Cultural Location(s) Goa, India | Dates October/ November Inaugurated 2006 (2006) | |
Venue Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – K K Birla Goa Campus Organized by BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus | ||
Waves is the annual cultural festival of BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus. It is a three-day-long festival held in the late October – early November period. The first edition was in 2006, and in spite of being a relatively new festival, it has attracted considerable media attention and many prominent sponsors over the years. The fest, very much in the spirits of Goa, holds a spectacular bonanza with a marvelous blend of fun and frolic, devotion, dedication and lots of happiness. The special events that Waves, BITS Pilani, Goa offers include Natyanjali, Fashion Parade and Mr. and Ms. Waves. Sea Rock, their semi-professional rock band competition has gone on to become a national event with several elimination rounds held in major cities across the country. The Pro nights are a major attraction, with every night in the three night festival dedicated to a different genre. The workshops organized are very interesting and include classes on Mocktail Making, Siporex Art, Graffiti Making, Hip-Hop Dancing and other such creative arts. Waves celebrates talent, creativity and the spirit to party. This fest is a meeting of all the talent in the country which comes together not only to compete but also to lose itself in the atmosphere of the fest. This is a festival to be witnessed, not talked about. The 2015 edition of the festival, with the tagline "Escape Reality" received a footfall of more than 35,000 students from 150 colleges all over the country. Waves, BITS Goa has grown really fast since its inception and has become one of India's leading college fests in less than a decade.
Contents
History
Waves has evolved into one of the leading cultural fests in India, reaching greater and greater heights since its inception. Waves actually sees its roots in an intra-college festival organized in 2005. Waves as an inter-college festival was first organized in 2006, which was then seen as a prominent regional cultural festival in Goa. Many colleges from Goa and Mumbai participated in Waves in the subsequent years and Waves became the biggest and most coveted cultural festival in Goa. Waves then reached another milestone in 2008 when it entered the mainstream and came to be known as a popular National Cultural Festival in India, which had a theme suiting the culture of Goa- “Nirvana”. This edition of Waves was such a big success that the year 2009 saw two editions of this festival. The fame and glamour of Waves attracted participants from all over India, and the festival exponentially grew in terms of participation and number of events. Waves 2014 saw an international act, The WorldFest, a Coke Studio performance for the English Nite as well as the Searock event which had become one of India's biggest semi-professional rock band hunt contests.
Today Waves is counted among the top 10 Cultural festivals in India. Celebrities like Vishal–Shekhar, Priyanka Chopra, Kalki Koechlin, Kailash Kher, DJ NYK, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Karsh Kale and bands like Indian Ocean, Agam, Parikrama, Raeth, Dead Letter Circus, Thermal and a Quarter, Blackstratblues, Salim-Sulaiman, Dj Paroma, Lost Stories have performed at Waves in recent years. Popular comedy houses like All India Bakchod, TVF, Being Indian and others have also performed at Waves. Popular events like Sunburn and Femina Miss India eliminations have been hosted by Waves.
Waves will celebrate its 10-year anniversary this year from 4–6 November and has therefore come up with a theme which will take everyone into a mode of nostalgia at Waves 2016- “Tides of Time”.
To sum up, the fame, glamour and glitz of Waves has been observed to grow exponentially in a couple of years and is attracting more and more participants as well as artists every year.
Competitions
The events and competitions at Waves belong to a variety of cultural categories such as Music, Dance, Literary, Quiz, Drama, Fine Arts, Film, and many more. Here participants get to showcase their talents and win laurels for their respective colleges. Some of the popular competitions include Step-Up, Indian Rock, Jukebox, Contention, Moot Court, Nukkad Naatak, Word Games, and JAM. Over the years, the number of events has increased with several new competitions like "Sizzle" and "Vices Quiz" becoming very popular among the participants. There are more than 40 competitions in total.[4]
Waves, being a popular national cultural festival, also holds the elimination rounds of certain competitions outside the campus in various cities. The event “Show Me The Funny”, where Stand-up Comedians from all over India compete, held its elimination rounds in various cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad for Waves 2016. These elimination rounds have seen overwhelming response in these cities in terms of participants and crowd.
Big 3
These are the biggest competitions in Waves, which attract the maximum crowd and see a tough tussle between the finest performers from all over India. Teams from various notable colleges all over India enthusiastically participate in these three prestigious and highly coveted events. The Big 3 events are namely:
1) Natyanjali:
Natyanjali is the most popular competition in Waves. It is a group dance competition in which participants show-off their dancing skills to enthrall and amaze the audience. A variety of dance forms and even a blend of Classical and western dance forms can be seen at Natyanjali. The event is judged by famous people from prestigious dance and choreography academies in India.
2) Mr. And Ms. Waves:
This event is the Talent Hunt event of Waves. Participants showcase their varied talents like music, dance, acting etc. Then in the next round they are asked tricky questions to judge their overall personality and attitude.
In Waves 2015, this event was judged by Sahil Khattar and other people from the famous YouTube channel “Being Indian”.
3) FashP:
FashP or Fashion Parade is the prestigious Fashion event of Waves. Thematic ramp walks, new concepts and trends of fashion are showcased in this event. The event has been judged by biggies from fashion training academies like Femina in the past editions of Waves.
Sea Rock
Tagline: Where Music breathes Life.
"Sea Rock" is a national event and held in several cities. Searock gives participants the opportunity to make it big in the Music Industry. With eliminations in nine cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Goa—Searock gives contestants the chance to bring out their thoughts and music and showcase it to the world. The winners receive cash prizes, scholarships at the best music academies of the nation and a feature in leading media publications.
Lex Omnia Moot Court
A Moot Court Event by the name “Lex Omnia” is another speciality of Waves. Participants from various Law schools all over India participate in this event. In 2015, Waves organized this event in association with NALSAR, Hyderabad, one of India’s leading law school. It received an overwhelming response and was a big hit. The event has shown phenomenal growth since its emancipation.
Specials
The Specials at Waves encompass a variety of unconventional events and competitions. Previous editions have included paintball, blackjack, poker, donut eating competition, Limca Book of Records attempt, Guinness World Record attempt, Housie, All Night Treasure Hunt and Last Entrepreneur standing, Wallstreet fete, Ratatouille etc.
Creative works
BITS Goa hosts the The Waves Ball, to which couples from all participant colleges are invited. The highlights of the Ball include the elaborate cuisine, a live-band, and a number of fun couple events and games.
Waves Ball at Waves 2015 had a theme “A Midnight in Paris”, wherein a very romantic and ecstatic setup was organized for the participants.
Waves hosts a number of workshops, including Belly Dancing, Origami, Skate-Boarding, Beat-boxing, Canvas shoe Painting, Latin dance, Pottery etc. Besides the on-fest workshops, Waves organizes its pre-fest Dance Workshop in the month of October. This dance workshop gives an opportunity to explore various dance styles taught by professionals from reputed dance academies.
Waves also organizes a lot of fun loaded adventure events during the 3 days. Previous editions of Waves had exciting events like Zorb Soccer, Laser tag, Paintball, Bungee Run, Slip soccer, Sumo Wrestling and many more.
Waves organizes informal events to keep people occupied throughout the fest. People can participate in these off beat events and win prizes. Some events in the past include Campus Roadies, Game of Scrolls, flash photography, beg-borrow-steal, Vasco amazing race, twister, limbo, pillow fight, quizzes and many more mobile informals.
Waves associated with NBA in 2015 to conduct a NBA Jam during Waves.
Professional Nites
Waves gained popularity far and wide due to the euphoria and ecstasy it creates in its Professional Nights or Pro-Nites as they are called. Popular national as well as international artists perform every year at Pro Nites. Waves has previously featured the likes of Vishal–Shekhar, Priyanka Chopra, Karsh Kale, Blackstratblues, Kailash Kher,[5] Shafqat Amanat Ali, Shankar Mahadevan, Strings, Indian Ocean, Parikrama (band), Thermal And A Quarter,[6] Pakistani Rock act Raeth (band), Carnatic Rock band Agam (band), Dead Letter Circus, DJ Candice Redding, DJ NYK, DJ Suketu etc.
The Pro-Nites of Waves are divided into 3 Nites, to cater to varied tastes of the audience:
The DJ Nite is usually held on the first Night during which an Electronic musician performs. Previous additions of Waves have seen performances by renowned DJs like DJ Amit, DJ Candice Redding, DJ NYK, DJ Suketu, Nikhil Chinapa and many others.
DJ Nite also hosted an official Pre-Sunburn event in previous editions of Waves.
In Waves 2015, The DJ Nite saw two performances, with DJ Paroma playing the desi tunes, and famous band “Lost Stories” playing EDM for the ecstatic audience.
English Nite is one of the major Nites having performances by renowned English Music Artists. In the past the English Nite has seen performances by Dead Letter Circus, Blackstratblues, Baiju Dharmajan, Nikhil D'Souza, Thermal And A Quarter, Junkyard Groove among others.
Waves 2015 saw the famous South African melodic rock band aKing perform, which was another highlight in the history of Waves.
Hindi Nite is usually the biggest of all three. It has witnessed performances by renowned Hindi Music Artists such as Vishal–Shekhar, Kailash Kher, Indian Ocean, Parikrama, Strings, Agam, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Shankar Mahadevan and Raeth.
Waves 2015 saw famous music composers Salim-Sulaiman perform live in Hindi Nite.
Waves 2016
Tagline: Tides of Time
Waves is set to grow a decade old since its humble inception in 2006. Hence, in order to celebrate this 10-year anniversary of Waves, the theme ‘Tides of Time’ aims to have a nostalgic look-back at all that has changed since the 90s, be it cartoons, movies, games, TV shows and even the styles and fashions of living. It aims to be a fun ride which will make its audience remember the good old days and enjoy the nostalgia of old times.
Waves 2016 will be held from 4 November to 6 November. The further details can be obtained on the official Waves website.
Waves 2015
Tagline: Escape Reality!
Waves 2015 came with a completely new concept of celebrating the abstract. It aimed at making the audience forget reality for those three days and take them onto another plane of euphoria. Therefore, it was themed as “Escape Reality”. The setup aimed at creating an alternate world, until wherever thoughts could extend. This edition of Waves was a bigger success with a footfall of about 40,000 from numerous colleges in India. Apart from the Big 3, even the smaller events received overwhelming response. Photography events like ‘Montage’, ‘Mezzo-tint’, ‘Time Lapse’ and ‘Reverse flash’, ‘Waves Open Quiz’, ’Waves Debate Championship’, ‘Rubik’s Cube Challenge’,’Wallstreet Fete’ also saw phenomenal enthusiasm and success. Lex Omnia Moot court, organized in association with NALSAR, was a big highlight. The specials included events like Paint Ball, NBA Jam, Game of Scrolls and many other fun activities. The Comedy night saw the famous “The Viral Fever(TVF) team at Waves and also an act by famous comedian Vipul Goyal.
The Pro Nites of Waves 2015 saw DJ Paroma and famous band “Lost Stories” who had played in Tomorrowland play for Waves on the DJ Night. The English Nite was rocked by the famous South African band “A-King” and India’s premiere A Capella group, Voctronica. The Hindi Nite reached a new zenith by the performances of famous music composers Salim-Sulaiman accompanied by many other popular singers and artists from Bollywood. Other events like Searock, Show Me The Funny also showed continued growth from the last edition of Waves.
HR College, Mumbai took away the trophy of the Overall Winner of Waves 2015 edition
Waves 2014
Tagline: Lights.Camera.Mayhem!
Waves 2014 featured events organised by the various clubs of Music, Dance, Literary, Quiz, Drama, Moot Court and the Fine Arts. ‘The Big 3’ events of Waves, Natyanjali, Fashion Parade and Mr. And Ms. Waves attracted a huge crowd of cheering students. Specials, another segment, consisted of unconventional events like Treasure Hunt, Photography Competitions, Film making, Last Entrepreneur standing, etc. The Adventure Zone consisted of events like Lazer Tag, Reverse Bungee, Sumo Wrestling, Zorb Soccer. Workshops like Blackjack, Poker, canvas shoe painting, dance and parkour were also organized catering to a wide array of interests. One of the highlights of the Events at Waves was the on-spot cash prize. Waves 2014 also featured renowned artists like D.J. Candice Redding for the VH1 Supersonic Nite. The 2014 edition of the festival received a footfall of around 35,000 students from more than 150 colleges all over the country. Popular Bollywood singer Shankar Mahadevan for the Hindi Nite and Baiju Dharmajan (Syndicate) for the Coke Studio Nite. Comedy Nite featured the well-known Indian Comedy group, All India Bakchod(AIB) which entertained the audience with their comic sketches and parodies on topics like politics and the Film Industry. This iteration of Waves also held the Worldfest, which was an event where artists from all over the globe presented their skills. WorldFest featured Andrea Pixie, a Fire artist, Fire Kydd with his Aerial Act, Leona Rodrigues with her Hoola-Hoops and Sonya Nakti, a Belly dancer showing off her superb skills. Waves 2014 also presented Searock, an annual national level Semi-Rock Band Competition. At Waves 2014, L-ACOUSTICS K1, one of the best sound systems, was for the first time used in a college festival.
Waves 2014 saw Christ University, Bangalore, take away the overall winner’s trophy.
Waves 2013
Tagline: Hit the Rewind!
Waves 2013 came with a tagline of ‘Hit the Rewind’, which aimed at recreating defining points of cultural history like the iconic MoonWalk, the Beatles(who redefined rock music in the 1960s), F.R.I.E.N.D.S, the bold saga of American Mafia(known as The Godfather), Romeo and Juliet, Jimi Hendrix and Marilyn Monroe. Putting this idea in practice, all the events of Waves 2013 were themed such that they drowned the audience in a sea of reminiscence. The Big 3 were a bit hit, and events like ‘Portraiture’,’Toondraw’, ’Artathon’, ‘Blind Art’, ‘Panorama’(Fine Arts); ‘Words o’ Worth’, ‘Press Corps’(Literary) and many others catered to the varied interests of the crowd. Specials included an ‘All Night Treasure Hunt’’, ’Montage’, ‘PlCaza’, ‘Epizon’ and many more fun events during the 3 days.
The highlight of Waves 2013 was that it hosted ‘Femina Miss India’ Elims. Rochelle Rao, Miss India International 2012, was the judge for this elimination round.
The Pro Nites saw biggies like Karsh Kale, Backstratblues, perform live. The English Nite saw famous band ‘Monuments’ perform. The Hindi Nite was full of fun with Vishal-Shekhar and Priyanka Chopra joined them which made it an even ecstatic nite.
Media and publicity
Waves, being one of the premier college festivals, has been featured on many national platforms. Various media powerhouses such as MTV, VH1, Hindustan times, The Times of India, The Hindu, Comedy Central, Channel V, The Outlook Magazine, The Score magazine and several others have covered Waves in the past. The print partners of Waves included many Goan print media houses like The Goan, The Goan Observer, Planet Goa, Business Goa and other renowned media houses like Rock Street Journal, College Diaries, Indian Art Journal, Art & Deal Magazine, Education Times, Youth Incorporated etc. In the recent years, Waves has had Radio Mirchi as its Radio Partner and DSN as its Digital Partner. Online media houses like blogadda,Pixelscape, Scribido etc. have also been covering Waves. Waves has had International presence for the past few years, being featured in highly prestigious magazines such as The Rolling Stone magazine. Waves has an enormous online presence, being featured on several websites, social media pages and mobile applications. Over the years, Waves has been covered extensively by TV channels, Newspapers and magazines local to Goa. All in all, the Waves experience has not been limited to the people attending the festival. Waves has managed to reach millions through mass media.
Sponsors and associations
Waves, with a footfall exceeding 40,000,witnesses participation from over 150 colleges from across India and thereby serves to provide the ideal target crowd for branding of numerous multinational corporations. Since its inception, Waves has attracted sponsorship associations from industrial giants like Coke Studio, LinkedIn, Cadbury, Britannia, TATA, ICICI Bank, Idea, Crompton Greaves, Reliance, Bharat Petroleum, Hero, Classmate, Redbull, Dell, LG, Reebok, AIRCEL, State Bank of India and Union Bank, T.I.M.E, Parle, Maruti Suzuki, ToneTag to name a few. The crowded sponsorship matrix, with a wide range of repeating sponsors every year, is indicative of the mutually beneficial and productive associations BITS Pilani fosters with its clients.
Waves has associations with some of the top academics of the country for the variety of events in their arsenal. Some of them include Indian Idol Academy, True School of Music(TSM), National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Indian Mime academy, Jogesh Mime Academy, Thespo, NALSAR Bangalore,Indian Institute of Photography, Terrence Lewis Academy, Saroj Khan Dance Academy, Shiamak Dawar International Dance Academy, Indian B-Boying Federation, Indian Institute of Art and Design, Style Fiesta, Chalta Hai Comedy, Old Delhi Films, and the list goes on.