It is said that good things last for a very short while, or to put it in other words, “All good things must come to an end”.
Festember, however, has exceeded nearly all possible limitations and has become more than a good thing. It has outgrown the definition of a good thing, an event or even a college fest, for that matter. It has become a phenomenon, a statement which proves NIT Trichy’s mettle wherever it goes.
Festember is NIT Trichy’s cultural college fest, and arguably one of South India’s biggest college cultural festivals. Ever since its inception in 1975, Festember has transformed from being an intra-college fest to a versatile, multi-faceted extravaganza which caters to the need of every type of college student, be it the studious ones or the ones who just seek some entertainment in their lives. One of the best features of Festember is its versatility and its ability to withstand the test of time. Lasting for 40 years and growing better and better with every edition stands testament to its endurance and constant adaptability to newer environments. New events such as Gigahertz, which recently rendered its second successful edition in Bangalore, and its fifth overall, on 11th September in Bangalore, and the recently concluded Rolling Reels Film Festival on 20th-21st August, which had more than 220 entries from over 12 countries, have taken Festember to the next level, and made it a force to be reckoned with.
All great things have humble beginnings, and similarly, Festember, as mentioned earlier, also began as a small intra-college fest. The term “Festember”, which is often misunderstood as “A Fest in September” when it is actually “A Fest to Remember”, was coined by one of the then REC-T students. It began as a zero budget fest, in which every department pitched in with their own area of expertise. While the design and ambience was taken care of by the Architecture Department, the medals and shields were forged in the workshops of the Mechanical Engineering Department.
Zooming into the future, about 40 years later, Festember has completely transformed into something that can only be described as inexplicable and yet an amazing metamorphosis. Events such as Tarangini, ChoreoNite and the well-known Pro-Shows have mesmerized college students over the last four decades. Festember Pro-Shows have become highly popular over the last decade, as it has been graced by several eminent artistes such as Kadri Gopalnath and Benny Dayal in 2009, Anuradha Sriram, Naresh Iyer in 2010 and even more recently, by Rukmini Vijaykumar, Kash Trivedi, Alvar and Millas, Pritam Chakraborty, Abhijeet Sawant and lots more.
In addition to the cultural events, Festember also conducts literary events in English, Hindi and Tamil. Each literary team conducts about 13-14 events which include JAM, Quiz, Dumb charades, Debate etc, which are regularly won by IIT-M, SASTRA, SRM University etc.
Festember also organizes various workshops such as photography, ventriloquism, caricature, DJ, freestyle football etc, which cater to the versatile interests of the participants. Each year, the workshops are a great crowd puller as not only do they allow students to get a basic understanding of the topic, but also allow them to enjoy the other festivities without any hindrance. The themes of the workshops change every year, so that every student gets to learn something new every year.
The number of sponsors and partners for Festember have definitely increased manifold over the years. Beginning with a shoestring budget, Festember has come a long way to attract many title sponsors, such as Airtel, Indian Oil, Vodafone, Adobe, Celkon, Paragon, The Times of India, Luvit and Coca Cola, to name a few. This clearly indicates the herculean transition undergone to become one of India’s most popular college fests.
Every time Festember arrives in NIT Trichy, there’s an air of excitement and boisterousness. Considering Festember’s track record, we can surely expect a lot from this year’s regale. As the tagline rightly says, this time around, we will surely bond boundlessly.