Festember is a cultural festival organised at National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NITT). It is a 4-day event held annually in the third week of September. It was first incepted in 1975 by then students of NITT, and has now evolved to be one of the largest cultural festivals organised by a student community in Southern India. With humble beginnings as a fest with zero rupee budget allocation, it grew rapidly with sponsorships and collaborations. It now boasts an annual participation of more than 15,000 students from over 500 collegiate student communities across India.
History Festember began in 1975 as an intra-college fest. Within a few years, it transformed into a fully fledged inter-college event. Almost 40 years later, it continues to dominate the South Indian college cultural scene, winning the title of Best Cultural Event of the Year, an award given by the Tamil Nadu State Government, in 2005.
Since the first Festember in 1975, participating colleges compete to win possession of the Festember Rolling Trophy (called the Ilayaraja Trophy). Several celebrities and dignitaries have graced the festival, including Illaiyaraja, Javed Ali, Naresh Iyer, Anuradha Sriram and Ganesh and Kumaresh amongst others.
'Festember', a term coined by one of the then REC-T students, stands for a "Fest to Remember". It started as a zero budget fest, in a little town called Thuvakudi, and every department of the college pitched in within the area of their expertise. For the first editions, design and ambience were overseen by the Architecture Department. The shields and medals were forged in the workshops of the Mechanical Engineering department.
The college that gets the most points across several events wins the Festember Rolling Trophy. The Rolling Trophy was originally named the "Ilayaraja Trophy" after the maestro himself performed at Festember in 1978. The Festember' X Rolling Trophy was won by Vellore Institute of Technology, while the Festember '11 Rolling Trophy was won by Sastra University. Sastra University won it again in 2012, and managed to maintain their streak for nine consecutive years, until 2019.
Festember '12 and '13 saw the ProShows being conducted in a temporary open-air theatre, a first for Trichy. Festember '14 was the first edition to host the ProShows in a newly constructed open-air theatre, named the Golden Jubilee Convention Hall (GJCH), with a capacity of more than 5,000 people. Festember '15 introduced the Indie stage for the first time, while Festember 16' saw a new addition in the name of Culture Gully where a couple of informal events were held. In 2017, the official Festember Blog was launched on Medium, serving as a gateway for the creative outlet that Festember strives for.
Themes Festember has explored a myriad of themes since its inception in 1975. The organizers have gone to great lengths to express and showcase the theme through ambience and theme-specific events. Mascots each year have also been designed and adapted to communicate the theme.
Year Theme Tagline Sponsors ProShow Artists Guest lectures 2020Fantasy Realm -CelebritySchool, LensFit, Fever 104 FM, Radio One (India), Film Companion, DHL, Bank of BarodaRajhesh Vaidhya, Vijay Yesudas, Shilpa Rao, Mali, Stephen Devassy, Naveen RichardSanjay Pinto, Shweta Mohan,
Ganesh Venkatraman, Ehsaan Noorani,
Haricharan, Nikhita Gandhi,
Jaaved Jaaferi, Harun Robert2019Cinema ParadisoRelive the ReelJioSaavn, City Union Bank Karthik Iyer, Masala Coffee, Benny Dayal, WACXAnu Hasan, Naresh Iyer, Nathan Schroeder2018An Arabian Odyssey - British Council (Title Sponsor), City Union Bank Sunidhi Chauhan, Pineapple Express, Skrat, Switcheroo, DJ Sabrina TerenceP. Vasu ,
Ashwin Sanghi ,
Nithya Menen ,
Aruna Sairam ,
Karthik ,
Karan Arjun Singh,
Shakthisree Gopalan2017The OrientRise and RaveOnePlus (Title Sponsor), Maruti Suzuki Colors of Youth, City Union Bank The Non-Violinist Project, DJ Shaan, Red Bull Tour Bus featuring RJD and Thermal and a Quarter, Amit TrivediSrinivas, Jonty Rhodes,
Baradwaj Rangan,
Michael Karp2016Cultural SyncretismBond BoundlesslyCity Union Bank (Title Sponsor), Coke Studio (India), MAK LubricantsGuns n Hoses, Ambi Subramaniam, Bindu Subramaniam, Sachin–Jigar, AceaxeSid Sriram, Mahesh Dattani,
Suresh Triveni,
S. Sowmya,
Pratap Pothen,
Sean D’Mello (Pages)2015Les AutomatistesBreak the MonotonyParagon (title sponsor), The Times of India, Luvit, Coca-ColaRukmini Vijayakumar, Kash Trivedi, Alvar and Millas, Mushroom Lake, The Family Cheese, The Black Letters, Skrat, Shakthisree Gopalan, Pritam Chakraborty, Abhijeet Sawant, Antara Mitra, Nakash Aziz, Aditi Singh SharmaPrashant Bhushan, Harish Iyer,
Anita Ratnam,
Unni Krishnan 2014 HawaiiRide the Hawaiian Tide Vishal–Shekhar, Candice Redding, Karthick Iyer, Avial, Shakthisree GopalanJatin Das, Parthiv Shah,
Ananda Shankar Jayant,
Kaneez Surka,
Alicia Souza,
Anu Sridharan 2013 HalloweenBe There But BewareAdobe (Title sponsor), Hero, Nimbuzz, Celkon mobilesSalim–Sulaiman, Shakthisree Gopalan, R. Prasanna, Baiju Dharmajan Syndicate, Benny Dayal, Shraddha Pandit – 2012 RetroIt's Playback TimeNimbuzz, Cadbury 5 Star, Aircel, Coca-Cola, Asus, Canara Bank, Appy FizzAndrea Jeremiah, Suraj Jagan, Benny Dayal, Groove #3, Agam, Punya Srinivas, Robo Shankar, Evam – 2011 Las VegasGet luckyDHL, Triton Musicz, Canara Bank, Peta, Vasan Eye Care, SS MusicJaved Ali, Suchitra, Vijay Prakash, Motherjane, Ganesh and Kumaresh, Crazy Mohan – 2010 Wild WestRide the Extreme Naresh Iyer, Srinivas, Anuradha Sriram Suchitra – 2009 – Rewind...Press Play...UnwindVodafone (Main Sponsor)Kadri Gopalnath, Benny Dayal, Bandish – 2008 – Tune In Drop OutAirtel (Title Sponsor)Sivamani, Karthik –
Guest lectures Over the past few years, Festember has served a huge number of disquisitions to the populace. The guest lectures portion of the festival was incorporated with an intent to ignite and inspire the audience. Furthermore, it acts as a pedestal for the distinguished to propagate their valued experiences.
Carpe Diem 'Carpe Diem' (derived from the Latin phrase for 'seize the day'), the primary guest lecture series of Festember, was introduced in 2014 with the aim of bringing down some of the most inspiring, talented and accomplished individuals from around the world, to get to know them on a personal level and draw motivation and encouragement from their journey to success.
Carpe Diem has hosted various eminent personalities in the past, including Jonty Rhodes (former South African cricketer), Sid Sriram (Indian-American music producer, playback singer, and songwriter), Mahesh Dattani (Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Indian director, actor, playwright and writer), Kaneez Surka (stand-up comic), Baradwaj Rangan (renowned film critic, former deputy editor of The Hindu), Prashant Bhushan (Indian lawyer, activist and politician) and many more.
In 2018, Carpe Diem stepped up its game a notch further with a total of seven guest lectures for the first time since its inception. This year, Festember had the honour of hosting the likes of Ashwin Sanghi (renowned novelist, also known as 'The Dan Brown of India'), Aruna Sairam (acclaimed Indian classical vocalist and Padma Shree Awardee, also known as the music ambassador of India), P. Vasu (Indian director, writer and actor), Karthik (Indian playback singer who has sung popular songs in multiple languages), and Karan Arjun Singh (acclaimed foley artist who has worked for films like Baahubali, Rangoon and many more).
One of the biggest crowd attractions was the Guest Lecture by Nithya Menen (eminent Indian film actress and playback singer). The valediction ceremony of Festember 2018 witnessed a Guest Lecture by the chief guest, Shakthisree Gopalan (Indian vocalist and songwriter, who has collaborated with major stalwarts in the music industry, including A.R. Rahman, and Anirudh Ravichander).
In 2019, Festember witnessed an accomplished and assorted line up of speakers under Carpe Diem with a total of five guest lectures. Festember had the honour of hosting the likes of Naresh Iyer (acclaimed Indian vocalist and a National awardee ), Anu Hasan (a renowned entrepreneur, TV host, author and so much more), Sagarika Ghose (an Indian journalist, news anchor, author and columnist who has worked at The Times, Outlook and The Indian Express), Vijay Amirtraj (former tennis player and Padmashree Awardee).
One of the main highlights was the guest lecture by Nathan Schroeder (a renowned concept artist, and the mastermind behind the illustrations of Hollywood's greatest blockbusters, including Captain America: Civil War, Jurassic World, X-Men and The Avengers ).
Festember ’20 raised the bar of Carpe Diem, as Festember hosted the most sought-after personalities in this virtual edition, including Álex Rodrigo (Creator and writer, known for the popular Netflix series Money Heist)), Shweta Mohan (leading playback singer of South Indian cinema), Viswanathan Anand (Indian chess grandmaster and former world chess champion), Cathy Cassidy (English author of young adult fiction), Christopher C Doyle (an Indian fantasy and mythology author), Julio Macat (Argentine-American cinematographer).
Vox Populi Festember 2018 saw the blossoming of a new Guest Lecture series, Vox Populi (derived from the Latin phrase for 'the voice of the people'), which aims to bring down the unknown heroes of our country and give them a platform to make sure their awe-inspiring stories don't go unheard. Their exceptional tales are sure to leave a mark and motivate one and all to strive to make an impression.
The first edition of this series was initiated by Mrs Sneha Mohandoss, the founder of Food Bank-India, a charitable initiative to feed the hungry and to reduce food wastage.
The second edition of Vox Populi was honoured by Rathika Ramasamy, the first woman to strike an international reputation as a wildlife photographer and also the only woman to be chosen as one of the Top 20 best photographers of India by “The Birds of India.”
The third virtual edition of Vox Populi had the honour of hosting Sanjay Pinto, An advocate, columnist, author of three books and former resident editor of NDTV 24×7.
Cadenza
The pandemic-induced lockdown had Festember ’20 whip up a brand new online entertainment series - Cadenza, to add to the Guest Lectures.
The series that welcomes the most sought-after virtuosos from around the world, was inaugurated with a soul-stirring performance by Shakthisree Gopalan (popular vocalist, songwriter and performer).
The impressive line-up of Cadenza's very first edition included Varun Sunil (founder and percussionist of the popular band Masala Coffee), Sanjeeta Bhattacharya (singer-songwriter, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music), Joey Delvaro aka "The Dutch Cookie" (DJ/producer, graduate from the Dutch Pop Academy in Utrecht, Netherlands), Maalavika Sundar (Carnatic singer and leading playback vocalist), Harini “Rini” Raghavan (New York-based, Chennai-born singer, graduated from Berklee College of Music) and L. V. Revanth (a leading playback singer in South India).
Ad Meliora
Festember’20 marked the inception of yet another interview series - Ad Meliora (derived from the Latin phrase meaning “towards better things”). The series hosts an eclectic mix of gifted personalities from around the world and gives its audience an opportunity to hear firsthand about their aspirations, inspirations and life experiences.