Saarang is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a 5 day long festival usually in the second week of the year which receives a footfall of over 60,000+ people from over 500 colleges all across the country. Founded in 1974, Saarang is the second oldest college festival in India and has established a firm place in every student's college bucket list. Having started off under the banner of 'Mardi Gras' the fest was initially home to a small number of quizzes and music events widely regarded as South India's most competitive. Through the early 21st century the festival, having changed its avatar and adopted the name 'Saarang', grew rapidly with the help of corporate sponsorship, collaboration with large-scale event organisers and international artistes from 5 continents. Saarang is a not-for-profit, entirely student-run, ISO 9001:2015 organisation, making it the only one of its kind amongst college festivals. All organising members of the festival are current students of IIT Madras. 450 student coordinators are selected from amongst 10,000 students on campus through a gruelling and competitive application procedure, characteristic of the IITs. The coordinators are organised as per function, in 12 departments, each headed by a 'core coordinator'. The 12 departments are led by the 2 cultural secretaries, who are elected by the institute annually in March.
History
In the early 1970s, a "cultural week" festival was held. The fest was formally started in 1974-75 as Mardi Gras, the focus of the festival being to promote interest in cultural and literary activities and to develop the organizational skills of the students. The event was renamed to 'Saarang' in 1996 to give it a more 'Indian' theme. The fest has gone on to become an integral part of the city culture of Chennai. Commercial sponsorships for the event increased significantly in the late 90s allowing the event to attract a much higher profile.
Events
Spotlight (lectures and demonstrations)
Saarang has observed a wide range of personalities present lectures and conduct demonstrations during the event and as a part of Pre-Saarang activities. “Spotlight”, a concept in the previous editions of Saarang was a platform for famous and notable persons from various fields to address the audience and hold interactive sessions with them. Past speakers to have featured in Saarang include Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Kamal Hassan, Shriya Saran, Manu Joseph, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani, Leela Samson, Leander Paes, Kiran Bedi, Anita Rathnam, Ira Trivedi and R. Balakrishnan.
Competitions
Competitive events are held throughout Saarang and registration begins in December through their website. There are events in every field of art, dance, music, apart from literary events and group events like Scavenger Hunt. There are also informal stalls set up every day for spectators to participate in many small events.
World Cultural Shows
The “World Culture Show” at Saarang is a platform to showcase culture and talent from around the world and hosts artists from various countries across the world. There have been many such performances at Saarang, in many kinds of music, like Irish folk, contemporary music, alternative rock, hip-hop and acoustic music. In the past, WCS had introduced artists into Chennai’s cultural scene through the contributions of Goethe-Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan, Alliance Française de Madras, the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Embassy of Israel, and the US Consulate in Chennai, among other international organisations, in support of their respective artistes.
Rock Show
The Rock Show is a crowd-puller every year because of the unique brand of music it brings to the audience every year. At, Saarang, musicians of international bands of rock, alternative rock, metal and fusion have performed.
EDM Night is Saarang's fastest growing professional show and Chennai's largest annual EDM event. Having been initiated only in 2013 brands like Sunburn and VH1 Supersonic have featured as its organising partners. The line-up has featured some of India's most popular names in electronic dance music as well as a few international artistes.
2013 - Sunburn Campus with DJ haan and Dualist Inquiry.
2014 - Sunburn Campus with Dualist Inquiry, Nucleya, Anish Sood and Lost Stories.
2015 - VH1 Supersonic Campus with Thermal Projekt, Progressive Brothers and Nucleya.
2016 - DJs from Mars as international headliners. Sicklead, Aceaxe and Candice Redding as supporting acts.
2018 - AronChupa as International headliner, Nina Suerte as Supporting Act
2019 - Maddix as International headliner, Adrima as Supporting Act
Classical Night
Every year Saarang starts with “Classical night” in the Open Air Theatre of IIT Madras. Reputed performers of Indian classical music and dance forms inaugurate Saarang at this professional show. M. Balamuralikrishna, Daksha Seth Dance Academy represented by Isha Sarvani, Mallika Sarabhai and troupe, Anil Srinivasan, Sikkil Gurucharan, Navin Iyer, Ganesh Kumaresh, S. Sowmya, B.S. Purushothaman, Sonal Mansingh, Aruna Sairam, Shobana have performed in the previous editions of Saarang.
