Flying underpants, penguins, dragons, and masala dosas filled the skies at Sankey Tank on Sunday. True to their tagline of ‘Anything Can Fly in India’, 36 flying teams flaunted their handmade flying machines at Red Bull’s first Flugtag event in India. Beating the heat and the chock-a-blocked roads, crowds milled at the Malleswaram lake in the hundreds to witness the spectacular air show.
While most of the crafts plummeted straight down into the water, the crowd nevertheless cheered every team on proving the people of Bangalore love to have fun, no matter what.
Actor and MTV Roadies TV show host Rannvijay Singh, who was one of the judges at the event, echoes the same thoughts. “The event was amazing. It was a Sunday and there were people inside and outside Sankey Tank in the hundreds. It was fantastic to see youngsters come forward and make these fabulous crafts. The whole event was a casual sport. The competition is not the main thing. The spirit of the competition is what is. And I know a lot of people say that but it lacks in today’s day and age since people do anything to be on top. But here everyone was just having fun. It was great to see so many people just having a good time and participants plummeting into the water. Stuff like this should happen more often and be encouraged.”
Kiran Iyengar from Team Udann Thastri whose craft ‘Pushpak Vimaan’ was the first to take off says: “Though I’m from Hyderabad, I know for a fact that Bangalore is the most fun-loving city. Bangalore is always known for events, be it music, theatre, dance or anything else. The Flugtag was a fun event and I sincerely hope we have more such events. There was nothing about winning or losing. We just wanted to have fun. We were the first to go and it was awesome to kickstart such an awesome crowd-pulling event.”
Akshay Maniraj from Team Flintstoned loved performing their dance for the houseful crowd. “If there is any event going on and there is a crowd gathering in Bangalore, everyone is going to get to know and get themselves to make it there. Even those passing by stopped and at the end of the day, the whole place was full of people. We like to have fun in Bangalore. Almost all the crafts made in Bangalore didn’t fly far so basically we all wanted to have fun. The city and its weather are pretty chilled out. There was a lot of chaos and people were still fine with it. You could make it they were chilled about the blocked roads too. So many of my friends were not allowed in but they still stood on the road and watched. That’s what makes these contests fun.”
Sarvesh of team Gotham Knights was happy with the response their craft got from the crowd. “It was awesome to see so many young people wanting to take part in events like this. Everyone wants to be on stage and make a name for themselves.”
Monisha Selvaraj, who managed to get in despite the swelling masses, says the best thing about this event was a lot of her friends were there too. “Nothing beats chilling out with friends at such events. A lot of us also feel with traffic clogging the roads, we need to take to the skies next to travel. Hopefully the engineers here will design better models for us then the ones that they did for Flugtag,” she quips.
Sachin from Malleswaram, who could not get in, says: “Despite not making it in, my friends and I watched from the roadside. We never expected so many people to turn up. It shows Bangaloreans love adventure sports and have fun.”
