The PIMS campus is gearing up for a rush of exuberance with AURA 2k18, the much celebrated annual intercollegiate sports, literary and cultural festival, kicking off on August 8.
The festival team at PIMS has gone all out to ensure that the 9th edition of the 3-day festival surpasses earlier editions in scale and variety. About 65 colleges from across the country have already registered online.
According to the schedule, the formal inauguration followed by cultural competitions will take place on Thursday. Sporting events will start on Wednesday, featuring eight outdoor and five indoor events, with carom making its debut on the roster.
(Clockwise from left) This year, AURA 2k18 will feature Sathya Prakash, DJ Myris and Shashaa Tirupati in the ‘Pro Show’ segment.
The cultural fare begins on Thursday, with Indian/Western dance competitions scheduled at the main stage shortly after the AURA 2k18 opening ceremony. The crowd-pulling segments, ‘Battle of the Bands’, where campus rockers showcase their talents and the ‘Pro Show’ with concerts by professional bands are slated for Friday. Saturday is reserved for the fashion show and DJ night.
The main theme for this year is ‘Cinema’, to celebrat e the glory of the film industry, organisers said. The ‘Pro Show’ section had, in the past, brought in rock bands with huge youth followers such as Masala Coffee , the garage rock bank Skrat or Thaikoodam Bridge . This year, the section will showcase not one band but three rising artists, including national award winner, Shashaa Tirupati, who shot to popularity with Humma , Aalaporaan Thamizhan fame, Sathya Prakash, and Gana Bala, along with the Non-Violinist Project. The DJ night, will serve as the finale on Saturday and will feature EDM artist Myris hosted by 9XM.
The creative minds among the students have been hard at work, thinking up apposite titles for each category of events.
The common thread that binds most segments are that the appellations derive from either Indian heritage or the Franco-Pondicherry cultural amalgam.
So, dance competitions go by the moniker ‘Nadanta’, it is ‘Vikrit’ for the music segments and ‘Beaux arts’ for the fine arts festival and ‘Glitterato’ for the ever popular fashion show.
Also included for this year’s AURA are ‘Dionysia’, the theatre and film festival and ‘Literaire et Debate’, the literary and debate festival. New to the festival are online events such as ‘Musically’, ‘Dubsmash’ and ‘Online Photography’.
Organisers say that another unique event is ‘Graffiti’, which was introduced to unleash the attendees' creative skills when tasked to create street art — something that the city revels in.
