Report Saarang 2020 The decade hits off on a euphoric note with IIT Madras’ annual cultural fest, Saarang, India’s largest student-only run fest. Filled with star studded nights and exhilarating events, the Saarang experience is a must for anyone up for some fun and excitement. The four-day fest’s 25th anniversary pays homage to its city’s culture through its theme “Madras Memoirs”, celebrating Chennai’s rich history & traditions. Initially named Mardi Gras, Saarang has continued to reinvent itself with this edition being the biggest of them all with a whopping footfall of 75,000+ and unique additions like a Ferris Wheel, Human Library, IIT for Villages collaborations, etc. Over the years, Saarang has chiselled a niche for itself through its unique events. Events like Decibels and Tarang give bands a shot for opening at Saarang’s extremely sought-after Professional Nights and have thus been the road to fame for India’s top musicians like Benny Dayal, A. R. Rahman and the likes. In terms of diversity and quality of events, Saarang is proudly second to none. The massive array of events covers Music, Dance, Food, Anime, Dramatics, Quizzing, FineArts, Gaming, Spotlight lectures, Roadshows, Wordgames, Writing and everything in between, so there is something in store for everyone coming down to the fest. Breath-taking performances by the world’s biggest artists make Saarang’s nights magical. The Professional Shows at Saarang feature leading artists from the Bollywood, International Rock, International EDM, Classical, Comedy genres and much more. Shows by legendary performers like Shankar Mahadevan, KK, Opeth, DubVision, Katatonia, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan, AronChupa and the likes make Saarang the hotspot for Chennai’s music scene, attracting all kinds of people from all over the country. Saarang also hosts India’s largest intercollegiate dance battles through Choreo Night, where Saarang pledges to donate all revenue from the show as charity. Saarang 2020’s Social Campaign LEAP (Learning Education Accessibility Program) has been focussed on enabling the underprivileged to harness the power of digital literacy with the help of ToI covering the campaign in August. “A Day at IITM” was conducted for underprivileged children, who were exposed to talks and demonstrations from different technical teams at CFI (Centre for Innovation) as well as different tools the internet can provide to stay up to date with the modern world. LEAP notebooks were gifted to poor and underprivileged children throughout Chennai. During Saarang, free career counselling sessions were held for 120 underprivileged students in the CS department. IIT Madras’ Saarang wants to help improve society, utilising Saarang’s massive resources to raise awareness and make meaningful impact in the country. .