Kashiyatra, also known as KY, is the annual socio-cultural festival of

Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi (IIT BHU) is a public technical university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1919 as the Banaras Engineering College, it became the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu Univers ...

. It is a four-day long mega event held in January every year, and is one of the most prominent college festivals in India. Kashiyatra is one of the largest socio-culture festivals in Asia where 360+ colleges/universities take part. Kashiyatra witnesses a large number of participants across the country with having a footfall of 70,000+ participation footfall and organises 60+ events with many Celebrities performances. It provides a definite platform for the participants to showcase youths talents as well as skills. The festival offers an unprecedented opportunity to meet and interact face to face with a large number of potential and targeted competitors across all the events.

History

Kashiyatra had its first edition in the year 1981. It has been named Sparsh and Spandan in the past. Over the years, Kashiyatra has seen the participation of prominent Indian cultural icons like classical singers

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition. Early life Chaurasia was born in Allahabad (1938) (officially called Prayagraj) in th ...

Ustad Bismillah Khan Bismillah Khan (born Amaruddin Khan, 21 March 1916 – 21 August 2006), often referred to by the title ''Ustad'', was an Indian musician credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. While the shehnai had long held imp ...

, and singers

Shubha Mudgal Shubha Mudgal (born 1 January 1959) is an Indian singer of Hindustani classical music. Her repertoire includes the genres of khyal, thumri, dadra, and Indian pop. She has received the Padma Shri in 2000. Early life Shubha was born in Allahabad ...

, Shaan,

Lucky Ali Maqsood Mahmood Ali (born 19 September 1958), better known as Lucky Ali, is an Indian singer, songwriter and actor. With several popular singles and albums, he emerged as a significant figure of Indipop during the 1990s. Early life and educatio ...

Shibani Kashyap Shibani Kashyap is an Indian singer who works in the Bollywood film industry. She has judged the reality singing show ''Bathroom Singer''. Kashyap achieved fame by singing the signature tune of the AIR FM channel of All India Radio and Amul In ...

and

Javed Ali Javed Ali is an Indian playback singer who predominantly sings in Hindi. He has also sung in various Indian languages including Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Early life Javed Ali was born Javed H ...

. In 2006, Miss India Earth 2005

Niharika Singh Niharika Singh is an Indian actress and producer. She began her career as a model and won the title of Miss Earth India in 2005. As an actor, she made her debut with the critically acclaimed drama ''Miss Lovely'' which competed in ''Un Certain ...

took part in a fashion show organised as a part of it. Well known bands like

Parikrama Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indic religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In Buddhism, it refers only to the path along ...

and

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

too have performed here.

Events

Competitions

* Abhinay (dramatics competition) consists of stage plays, mono-acting, street-play. and mimes * Bandish (Indian music competition) features singing competitions from across the country including contestants from popular reality shows such as "Indian Idol" and "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa". It encompasses solo, duet and group performance of light and classical Indian and Western vocals. * Crosswindz (rock music competition) fuses an Inter-College Rock Rock Festival with a Professional Rock Band as the final act. In the past, Crosswindz has seen performances such as Parikrama, Indian Ocean, Orange Street etc. * Enquizta (quiz competition) consists of multiple quizzes. It has hosted some of India's largest quizzes over the years with participation in excess of 5000, by prominent quizmasters such as Vikram Joshi * Mirage (fashion competition) * Natraj (dance competition) comprises solo, duo and group performances * Toolika (art competition) comprises sculptures, paintings on canvas, mehendi, tattoo and rangoli-making. * Samwaad (literary competition) comprises debates, extempore speeches, just-a-minute, poetry, and storytelling events. * Model United Nations has been held every year since 2013

Pronites

* Antarnaad is the final night of Kashiyatra which sees famous artists and bands from the Indian film industry such as

, Underground Authority,

etc. * Fusion Nite is a creative amalgamation of classical Western and Indian Music which has witnessed the presence of the Dunes of Rajasthan, Rishi Inc and others. * Kavi Sammelan is a poetic symposium which has been graced by

Kumar Vishwas Kumar Vishwas (born Vishwas Kumar Sharma; 10 February 1970) is an Indian Hindi poet, politician, and a lecturer. He was a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a former member of its National Executive. Life and career Vishwas was ...

, Surendra Sharma and others.

References

__FORCETOC__ {{Indian Institutes of Technology Cultural festivals in India Indian Institutes of Technology festivals Culfests 1982 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Festivals established in 1982