When it comes to college fests, recent updates were rather ho-hum in the North-Eastern sphere of the country with absolutely no news from their giant – Alcheringa, The annual cultural festival of IIT Guwahati. With its existence slowly fading into oblivion, questions were being raised whether the city would get to witness this cultural extravaganza.

All that smoke and dust was immediately blown away last week as the students of IIT Guwahati launched a teaser video on youtube via Alcheringa’s facebook page that gave a sense of much needed confirmation to everyone while also releasing the theme for its 18^th incarnation. The teaser displays boldly “Alcheringa : Atlantis” written in ancient text with the dates “ 30^th January – 2^nd February”. It also ends with the statement “Keep Calm – We are back”, probably a nod to all those flying rumors.

If that wasn’t enough, the team released a theme based poster on the night of September 24. The poster displayed a fallen city of Atlantis and the bed of the ocean with ‘ Alcheringa : Atlantis’ along with its dates ‘ 30^th Jan to 2^nd Feb’ written in the forefront and a giant statue that could quite possibly be Poseidon in the background.

 But, the thing that really catches attention is their Title sponsor ‘Erke’. Erke is a chinese sportswear brand owned by HongXing Erke Group. The brand has recently entered North-East and by the looks of this association, it seems as if they are leaving no stone unturned in establishing themselves. It is a rare event for a fest to get its title sponsor at such an early stage. The fact that this announcement comes just a week after the teaser is astonishing and makes one wonder what else is hidden within the sleeves of the organizers.

For those unaware, Atlantis is a legendary island said to exist somewhere around 9000 B.C and was said to contain precious metals like gold and silver in abundance along with rare wildlife. Its founders were believed to be half-god and half-human. These founders soon built their utopia around the island and achieved immense naval power.

It is a legend about spiritual and moral people living in a technologically advanced civilization, who soon gave into their greed and became devoid of all morality. As a punishment, the gods cast fire and earthquakes upon the land and Atlantis sunk in “a single night of misfortune”.

Alcheringa seems to have made it a trend to tackle different worlds and their culture with each oncoming installation. Alcheringa 2012 saw the fest focus on the street life with its theme ‘Urban Odyssey’. ‘Alcheringa 2013: Parallel Paradise’ was a trip to the psychedelic universe. The theme of Atlantis is one that tweaks an individual’s imagination. The Legend of Atlantis is one of the most fantastical myths present in our folklore and it was only a matter of time before a college fest based its theme around it.

Why the team behind it was silent for so long is another issue altogether. Whether this was a gimmick or an ingenious marketing scheme is to yet to be confirmed. However, this immediate release saw the fest gain huge attention with news spreading like wildfire across campuses.  Alcheringa seems to be the talk of the town. And rightly so, the fest has escalated to be a behemoth in a short span of time with fine performances from the likes of swiss folk metal band Eluviete, Israeli progressive metal band Orphaned Land and world famous Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Pandit Ravi Shankar.

 Of course, everyone remembers how they struck gold last year with the Bollywood giant Mohit Chauhan. So the question now is, how does Alcheringa 2014 top this? Well, we can only wait and watch. But, if the news of the title sponsorship is any indication, It looks like we won’t be disappointed.

Following are the Event Moudules :

DANCE
• Electric Heels
• Step Up
• Moves Like Jagger
• Navras

MUSIC
• Raga High
• Voice of Alcheringa
• Rhapsody


PERFORMING ARTS
• Theatrix
• Halla Bol
• Why So Serious ?
• Ed Edd N Eddy


FINE ARTS
• The Big Picture
• Ink The Tee
• Strokes Of Genius
• Comic Con


SPORTS
• 5 on 5 football
• Arm Wrestling


CLASS APART
• Rock-O-Phonix
• Mr. & Ms. Alcheringa
• Haute Couture
• Crossfade
• Roadiez

Digital arts
• Custom Brush
• Minimize
• Ad-Dict
• Snapthrillz
• Director’s Cut

ALFAAZ
• Just A Minute
• Zephyr
• Muse
• Model United Nations
• What’s The Good Word?