Felicity (festival)

Felicity

Type	Student Run, Non-Profit Organization
Genre	Cultural, Technical
Founded	2001
Place	Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Institute	International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad
Website	felicity.iiit.ac.in

Felicity is the annual technical and cultural extravaganza of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H). It is usually held in February for three days at IIIT-H. Started in 2001, the students of the institute come together to create an event that is the expression of their creativity and technical prowess. Each year, event witnesses around 15000 participants from 90 countries all over the world.

History

Felicity, as a festival of the IIITH Campus, was first conceived in 2001, and it has been organised successfully every year since the February of following year. It originated under a declaration, that aimed to define the motive of the festival for years to come.

"A time of enjoyment, reveling, appreciation of privilege, freedom and comfort given to us, sense of celebration, the feeling and hope that everything is all right with the world. A feeling that we will make the world a better place than we found it."

From the year 2004 onwards technical events were included in the festival under the banner of Threads. Thus it expanded from merely being a cultural festival to a cultural as well as technical festival. Over the years Felicity has grown in presence and stature, witnessing performances by major artists, hosting talks by eminent personalities, and drawing participation from all over the country.

Theme of felicity

Events

The events, which span a multitude of genres, can be broadly classified into Threads (Technical), Cultural Colosseum, Literary Cafe, Kalakshetra and Zombie Zone.

Threads

'Threads' is the official name for the technical events held at Felicity. The technical events are highly acclaimed and attract participants from all around the world. Leading coders of forums like SPOJ and TopCoder take part in the online programming contests set by leading programmers of institute(who themselves are ACM-ICPC finalists). From coding competitions like Codecraft, Time Limit Exceeded (TLE) to events like online treasure hunt CacheIn, threads witnesses a huge and enthusiastic participation from not only India but all over the world. Other onsite events consist of programming, gadget design, robots soccer. In 2010, Threads witnessed participation from more than 4500 students from across 67 nations.

Cultural Colosseum

Cultural Colosseum spans a broad spectrum of events - from traditional dance, singing and drama competitions to antakshari, movie-related events and of course, the cap on Felicity's frivolity quotient - informals. After all, a fest is all about having fun and the Lukhagiri Lounge (informals) offers a respite from the usual competitive events.

Literary Cafe

Literary Cafe at Felicity include the usual mix of quizzes, debates, group discussions, creative writing contests, et al. albeit with a different style.

Kalashetra

The literal meaning of Kalakshetra is “Temple of Arts” and in keeping with its name, it hosts painting, face Painting, bag design, graffiti, advertisement making, Rangoli and various other contests. It is a major draw to all the creative minds on campus and beyond.

Zombie Zone

The place to be for all you maniac gamers out there!Games like FIFA, DotA, Counter-Strike,Need for Speed,AOE are a part of this competition. The huge prizes up for grabs and the intense competition has resulted in even the best of the best losing out there.

Major nights

The major nights are the main attraction of Felicity. These consist of three nights of rocking, high intensity entertainment. The events that make up the major nights are Inaugural Night, Rock Night and War of the DJs.

Inaugural Night usually witnesses performances by the college students showcasing their talent. These performances are followed by fusion bands, hasya-kavis and other entertainment artists of the sort. In the past artists like Jayawanth Naidu and his troop have played Hawaiian guitar, Kumar Vishwas has enthralled the audience with his comic poems on this night.

The Rock Night is one of the major highlights of Felicity. The event is preceded by the rock band competition Riders on The Storm. It attracts rock lovers from all over the city and beyond. It is one of the biggest rock gigs in Hyderabad. Mainstream rock bands of national fame like Motherjane, Demonic Resurrection, Sledge and Prestorika have previously performed as a part of the event.

On the last night, a well-known artist is invited by IIIT-H to perform in the campus grounds. Past celebrity night performers include the famous fusion band Indian Ocean, Euphoria (Indian band) and playback singer Mohit Chauhan. College crowds from all over Hyderabad flock to the IIIT-H campus to be a part of this event.This is followed by the War of the DJs. Competing DJs ply their trade while people scorch the dance floor to their music beats. The event is judged by a panel of professionals DJs and is one of the most hi-octane events of Felicity.

Rallies

At IIIT-H, Felicity is a platform which is used to give back to the society and spread awareness about various causes. As part of Felicity, rallies are organized which concentrate on some pertinent global issues. In 2007 there was a rally on Global Warming. Apart from students and faculty members of IIIT-H, students from the NIFT and HCU as well as few famous personalities took part in it. Similarly, in 2008 there was a rally on World peace.

Talks and workshops

Eminent personalities from various walks of life are invited to give talks during Felicity. Famous personalities like Pullela Gopichand, Sitaram Yechury, CEOs and leading engineers from various firms have enlightened the students about their life, views and works. Many workshops also take place during Felicity. They cater to both technical interests and current trends amongst youth.

Impact on IIIT-Hyderabad

Felicity is a period of joy for each and every member of the IIIT-H community. Though traditionally the lead in organization is taken up by B-Tech third-year students, each and every member contributes to some aspect of it. It provides the students a jovial break from their academic oriented schedule and is eagerly awaited by them. The enthusiasm shown by the participants from various parts of India has made it one of the leading college festivals.

No festival is complete without the inclusion of each and every member of the community. With this spirit on the prior to the first day of Felicity, a performance of celebration called Joie de Vivre is organised for all the people who make IIIT-H function and work all day behind the scenes.

Participation

Felicity sees participation from over 66 (as of 2010) countries in its online events (threads), with the total number of participants peaking at 4500 in 2009. The onsite events like the major nights see a nightly footfall of about 3000 visitors from in and around Hyderabad.