Rockin’ Out at College Fests

In the past few months, petaDishoom has spent so much time crashing college festivals across the country and partying with hot bands like Junkyard Groove, Indian Ocean and Parikrama that we deserve an honorary degree in “rockology”! Read on to learn what’s been rockin’ – but first, tell us: Do you know of a college fest that’s coming up? Join our Street Team and tell us about it immediately by e-mailing StreetTeamIndia@petaindia.org. Then work with us on getting petition sign-ups at the fest, and you can earn great prizes.

We kicked the fun and festivities off at St Xavier College’s “Malhar” fest and have been going full throttle ever since. At Sophia College’s “Kaleidoscope”, we caused quite a stir at our stall when we gave away copies of Euphoria’s Mehfuz to the stellar Street Teamers who collected at least 150 sign-ups on our petition to help stop the suffering of animals used for leather and meat. Plus, get this: MTV hottie VJ Nikhil Chinappa showed us some love by wearing a PETA tee while shooting an episode of MTV Super Select! And speaking of must-see TV, we screened the hard-hitting “Meet Your Meat” video at Sri Bhagwan Mahavir Jain College’s festival and a leather video at SIES College’s “Xzoobearance” Fest.

BITS Pilani’s annual shindig proved to be extra special this time around, because everyone got a chance to hear Leon Ireland, the late, great lead singer of Moksha, who died in December. MICA Ahmedabad’s “MICANVAS” festival was extra fun, thanks to hot performances by Indian Ocean and Euphoria. And thanks to a quick visit and show of support from the boys from IO, we had a sea full of students flood our stall and sign up for petaDishoom E-News.

During Lady Sri Ram College’s “Taraang” festival, petaDishoom got full-on support from Parikrama’s Nitin Malik – who, in addition to wearing one, threw PETA shirts into the crowd and later autographed them. Not to be outdone, Silk Route’s super lead singer, Mohit Chauhan, spoke out against silk, telling fans, “While one listens and enjoys Silk Route’s music … please remember that the silk fabric, which people the world over love to wear, is a product of enormous cruelty endured by millions of insects that are killed for the fabric”.

Although we hate to brag, we’re going to anyway, because we saw Junkyard Groove, the biggest band in India, perform three times! Headlining at the National Law School’s “Strawberry Fields”, CEPT Ahmedabad’s “Roots 2007” and IIT Chennai’s “Saarang 2007”, this awesome band wore their PETA tees and sang petaDishoom’s praises to the crowds. Bhayank Maut’s drummer, Rahul Hariharan – also decked out in one of our shirts – spoke up for animals at SIES College’s “Visions 2006”, saying, “It’s tragic how animals are still used in circuses for our amusement. You would imagine people to be better educated about matters such as this. Displacing wild animals from their natural habitat for our amusement is a very low act”.

Also spotted in PETA tees at various fests were these artists: the drummer from Zero, Shaan, Shibani Kashyap, and Thermal and a Quarter.

Hitting nearly 40 college fests, we were also at NMIMS College’s “Umang 2006”, R.A. Podar College’s “Enigma 2006”, IIT Delhi College’s “Rendezvous 2006”, St Stephen’s “Harmony 2006”, IIT Roorkee’s “Thomso 2006”, IIT Kanpur’s “Antaragni 2006”, IIM Indore’s “Iris 2006”, Sydenham College’s “Bageecha 2006”, SNDT College’s “Eldorado 2006”, Sydenham College’s “Brouhaha 2006”, Sri Ram College’s “Crossroads 2006”, Hindu College’s “MECCA 2006”, IIT Mumbai’s “Mood Indigo”, Chennai’s “Sristi 2006”, IIT Kharagpur’s “Spring Fest 2007”, St Xavier’s Kolkatta’s “Xavotsav 2007” and IIM Ahmedabad’s “Chaos 2007”. We also attended festivals at Bharatiya Vidya Peeth, IIM Indore’s Management Festival, Chennai’s Women’s Christian College, Punjab Engineering College, Roorkee College of Engineering, D.Y. Patil College and Mumbai’s NMIMS College’s Management festival.

Not only did we have fun, talk to lots of people and listen to great tunes, we also recruited 200 new Street Teamers and managed to get close to 16,000 sign-ups on our petition against the cruel and illegal transport of animals to slaughter for leather and meat. Learn how you can earn prizes by getting your friends to sign the petition too. And as always, watch out for petaDishoom at other big fests, and remember to join our Street Team to help animals and to help yourself to even more free goodies!