The APOGEE English Press sat down with Kalyani Naik and Nityam Verma, the APOGEE joint coordinators of the Association of Rock, BITS Pilani (ARBITS), to know more about the club’s contributions to the fest.

They mentioned that the club would not be organising any events this year and this had not changed at the time of writing. Deciding instead to talk about last year’s events, they remarked that ‘it had the potential to be great’. They said that they had a good lineup, but the events did not go as well as expected due to security issues.

When asked about the challenges they faced in organising events this time around, they explained that securing funding was their biggest obstacle. Since ARBITS primarily promotes indie artists with limited recognition, convincing the CoStAA to finance events featuring these lesser-known performers is difficult, they elaborated. They added that this challenge had only grown tougher due to the budget cuts this year, and with only ten days left before APOGEE, they had yet to reach out to any artists. They believed that it would be difficult to secure an artist in such a brief amount of time, further highlighting that the agency they usually work with was extremely busy.

Commenting on their experience as coordinators, they said it had been a wonderful experience and they had a lot of fun. Kalyani and Nityam concluded the interview by asking the GBM to ‘listen to good music’ and to always vote yes for fest deductions. They pointed out that spending INR 800 for a concert on campus is far more affordable than attending one outside of it.