The English Press Club interviewed the Students’ Union(SU) President, Ahan Bansal, to gain insight into the recent food festival.

When asked why this interim fest was conducted, the President began by elaborating that this idea sprouted during a post-Oasis meeting with the director when the fest ledgers were discussed. He explained that food stalls were the major source of revenue from any fest. In dire need of funds for APOGEE, the food fest acted as an emergency fundraiser that helped with budgeting issues. 

This raised the question: why was the food fest held when instead a nominal fee could have been deducted for APOGEE just like it had been done previously for Oasis? Ahan shared that most of the CoStAAns were in favour of fest deductions except him. He defended his stance by pointing out that in his personal experience talking to the GBM, the term ‘fest deductions’ carried with it a negative connotation. He also stated that the primary aim of a fest deduction would be for the conduct of a prof show which he felt was not in line with the philosophy of APOGEE.

Ahan mentioned there was a possibility that a partial fest deduction could be implemented. The partial fest deduction, he explained, was a system where a student would only be charged if they were to attend the fest. For example, if you wanted access to the DVM app for the fest, you would have had to pay the fest deduction fee. This way, those who were not attending the fest would not need to pay the fest deduction. The drawback of this model would be the uncertainty of the collected amount. He later clarified that it wouldn’t be done for APOGEE 2025, stating a lack of time for its execution.

The president claimed that they broke even with the food fest. Combining the revenue generated from the food stalls and the N2O signings, the final number was in the ballpark of 11 lakh rupees, all of which had been added to the APOGEE ledger.

Exploring this topic further, Ahan also elucidated how the pricing of items in the food stalls worked and why they were always notably high. As students, they are unable to manage the logistics of setting up a food stall. They hire aggregators in their stead to reach out to the outdoor catering department of brands who then ask the aggregator for a cut from the earnings. Every brand expects a different percentage and the remainder is split between the aggregator and the student bodies. The aggregator then sets prices in a manner that all stakeholders receive a desirable share. The president continued by stating that it was infeasible to eliminate the middleman and become the aggregators themselves, since certain brands must be contractually paid up front and the current payment system in place takes months to process which is where the aggregator steps in as a credit source.

The President continued by sharing that they had initially planned to hold a competition among the different cultural associations to integrate a variety of cuisines into the food fest. This never came to fruition due to the time crunch and lack of aggregators who could make this possible. Ahan explained the time crunch was due to the shifting batch snaps dates and Bedrock, held by the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning as they wanted to avoid these events clashing with the food fest. He also said the BOSM aggregator received their payment nearing mid-February and the Oasis vendor hadn’t received their payment yet and both were unwilling to participate in the tendering process for the food fest, further reducing the list of aggregators. 

All these hurdles combined made them go forward with branded outlets instead of their initial plan, consequently, the president assured that given the opportunity, funds and enough time, a proper food fest could have been held.

On being questioned if the food fest not meeting its monetary goals would have affected the upcoming edition of APOGEE, Ahan responded affirmatively. He began by saying that the debt from Oasis 2023 and APOGEE 2024 was yet to be cleared, an amount that totalled to well over half a crore rupees. For APOGEE 2025, the CoStAA is looking for ways to earn money. He claimed it was a dramatic shift in attitude as the ledger had never been a concern before and now all their communications revolved around money.

Ahan further revealed that despite APOGEE being a tech fest, all relevant discussions regarding the fest had been around concerts. He further commented that APOGEE 2025 faced immense competition from IIT Kanpur’s Techkriti being held around the same dates, 27th to 30th March. Techkriti had a prize pool of one crore rupees, close to ten times the pool in APOGEE 2025. The president credited this to the fact that the administration in BITS Pilani takes money away from students while IIT Kanpur’s fests are funded by the administration.

He stressed that holding a fest is a costly affair and it is possible deductions may rise in the future if branded eateries are opened on campus. These would split the crowd during a fest and decrease the revenue generated from the food stalls and the overall fest.

Despite not having the funds for a prof show, the president emphasised that APOGEE 2025 will proceed despite funding issues and requested the GBM not to associate fests with prof shows. He noted that all the relevant events had been finalised and only the budgeting for the fest remained.