The Oasis English Press sat down with Yash Sahoo and Kuhoo Sathe, the Coordinators of the Association of Rock, BITS Pilani (ARBITS), to shed light on their work for the upcoming fest.

Kuhoo explained that ARBITS’s purpose was to promote the Indian indie music scene by organising various music-related events. They conducted Rocktaves, a legacy event, which is India’s largest semi-professional rock competition. They elaborated that the participating bands were selected through preliminary rounds held in 5 cities across the country, with the finals held at BITS, and the winning band awarded a cash prize of ₹1,15,000. They were delighted to share that they had two headliners for Rocktaves this Oasis, with Daira and Pakshee confirmed to perform. ARBITS would also organise Indie Nite, where Ritviz and Pineapple Express were to perform.

The club started its preparatory work towards the end of the previous semester, which involved tasks like the organisation of the prelims and reaching out to the participants and judges for the same. Yash highlighted that the key to smooth coordination among their workforce was compartmentalisation.

Kuhoo said that many industry experts they spoke with stated that “COVID hit the music scene hard.” Due to this, the main challenge they faced was getting bands to participate in Rocktaves, as the bands that fit the criteria were ‘very sparse and distributed.’ Another issue they faced was in scheduling the prelims, and they added that Pilani’s remoteness made it harder for bands to travel to campus.

On the experience they had as Coordinators, they said it was extremely fun, but also stressful and frustrating. They noted that they enjoyed their work sessions and it was easy to get things done. They advised their future batches to be ‘a lot more structured’. 

On a parting note, they advised BITSians to attend as many events as they could and to enjoy the fest, and reminded them that Rocktaves was free to attend.