The curtain goes up for the much-awaited event with the official inauguration at 10 am on Thursday at S P college grounds. With over 100 colleges from Pune and outside participating in the event, the city is all geared up to revel in an exciting line-up of competitions under Funkaars, Brouhaha, Kaleidoscope, Literati and much more. Funkaars, described as the music and theatre village, includes some of the most popular events i e Saaz, Nupoor and Elaan.

Teams will perform light Indian music for Saaz, try to outdo one another with original and outrageous dance moves for Nupoor, and present western music for Elaan. Brouhaha is the fun village where participants get to sell ice to an Eskimo, be seen not heard and take part in events such as Mad ads. Kaleidoscope includes events like Poster making, Rangoli, cartoon making, flower arrangements, etc. For the literary snobs exists Literati, the Literary Village, where reside the competitors of the Debate, Quiz, Jam session, newsletter making and so on.

The festival was launched in 1996 as an initiative to cultivate a spirit of healthy competition amongst the youth of Pune and strengthen talents in an array of fields such as arts, knowledge, literature and entertainment. In the first year of its inception Verve received a response from 53 colleges. In its second year itself, it acquired the distinction of being the biggest intercollegiate youth festival in India with 84 colleges, 3,595 participants and countless spectators. This year Idea Verve is expecting participation from over 100 colleges and is transcending boundaries by receiving entries from Lonavla, Ahmednagar and Khopargaon. Idea Verve gives the youth the opportunity not only to compete against one another, it also allows them to mingle, make friends and have a blast.

The chief organisers of the event are the young members of the Express Youth Forum. It is a group committed to self-development, recreation and growth as a means to improve the city. “Verve is just a reason to bring the youth together. What is important is that we keep meeting even post-Verve and work for the betterment of society,” says Karan Jayrath, operations director, Express Youth Forum.

And then there are colleges, the other side of this successful celebration. “When I think about verve I think about loads of fun. Verve has always lived up to its identity of being the best youth fest and I am sure this year also it will maintain that value,” says Chetan Pawar, cultural secretary for VIT who are going to participate this year in a number of competitions including dance and music contests.