ADO-FIESTA 2018 an Inter-Collegiate Inter-Religious Cultural Fest of St. Joseph’s Evening College sponsored by “Metro bikes a Unit of Wicked ride” was hosted on 24th February, 2018 on the theme “I Am My Brother’s Keeper” at St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School Auditorium.

ADO-FIESTA, is the combination of two fests namely ADONAI, an Inter-Collegiate Gospel fest and MAGNIFIESTA, an Inter-Collegiate Cultural fest which were hosted by St. Joseph’s Evening College earlier. This year, the College combined both the fests and named it ADO-FIESTA and made it an Inter-Collegiate, Inter-Religious Cultural Fest with theme, “I Am My Brother’s Keeper”.

The background in which ADO-FIESTA with theme, “I Am My Brother’s Keeper” was hosted was that, in a world that is divided based on culture, caste, class, religion and race, the social responsibility and concern for the other have also diminished from the face of the earth. Religion that is supposed to bind each one in love and harmony has become the divisive tool. In a scenario like this the role and responsibility of education is not merely to inform students but to empower them to be socially responsible and creatively active. Keeping this in mind, St. Joseph’s Evening College chose the theme, “I am My Brother’s Keeper” in order to promote peace and harmony among people of various religious groups. The theme, “I am My Brother’s Keeper” means that each individual is responsible for the well-being of the others in the society cutting borders across, religion, caste, culture, race, ethnicity, etc.

ADO-FIESTA provided a platform for the students of 20 different Colleges in the city to select verses from various religious scriptures that promote love, peace and harmony and portray them in the form literary and cultural activities.

The inauguration of the fest commenced at 10.15am with an inter-religious prayer service by the students of St. Joseph’s Evening College. The concept of inter-religious prayer service is not new for St. Joseph’s Evening College as on a daily basis it’s done, but we wanted to share and spread our motive towards secularism to other colleges as well. Fr. Anthony Joseph SJ, the Rector and vice-president of Bangalore Jesuit Educational Society presided over as the Chief-guest for the Inauguration Ceremony. Mr. Prashanth Kumar, the Governor of Student Council of the College, gave an introduction to ADO-FIESTA 2018 and welcomed the dignitaries on the dais, the staff and participants from other Colleges. The Principal and the Chief-guest addressed the gathering and shared their thoughts on the importance of promoting religious peace and harmony in the society. The fest kick started with the ADO-FIESTA promo video which was done creatively and consisted of all the events.

Post inauguration, competitions of the fest began at different venues. There were 9 Stage events and 11 off stage events conducted on various themes that promote peace and harmony in the society. Some of the competitions were ice-breaker, group singing, group dance, quiz competitions, personality contest, collage, short story writing, etc. While Subramani, a student from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce won the MR. ADO-FIESTA 2018 award, Shalu Kumari from NMKRV College won the MS. ADO-FIESTA 2018 award.

The fest also had organized food stalls that served delicious food to all the students, teachers and participants. A wide range of cuisines were present such as Indian, Chinese, and Mexican. Another exciting part of the fest was the Instagram Photo booth where are the students took pictures and selfies, it grabbed a lot of attention from both St. Joseph’s Evening College students and other college students as well.

The fest was concluded with a valedictory ceremony presided over by Fr. Jerry Dias as the Chief-guest where he mentioned that being an evening college the fest was hosted equivalent to any day college fest. Mr. Prashanth Priya, the share-holder of Metro bikes a Unit of Wicked Ride, as the guest of honour and the Sponsor, Mr. Sagar, the Marketing Manager of Metro bikes a Unit of Wicked Ride. The Chief-guest in his speech in the valedictory ceremony shared his experience of being warmly welcomed by different people of different religions and urged the students to be the agents of peace and harmony.

The overall winner of ADO-FIESTA 2018 was St. Aloysius College, Bengaluru and the overall runner was St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru.

Report by,
Mr. Prashanth Kumar
Governor, Student Council
St. Joseph’s Evening College, Bengaluru