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The fest season has begun and so have the stories of chaos, harassment, and safety issues at these prestigious cultural festivals. Let’s see what went down at Tempest 2019.

Tempest 2019, the three-day Annual Cultural Festival of Miranda House took place from 14th to 16th February 2019. Reports of chaos, security breach, rape threats, and harassment arose on Day 2 and Day 3 of the fest.

On 15th February, a message from the Women’s Development Cell (WDC) was circulated for the girls to be safe as allegedly, some members of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) had barged into the college campus, and were acting very violently and threatening people with rape threats. An anonymous source from the WDC security team shared her experience, stating that on the same day she noticed something weird going on around the entrance to the barricaded women’s area. When she went to investigate, she saw a few men who were trying to intimidate volunteers into letting them enter. When she asked them to leave, they retorted, saying, Aapko pata hai hum kaun hain? Humare saath Shakti Singh hai.” (Do you know who we are? Shakti Singh, the President, DUSU, is with us.)

When these people were blocked and not allowed to enter, they retreated but only with threats like “we’ll come back soon- just wait and watch” and “aaj 20 log laaye hai, kal 500 laayenge” (Today we have brought 20 people, tomorrow we’ll bring 500). She also added- “This kind of hooliganism has increased in the campus. There were men from Hindu College who had infiltrated the crowd, asking about the people who had taken part in the V-Tree protest the previous day.”

Anoushka Sharma, a second-year student from Delhi School of Journalism and a Copy-editor at DU Beat, also shared her horror story from Day 3 at Tempest. She stated that while entering the college on the third day of the fest, she was trying to show her media pass at the entrance to enter when a guy pushed her and said in a very rude tone- “Madam ji, kya kar rahi hain?” (Madam, what are you doing?). At first, she ignored but he was persistent and kept on insisting. When she told him about the media passes, he again said in a harsh tone- “Tameez nahi hai baat karne ki? (Don’t you have any manners?). Seconds later, the guards opened the door and at that moment people started touching and groping her. She quoted, “The lady security guard had to hold me since I almost fell on the ground, and she told me to go inside through the lawns since there was less crowd there.”

Talking about the ruckus created at the gates, the Head of Security from Miranda House’s WDC told DU Beat that due to the crowd build-up at the gate, the Principal had to open the gate when 50 to 100 unidentified individuals without passes barged inside the college. She also added that men came up to her, and to the Vice-President of the Student Union to threaten them by quoting their support from DUSU. When they were refused entry, they said, “Agli baar toh fest hi nahin hoga.(We won’t let the fest happen next time.” She added- “There was a sense of fear in the environment and the girls were uncomfortable by the presence of such people.”

When DU Beat contacted the Vice-President, she denied the story, saying that she personally didn’t hear any comments; however, due to the rush outside the gates, she talked to Shakti Singh who said that none of his people were involved in any such threats and misbehaviour. She also stated, “The passes said entry till 2 P.M. and people didn’t follow that which created more ruckus but actions were taken and things went smoothly later.”

These incidents are examples which show unsafe environment at fests. Even in a fest regulated with passes, unidentified crowd entered in mobs through the front gates and created a ruckus, not only threatening the attendees but also the organisers and volunteers. These prestigious annual cultural fests are the platform of growth and inclusivity which have now unfortunately become spaces for assault and harassment.

Feature Image Credits: Namrata Randhawa

Sakshi Arora

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Finally it was 19th October, that fateful day when I would get to see Enrique Iglesias Live in concert. There were three classes of tickets, VIP costing Rs. 15000, platinum for Rs. 8000 and gold (the one I bought) for Rs. 2500.

The gates opened at 5pm and everybody was inside the ground by 5:30pm. As soon as they let us in, we ran with all out might to be able to stand in front. Having done that, I managed to stand in the third row of the gold class. There were VIP and Platinum people ahead of course. Sadly I was 5 inches too short.I was stranded between tallies and couldn’t even see how the stage looked like. According to the pass, Enrique was supposed to come at 7pm. Well he didn’t. We stood for four hours just waiting. Thankfully I had friends with me but that ceased to matter after some time because everybody was talking to everybody out of boredom.  1 hour gone…two hours gone…3 hours gone and it started to feel like he was not going to turn up. To make things worse the crowd was well, pressing! People kept pushing and prodding and nudging and there was no place to even breathe. It was starting to get unbearable when finally at 9pm the stage when dark and there was Enrique standing right at the centre of the stage. I’m guessing that’s where he would have been because all I could see were people’s heads. That’s when the crowd lost it and started to push even more and here I was thinking it couldn’t get any worse. For a change the men were civilized and the women went berserk. The girl next to me kept spreading her arms and shouting I love you over and over again when there wasn’t even space to keep my feet. I got so annoyed that I dug my nails into her throat with all my strength as that was the only place reachable by my hands that were stuck in a really awkward position. Ten minutes into the concert, I was completely swamped by people and couldn’t take it anymore. Imagine an ant stuck between long blades of grass, I couldn’t even see the sky above me. I caught hold of the bouncer and asked him to get me out. He warmed me that once I’m out of the crowd; I’m out of the concert as well. I couldn’t care less, it’s not like I could see anything anyway. So he dug me and my friend out of the people, practically pulling my every limb in the process and carried me out in his arms stretched out above his head.

He led us out the enclosure, behind the VIP barricades and that’s when my luck changed. Suddenly I could see everything! That’s when I got my first glimpse of Enrique and my heart melted. There he was wearing a white V neck t-shirt and black jeans looking like a Greek god. Suddenly battling the crowd for four hours seemed worth it.

I got talking to the bouncer who was regulating the VIP entrance. I asked him if he would let me and my friend enter for some money. He asked for Rs. 1000 for both of us but we decided against it since the view was great from where we were. I sang along to all his songs as loudly as I could, cheered and jumped and head banged. After sometime the bouncer came up to me and said if you like him that much you can go in and led us inside the VIP stands for free! I was delighted.  Enrique was right under my nose! So close that I could see his sexy stubble as well! He sung all my favourite songs opening with ‘I like it’ and ‘escape’ and ending with’ Tonight I’m lovin’ you’. He called up a girl from the crowd while singing hero and hugged her for ten minutes, called up a twelve year old surd and made him sit next to him and sing along to his songs. He lay down on the ramp and out stretched both his arms on either side for people to touch him. He took people’s cameras, clicked himself and handed it back to them. He was a complete crowd pleaser.

For me it couldn’t get better or maybe it could if I was the girl he called up on stage! But that would be the jealousy talking because not many people buy the gold ticket and get to stand in VIP stands! The concert lasted for an hour and a half. It was an hour and a half of pure bliss! I fell in love with Enrique all over again and was mesmerized by him.