Riviera is always exciting. From a distance it looks like a fairly flashy four days affair. But from an organizer’s point of view things are never really smooth. My journey towards becoming an organizer started way back in my second year when I joined the Riviera anchoring team and it was a lovely experience. Then in my third year I joined the Proshows On Stage committee as a Coordinator while fulfilling my anchoring duties. Not to forget that I had to perform with my bands at our Music Club events and manage the Proshow work too without getting much sleep! Finally all the hard work and toiling paid off when I got the Organizer post last year. Organizing Riviera started pretty much as soon as we got our posts. I'd say early November. Soon after our exams ended, we began having our meetings that would involve intense discussions of matters concerning every single department.
The countless number of hours that go into planning and executing a fest like Riviera are nothing but a life changing experience. As a part of Proshows and Proshows Artist Management, I along with three of my Co-Organizers Neeraja, Vineet and Vaibhav were responsible for pretty much everything that you saw on the Proshow Stage. From dealing with the managers and teams of the artists, setting up the stage and sound to arranging refreshments and other amenities for the performers, Riviera was pretty much a hectic affair. In addition to my organizing work I even mentored the anchoring team because I love to work a little extra xD.
Fortunately that came with many perks too such as watching artists like Shreya Ghoshal and Benny Dayal from the front stage and also getting a chance to interact with them. Thanks to our Co-Convenor and Proshows In-Charge Sudheer Sir I even got a chance to interview Shreya Ghoshal and Zakir Khan which was a dream come true for me. There are countless memories attached to this fest including the Ramp walk and the felicitation by Yami Gautam and Harbhajan Singh and above all, seeing how happy and energetic the crowd was. Seeing them enjoy just made me feel extremely proud and contented.
The final walk on the stage after the lights went out and the final chill session in the green room with my committee members were instances that made me realize that Riviera 2020 was more than just a fest to me and it will always remain close to my heart.
Apart from the committee work, I was also heavily involved in the music club events, being the General Secretary of the music club. And while performing my duties as an organizer I couldn't perform at my club events, I'm glad everything worked out in the end, as those events were successful too. I love having fun so despite having so much on my platter I wasn't going to give up the chance of getting on one of those badass rides. Yes! The Columbus. I even played a couple of games and enjoyed some of the good food from the stalls on the last day. That pretty much made Riviera 2020 complete for me.
In the end, it's all about spending quality time with your peers and making beautiful memories. We never knew that Covid-19 would take away the last few bits of our college life. But I'm glad that Riviera 2020 happened and those four days were enough to give me a bucket full of cherishable memories for the rest of my life.
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