Autumn Muse

Autumn Muse

Autumn Muse 2015 Logo
Type	Student Run, Non-profit
Genre	Cultural, Sports
Founded	1988
Place	Bangalore, India
Institute	St. John's Medical College
Major events	Literary, Music, Dance and Sports
Website	Autumn Muse Official Website

Autumn Muse is an inter-collegiate cultural and sports festival conducted by St. John's Medical College, Bangalore. It is usually held in the months of August or September and sees participation from many colleges from across India. Autumn Muse is a three-day and night event- the highlights of which include the rock show (Muse Rock) and the fashion show (Muse Hues).

Autumn Muse is a fest entirely conducted by the Students' Executive committee for that particular year. Every aspect of the occasion, from funding to organising events on the day are done by the students of the St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences.

History

Autumn muse was held for the first time 22 years ago, in the year 1988.^[1] It was the batch of 1985 that put in the efforts to see the dream transform into reality. The Students’ Executive Committee in 1987 came close to organizing a cultural festival- they laid down the foundation, but were handicapped due to the lack of funds. It was decided that the fest would be called “Saturnalia” , but later, the next year the name was changed to “Autumn Muse”. The reason for this change being that Muse is the Goddess of the inspiration behind Ancient Greek poetry, art, and theater. The prefix Autumn was added to signify the beautiful weather during the fall in Bangalore. The Students’ Executive Committee in 1988 decided that the festival mascot would be “AL”- the Culture Vulture. The management too provided full support and encouragement to the Committee in conducting Muse. In those early days, St. John's did not possess an auditorium or any other venue to conduct a main stage event. However, it was decided that the event would proceed as planned.^[1]

After failing to get the football ground for the first ever rock show as intended, it was then that the idea of using the empty space in front of the main college block, the Robert Koch Bhavan gained credence. Then Physical Education Director of the institution, Mr. Somashekarappa took responsibility for this and thus came into existence the St. John's Lawns- the venue for what would become the one of the biggest annual rock shows in South India. The first rock show saw two Bangalore-based bands perform, “Stylus” and “Shyam and the West winds”. With a strong crowd of 3000 it turned out to be the biggest show in Bangalore those days.^[1]

Autumn Muse continued for many years before being stopped for three years during the first decade of the 21st century due to certain restrictions. However, the fest reopened in 2010 under the auspices of the then-Students Committee of 2010-11

Cultural events

Autumn Muse is known for its diverse cultural events that span across the broad categories of Music, Dance, Theater and Literary Events. People from all over India participate in these events with winners coming from various schools of medicine, engineering, law and business management from across the country including the National Law School, and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Literary events

Literary Events in Autumn Muse have been a strong crowd-puller and they serve to test the various skills of a person in the literary arena. The events include quizzing (which is conducted some of the most reputed quizmasters in Bangalore), writing events like creative writing and poetry writing, and speaking events like the Debate, Turncoat and JAM-Just A Minute.

Music events

Music events at Autumn Muse have been a mainstay for many years in the past and will be for many years in the future. The events are diverse and range from solo singing and instrumental music to the big, grand finale that is the Muse Jam.

The Muse Jam is an event that intends to bring together the best Western Electric bands that Bangalore colleges have to offer. The music of extremely high standard and it takes real talent to win the Muse Jam.

Dance events

Like the music events, dance has also been an integral piece in the jigsaw that is Autumn Muse. Dancers can indulge themselves in various events including Street Dancing-a freestyle Western dance competition-and themed and non-themed dances. Dances can also be Indian or Western in their theme.

Theater events

No fest is complete without theater and that holds true even for Muse. They include events like Mad Ads-which have seen some of the amateur theater artists from across the country take part in it- and street plays which are short, twenty-odd minute plays meant to educate the world about social messages.

The events always see a high level of participation and competition with the contestants having to be truly a cut above the rest in order to be declared winners.

Al-ympics

Over the years, Autumn Muse has grown in stature and in terms of the events hosted. While initially, the fest was a purely cultural one, later years saw the addition of sports to the bag. The sports events only added to the glamour associated with this event and it led to the participation of many national level athletes and teams, including (as of 2014), Loyola College, Chennai for football, Al-Ameen and Surana Universities for hockey and the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune for Basketball.

The sports events in Autumn Muse are put under the broad umbrella of Al-ympics. The main sports events at Autumn Muse (as of 2014) include Football, Futsal, Hockey, Basketball (for both men and women). The sports are put under two categories, open (which involves any colleges) and inter-medical (meant solely for medical colleges from across the country). The events are incredibly entertaining to watch and fiercely competitive in nature.

Muse Rock

Thaikkudam Bridge at Muse Rock 14

As the festival grew, so did Muse Rock along with it. While the first Muse Rock attracted a 3,000-strong crowd, Autumn Muse 2014, which featured the Kerala-based band, Thaikkudam Bridge and Bangalore-based band De-Sat, saw a record-breaking 8,000 strong crowd.

Through many years down the lane, Autumn Muse has seen some top bands from across the country perform for Muse Rock, including Avial, Motherjane, Parikrama, Thaikkudam Bridge and Galeej Gurus. The Muse Rock takes place on the second day of the festival and is a popular event across Bangalore and other parts of India.

With the passing of time, the event went international as on the 11th of July 2015, Poets of The Fall confirmed on their official website that they would be performing at Autumn Muse 2015 for Muse Rock.

Social causes

Autumn Muse has always been aimed towards aiding and alleviating the despair that many patients at the hospital go through in light of their illness. Every year, Autumn Muse donates some of the profit toward charitable causes and for needy patients in the hospital in order to make a difference to their lives.

Most recently, Autumn Muse 2014 was organised and the profits donated to the patients in the plastic surgery ward who were victims of burns.^[2] The cause was highly appreciated and the patients themselves benefited immensely from the amount of money that was donated in their aid. Similarly, the 2010 Autumn Muse was meant for the Unit of Hope: a department that performs free reconstructive surgeries for children with disabilities.^[3]

Public perception

Autumn Muse has been perceived to be one of the best fests as far as a medical college goes.^[4] Money in excess of Rs. 20 Lakh is spent and the end product is well worth it. What makes this fact more remarkable is that all the funds are collected by the Students themselves.

Also, sponsorship for Autumn Muse has seen stalwarts like Pepsico^[5] put their hats in the ring for various events. The main reason for this is the huge marketability potential that these companies see in the fest owing largely to the incredible participation.

See also

• St. John's Medical College

References

External links

• Autumn Muse 2015 Official Website
• St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences - Official college website
• The Vintage Johnite- The Official Blog of The Literary Secretary of SJMC