Sunset Bhangra 2015 Official Competition Review!

[Sunset Bhangra]

On behalf of the Sunset Bhangra committee, we would like to congratulate the placings at Sunset Bhangra in Tampa, Florida.

First Place: Virsa: Our Tradition
Second Place: Virginia Tech Bhangra
Third Place: New England Bhangra Club

I would like to thank all of the teams that competed this year at Sunset Bhangra, and we would love your teams feedback to make sure the competition can come back stronger next year! I hope our committee was able to accommodate teams for all of their requests in the most timely manner possible, if not we encourage your feedback so we can make the competition better in the future. We are extremely proud of our judging panel--they did a tremendous job deliberating the winning teams. We will be announcing the application release date for Sunset Bhangra 2016 by the end of May. We encourage teams to apply and showcase their talents in Florida!


We will be sending out judging rubrics to the teams once we receive them so the teams can see the point breakdowns by the judges. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via e-mail: sunsetbhangra@gmail.com

Thank you everyone for the support this weekend. We hope to see everyone again next year!

Best regards,
Fahad Syed

 

[mafzal]

Great job to all the teams! Judges contact info will be available from the organizers, feel free to message with any questions

 

[scaplash]

Had a great time this weekend in Tampa! Finally got away from all the cold weather in the Northeast. Congrats to Virsa, VT and NEBC for their respective placings. The sets were a blast to watch and the placings were well-deserved.

Pre-Mixer- Had no troubles getting from the airport to the hotel. The hotel (Embassy Suites) was phenomenal, the rooms were extremely well-furnished had a small kitchen and a living room, great to unwind after a flight.

Mixer- Transportation to the mixer hit a bit of a snag because something happened to the shuttle, but our liaison drove us there no problem. The mixer itself was alright, I feel like the venue/atmosphere didn't make it very conducive to actual team mixing. The games were alright-I think they can be improved on, but were still not too bad. Really didn't like the food-it was oily and one of the dishes seemed to literally only have curry and green peppers. The mixer was ended a bit early as the committee recognized that teams wanted to go practice. The lineup was decided double-blind fair-and-square. Getting back to the hotel was a bit messy as everyone had to cram into one bus (and that still didn't fit all the teams)-there seemed to only be on shuttle that went from the mixer to the hotel, so some teams had to wait, which is unfortunate. Eventually everyone came back to the hotel and there was then a judges' meeting, which was good for any last minute clarifications. After that-teams went to practice, there was no reserved space, so some teams just went into parking lots in the area and practiced outside-nothing too bad to complain about, but I think having practice rooms that were indoors and connected with a sound system could have made a huge difference in terms of the experience.
Tech Time: Tech time ran late, as per most bhangra competitions, fairly uneventful, we were able to run through the set a couple of times, see our lighting cues. We stayed at the venue to get ready- there was a small mix-up on our provided lunch, because the lunch was at the hotel, but the committee resolved the issue quickly and we were all fed. I think the lunch option could have been better (bland pasta and salad I think wasn't the best choice)
Competition: The competition went a bit late, but the crowd was very energetic and hype which was great. The stage seemed a bit smaller than the 35 x 30 that was said in the registration packet- which we adjusted for during tech time, but was still a bit of a hassle. It was great that the curtains were closed and the lights were on when setting up-allowed us to quickly put all our props/markers down appropriately.
Judges Meeting: Liked the feedback from the judges meeting, judges were all extremely knowledgeable and gave good, constructive criticism. I felt like because there was not a committee member regulating the time spent-the time spent per team wasn't consistent.
Afterparty: Got back to the hotel a bit late because the venue was a bit far from the hotel, got ready and took a shuttle to the afterparty. The afterparty was fun-had no problem getting in- no fights (at least that I know of)-overall a very enjoyable and fun after party.

Overall, my biggest comments/critiques for this competition are to improve the transportation and also the relative distances between the hotel, mixer and comp venue. The hotel was about 20 minutes away from both, which made it harder to transport teams. As for the bus breaking down-that isn't anything the committee can really control. I would also say that liaisons could be better in the sense that they should act as advocates for teams more than enforcers of committee rules (or at least get a better balance between the two).
However, regardless of these critiques, I highly recommend this comp to other teams-Fahad, the director, worked tirelessly leading up to the competition and during the competition to do whatever it took to make teams welcome and comfortable (more so than many liaisons)-he pitched in and gave us a ride to the airport to help us catch our flight (at 4 AM)-not to mention he consistently worked around and troubleshooted any problems teams were facing. I have to commend him for his hard work and his genuine care for all the teams.
-Sonny

 

[Raghavtrip]

Thanks to everyone who organized this competition for an amazing weekend! It’s always nice to get away from the sub-zero temperatures in Cleveland to go somewhere like Tampa. Congrats to Virsa, V Tech, and NEBC for their respective placings! This was our last competition of the year, and it was really great to share the stage with all of the teams there. It was an amazing competition, and we can’t wait to apply again next year. We’ll be posting our videos from PCS Night, Nachde Nashville, MCB, ECD, and Sunset Bhangra soon.

Prior to Arrival and Immediately Following Arrival
Coming from Cleveland, our team flew into Tampa (individually, for the most part). As such, there were some logistical issues on our end in terms of getting flights figured out. However, Fahad (lead comp organizer) really helped us out with this in terms of making sure all of our dancers got to the hotel on time. The hotel was absolutely excellent—they provided a shuttle directly from the airport to the hotel (for free), and we didn’t have to wait long for it at all. Once we arrived, the liaisons delivered our shirts and a packet of information (to the minute) of what to expect for the weekend. Fahad was available 24/7 and before the competition, I called him multiple times with questions from my time. Even though he was in the midst of midterms, Fahad was always willing to help; this was really commendable. I can’t think of any concerns we had prior to arrival or immediately following arrival—the hotel was in the midst of a shopping mall and a ton of food (Chipotle, Subway, etc.) which was great.

Mixer
One issue with the competition was the bus situation. Before I elaborate, I’d like to emphasize that this was not the competition organizers’ faults—they did the best they could given the situation, and responded very well to all the random issues that arose. As an example, Fahad had the mixer initially located in the hotel. However, a military ball then booked the ballroom in the hotel for more money (from my understanding), and Fahad was forced to make a last-minute move of the mixer to a different venue. Because of this, the venue was pretty far away (~20 minutes). Once we got to the mixer, the first four teams waited around for the next four teams. In the future, I would suggest investing in more busses for the mixer, as all teams wanted to save time the day before the performance (to practice or relax). One more bus would have saved a lot of hassle. Of course, there are budget constraints that come with sponsors and stuff. Once we got to the mixer, there was a photobooth (good stuff) and eventually, we began eating. The food that was provided was overly spicy for a lot of our dancers, but a lot of them liked it too. However, this was again not due to the comp organizers, but rather the vendor—the chicken dish didn’t have any chicken in it and was kind of just curry with bell peppers (Sonny said it best). The mixer games were alright—we split into four groups and did a Bhangra/Bollywood routine, pretty standard. In the future, I think having two busses would solve this as well; getting all the teams to the venue on time would allow us to start on time. The show order was picked double-blind, no issues there. On the way back, like Sonny said, we kinda had to squish but we didn’t really mind (some teams got back later though, since the bus had to make two trips). A lot of the issues with the mixer were primarily due to the fact that Fahad’s original venue plan got messed up since another party booked his room, so I honestly think the mixer went very well all things considered. In addition [as a disclaimer], our team all flew in at like 6 or 7 AM and had practice until 2 AM the night before, so everyone was probably pretty grumpy anyways.
After the mixer (which ended early—good move on Fahad’s part), we had time to practice and had a judge’s meeting. I’ll discuss practice space in the third section. The judge’s meeting went well, and we got a lot of really good advice from them. We went to sleep relatively early.

Tech Time
Being third in the lineup, our primary issue with Tech Time was that it was so early (breakfast at 7 AM, buses departed at 7:30 AM). Breakfast in the hotel was amazing though—customized omelets, all the normal stuff in a continental breakfast, etc. From the organizer’s standpoint, however, it makes complete sense to have Tech Time be this early such that they could prepare for the competition better. Regardless, once we got to Tech Time (split into two groups—the first four teams left at 7:30 AM and the last four around 10:00 AM), the venue itself was really nice. We had a chance to fill out detailed lighting cues which were followed very closely, and the room for all the teams to be in wasn’t too small. We had a little more than twenty minutes of Tech Time, and if Fahad made a mistake, he would extend our Tech Time accordingly. Overall, it was a great time. The bus broke down on the way back however; the liaisons responded extremely well to this, and within minutes, they had a schedule of how to get which teams back to the hotel. They were absolutely on top of this, and it was very admirable.
We got back to the hotel, and lunch was provided from Olive Garden. This was one of the few comps that provided a legit lunch for us, and our team loved it. No one really wanted too heavy of a lunch, so the provided pasta + bread sticks + salad was great. We had enough food for everyone, and they even let us take a tray back to our room. Afterwards, some of our dancers went to Subway (~30 second walk) to get food since it was so close). From the time we got back to the time we left for the venue, we had around 5 hours. Our team really appreciated the fact that so much down time was provided such that we could get ready as we wanted. We utilized it to sleep, so no one really complained too much about having to wake up early in the end. We had two hours-ish in the venue to get ready, which was just enough.

Practice Space
There was no practice space available for us, although there was a large parking garage that the teams used to practice. It’s always hard to secure practice space for the teams—however, one thing that MCB provided (that I would suggest for Sunset Bhangra to do next year) would be to book a conference room in the hotel and give each team a scheduled time on Friday to utilize it. That being said, it was really warm and nice outside anyways. We shared the roof of the parking garage with V Tech, which wasn’t too bad. Teams without a portable speaker were at a huge disadvantage, however, especially since the wind prevented the sound from reaching us.

Competition and Show
The actual competition time was great. It went a bit late, but we had enough time to get everything ready for us. The crowd was very energetic (as Sonny mentioned), which was solid. The stage was a bit small and was tilted downwards towards the audience (not sure what the proper term for this is), which took some time to get used to. We had enough time to get ready backstage, and Fahad was very flexible with this. In fact, once the teams got to the venue, Fahad actually booked an extra room upstairs to give teams more time to prepare. I was especially impressed with the lighting—prior to the competition, Fahad noted that the lighting team he had booked cancelled (within two days of the competition) because they got another offer of three times as much money. The fact that Fahad could get lighting together so quickly was absolutely amazing. There was some metal thing in the middle of the stage on the ground, but none of our dancers stepped on it so no big deal.

Judging
Wow—what a panel. We had five judges (Kinnell, ASG, Mariam, Govind, and Cherag Selhi). The judging panel was unbelievable for a first-year comp, and I would truly like to thank Fahad for putting this together. Anyways, the feedback from the judges after the competition was great. As I said about some of these judges before, it was clear they put just as much effort into intelligently watching and critiquing us as the dancers did performing on stage. The meeting was first-come first-serve and directly following the competition, so no time was spent (for us) waiting for the meeting. Overall an absolutely amazing experience, we could not have asked for a better situation with regards to judging.

After Party
We got the first bus home from the venue to the hotel. However, the hotel was kind of far from the venue, so we got back kind of late. Regardless, going to the afterparty was nice (bus, as usual). We got there pretty late, and the venue was sweet. They didn’t play too much bhangra music at first, but this improved over time. Some of our members got a ride home with our liaison to avoid the squished bus, but it wasn’t a big deal. Our team enjoyed the afterparty!

Overall


For the most part, our concerns (all delineated above) were most definitely not due to the competition organizers (food, bus breaking down, change of venue, etc.). The hotel was amazing and was in a really nice place, but it might be a good idea to keep the hotel closer to the venue—I’m sure teams wouldn’t mind. That being said, I have no idea regarding hotels/locations in Tampa so this is probably easier said than done.
Our team could not stop raving about our liaison, so I wanted to give her a brief shoutout. Nupur was an absolutely phenomenal liaison, and I literally cannot think of one thing she did wrong. She drove our team to different places and back, helped us out with carrying stuff and getting ready, got us water at a minute’s notice, and was literally ready all the time to help us out with anything. Our liaison knew how to tie pagha. I can’t even begin to describe how helpful this was in getting ready. Anyways, she was truly amazing, and we would love to have her again next year if we come again Especially with our team flying in really early and facing a lot of logistical issues with transportation (and pagha of course, you can’t imagine our faces when we found out she could tie them), she was too good.

Shoutout to my man Davis (purple) for tying pagha for the first time at this competition! You did a great job bro.
Overall, I really recommend this competition to other teams. It was very well organized on the whole, and the teams had a lot of fun. I know Sonny touched on this, so I won’t go into it in too much depth, but Fahad (director) did an amazing job. He was literally never too stressed to talk to teams, and he was overall a bro to me and the other captains I talked to. During the competition (even at 2 AM the day before the competition), he was willing to help us out with rides, lighting cues, and everything. He helped so much and cared so genuinely about our team that it felt like he was another liaison. Congrats to Fahad and the rest of the organizers on a first successful Sunset Bhangra competition. In the future, it might be a good idea to partner with a university in order to get more funding (perhaps a little easier now than before, since the comp was successful). We loved it, and our team had an excellent experience. Not to mention, the website for this competition is sick—nice job to whoever designed it.
We would love to come to Sunset Bhangra again next year!

Sincerely,
Raghav
Spartan Bhangra, Case Western Reserve University

 

[Viggysmalls]

Thanks to the Sunset committee and organizers for a great competition! Our team had a blast, and it was great to see some old friends again. Congrats to the placing teams, and to all of the teams for their incredible performances! Shoutout to Fahad, and to our AWESOME liaison Meera!!

Arrival and Mixer

We drove up from Miami, so transportation wasn't really an issue. Parking was provided at the hotel, which was nice because it was easy for us to get/store our props if necessary. Me and a few others on the team had to drive up late and miss the mixer, so I can't personally comment on that, but from what I heard from the rest of the team who was at the mixer, it was a blast! They enjoyed it, and we were all able to order Subway to eat.

The hotel rooms themselves were huge, which was a nice bonus. We went 2nd in the lineup, so we had a very early tech time, which we didn't mind at all. Fahad was super flexible with the mix and lighting cues, since we had to wait until late Friday night for our DJ to make some final edits.

Tech Time

We woke up early and grabbed some breakfast, which was provided at the hotel and was incredible! Usually it's hard to find healthy comp food to eat, but there were a good amount of options, so that was nice. The tech times were pushed a little bit back, because of the buses, but we didn't mind this at all.

Once at the venue, we were able to store our stuff in a room and stretch before we went on for our tech time. Now, this is the only issue that we had during the competition: the stage ended up being much smaller than the 35x30 that was mentioned in the reg packet, and there was a downward slope. We ended up adjusting to these things during tech time, and it's not the organizer's fault, but it was something that was bothersome.

Competition

Since we had time after tech time and before the performance, we came back to the hotel to get ready. The bus broke down on the street across from the hotel, which wasn't a big deal, because we were able to just walk the rest of the way. Since the hotel rooms were huge,we were able to have a lot of room to get everything ready. Meera was super helpful as well, always asking us if we needed anything and willing to grab it if we did. We were able to get mostly ready and then take the first shuttle to the venue, and finished getting ready at the venue. The room at the venue was pretty cramped at first, but Meera found a room on the third floor that was much bigger, so we were able to move there.

Everything about the competition itself was already said, but I'll say some of the key points again: even though the show started a little later than scheduled, it ran extremely smoothly, and the energy was amazing. Fahad was a great MC, not doing too much nor too little with his time on stage. We were seated on the side of the audience, until it was our time to get on. The stage was small, so there really was no side-stage, which was a bit annoying; again, not a fault of the organizer's. After we performed, we were able to go into the balcony and watch all of the other awesome performances, and the show went smoothly until the conclusion.

Post-Competition

The judge's meeting was in a room at the venue, and it was extremely helpful; Fahad compiled an amazing group of people to judge the competition, so their feedback was really valuable. Since the show had run a bit late, the venue people were a bit annoyed with everyone, but we quickly left the venue and finished getting undressed at the hotel.

The shuttle to the after-party was fine for us, and the after-party itself was a blast! It was a pretty sizable venue, and the DJ gave reminders about how many shuttles were going back to the hotel and when they would leave, which was useful. The shuttle back was pretty packed, but that's to be expected.

Overall

Overall, it was a really well-run competition, and I highly recommend it to other teams. Having been on the executive board of a Fusion competition, and on the board of a Raas competition, I knew the things that went into the logistics of something like this, and Fahad and the other organizers nailed it all. The only issues that my team had were related to the stage, so that might be something to consider for next year's competition. Meera was a great liaison, and it was really nice to see her and all of our other Tampa friends! We had a great time, and we look forward to trying to come to Sunset again next year!

Viggy Kumaresan
Hurricane Bhangra