World's Best Bhangra Crew 2015 Reviews, Memories and Comments

[Worlds Best Bhangra Crew]

We would like to thank all the teams and participants for being part of WBBC 2015. We had a great time hosting you all and would love to hear what you thought of our competition. Feel free to comment below. Thanks.

 

[Multani]

After Party

 

[Yankee Saini]

ahem . . . usually I don't write reviews after a competition but since this was my first east coast comp, I'd say few words:

[PROs]
- one of the best bhangra comp I've attended, if not the best one ever! #kehanNuKiAa
- committee wale saare e vadhia si, koyi vi aeho jeha nee laggeya jehnu asi punjabi wali gaal kadd sakiye #dhanvaadMitro
- saada jahaaj saala adha ghanta hawa ch e ghumda reha EWR airport kol aake. Asi tan vaahle e tang hoge si par pher asi ik jgaadd laaya te Sukhi gappi urf sukhi badal by phone keeta, pher jaake land hoya jahaaj. Main gall eh aa ki even though our flight landed more than an hour late, WBBC had two vehicles waiting for us at the Airport. Shoutout to our driver #sahil . . . bai, tu pakka punjab de roadway bussan waleyan ton training leyi lagdi aa. Jini tej tu van bhajaayi, uni tej tan saala sada jahaaj nee aaya hun. lol #kehanNuKiAa
- hotel tan parbandh bahut vadhia keeta si rehan nu te ghumman nu. Mixer te practice da jgaadd vi bahut set si, jehrra ki hotel ch e si. #salute
- mixer vi vadhia lagga, shukar aa kise neh bore nee keeta. #Faizan bhai, thanks for that "jhagga", don't know why I got that. lol
- venue layi ride da parbandh was fuss-class! Skool wali bus ch khulle-dulle hoke gaye. Saali high school wali feeling aagi, even though high school kade bus vich nahi gaye. lol #kehanNuKiAa
- bai, sanu tan after party vadhia laggi. Jagha par thorri si par chalo, can't have everything you know. Hun mansion tan book karn nee laggeh si. Jiddan vi si good e si.

[CONs]
- hai nahi vaise par pher vi thuanu pata aa punjabian di maarri aadat thorri jaundi aa.
- mixer te kuch desi khaana/food/roti-naan/shahi paneer ja hor koyi sabji/def. Chaa hundi tan gall e bann jauni si. Vaise dhanwaad for giving every team 6 boxes of cheese pizza after the mixer was over. Par pher vi yaar, Desi food khaun di aadat nee hatt di. Begaane shahr diyan begaaniyan saddkan. It's ok thoygh, bhukkeh nee rahe vaise.
- faizan bhai, dhokha deh gaya yaar tu. Mixer te World Cup da final promise karke, after party te World Cup nee play keeta! #dilBroke Bhai

Overall, great experience! Thank you #WBBC

Ps. Shoutout to "kati rolls". This place got one the best desi food in NJ. Do try out "paneer wrap" or joh vi kehnde aa. lol . . . Oh and shoutout to "Sonu da dhaba", thuadi CHAA neh dhan-dhan kraati te uppron machhi wale pakorey "wah", punjab wala swaad aagaya! Changa pher dosto, bhullchukk maaf!

 

[faizan]

Yankee, you got a t shirt because you're a true OG.

Sorry for no cricket, mere naal vi dhoka hoya paaji, sorry.

 

[hardeep_singh]

Ps. Shoutout to "kati rolls". This place got one the best desi food in NJ. Do try out "paneer wrap" or joh vi kehnde aa. lol . . . Oh and shoutout to "Sonu da dhaba", thuadi CHAA neh dhan-dhan kraati te uppron machhi wale pakorey "wah", punjab wala swaad aagaya! Changa pher dosto, bhullchukk maaf!

mitthiya fulia te maki de danay varay bhul giya veeray

 

[disharma1317]

ahem . . . usually I don't write reviews after a competition but since this was my first east coast comp, I'd say few words:

[PROs]
- one of the best bhangra comp I've attended, if not the best one ever! #kehanNuKiAa
- committee wale saare e vadhia si, koyi vi aeho jeha nee laggeya jehnu asi punjabi wali gaal kadd sakiye #dhanvaadMitro

Overall, great experience! Thank you #WBBC

Awesome seeing you this past weekend, Yankee! Sucks that we didn't get to hang out more, but thank you for the kind words and so glad you had an awesome time! ;D

 

[Yankee Saini]

faizan bhai, sorry wali koyi gall e nahi yaar!

hardeep, tu tan bandha e ghar da aa, teri tareef tan main paise laike vi naa kara. lol . . . vaise eh tan dass ki makki deh bhujje hoye daanne kithon laike aaya si? pind ton tan nee laike aaya aaunda hoya? :

karn bai, i thought i met you or somewhere before/after the comp we might've bumped into each other. lol . . yaar jeh main teinu pichaan lainda, Saturday nu main jaa tere pagg banh-nni si ja teinu saahmne bithaake apne NSG yaaran deh pagg banh-nni si. Par tu takreya nahi yaar! lol . . . i guess agli vaar sahi. Teri galt-femi tan ik vaar door karni paini aa. lmao . . . naale aah jameson kehrri blaah da naam aa? jeh koyi khaun wali jagah aa tan main nee geya bai aethe. lol

disha, running a comp isn't easy and especially WBBC varga. Oh and sorry about that "sign" on one of our room hahahahah can't believe you actually walked back just to re-read it

 

[disharma1317]

disha, running a comp isn't easy and especially WBBC varga. Oh and sorry about that "sign" on one of our room hahahahah can't believe you actually walked back just to re-read it

-__________________________-

I was half-asleep and it didn't register until like 10 seconds later. Had to double back and see if I had actually seen what I thought I had. NASTAYYYY chii

 

[DamanSingh]

My brief spectator review of World's Best Bhangra Crew 2015

Pre-Show Advertising:
Promotion leading up the show was very good. The Anakh-E-Gabroo and WBBC team did an excellent job selling out the show. The videos, commercial, flyers, print advertising, and BTF posts were on point.

Show:
Show started later than advertised. The website flyer said it would start at 430pm, and the venue website listed a time of 5:00pm. It started close to 6:00pm. Ticket pick-up was a breeze (no having to wait in line, it was very quick), shout out to Raj for helping with tickets, and to Gagi for managing the box office.

Opening exhibtion (I think it was Rutgers University Dhol Effect, but not 100% sure) was very good. Singer was great, band was great, dholis were great. I enjoyed it. I think the entire crowd had filed in by the time they finished performing. Also, shout out to Gagi for doing a great job with the other exhibition performance, Dhamak Punjab Di (DPD). Dancers were mostly new, Sandeep killed it with the boliyan.

Competitive Teams:
I'll add more performance reviews later, or post them directly in response to the video threads
--

Josh Valaithian Da

I became a huge fan of Josh Valaithian Da after watching their performance from Bhangra Wars 2013. I consider it to be one of the greatest co-ed performances of all time. I wasn't sure what to expect from what I thought would be their all-guys team.

There were a few obvious mistakes (Purple guy missing betkan, girl in the back falling during jandhu sangha segment, yellow guy not turning around immediately before the powder segment), but, at least for me, none of these detracted from the overall performance. This was my favorite performance of the night.

Jhoomer segment was executed very well. It was very graceful, nakhra was authentic, jodi interaction was excellent (especially between the orange jodi), and the song choice was great. Luddi at the end enhanced the segment and made it more memorable. This reminded me of Bhangra Knightz's jhoomer from WBBC 2013, which is one of my favorite jhoomer segments in recent years

Nakhra, energy, josh were excellent throughout the entire performance

Jandhu Sangha (despite girl falling in back) to "nachdi eh mutiyaar" song was awesome. The girl in the front absolutely killed it.

Luddi - it was great to see JVD incorporate this step and execute it so well. It was used for two beats at the end of the jhoomer segment (during which every jodi killed it), highlighted during the "Kal da kalja" song, and featured again during the mela at the end (the orange jodi).

Ending mela was great, loved the song choice.

Mix is straight agg.

For what most thought would be an all-guys team, the girls certainly contributed a lot haha - several formations were centered around them, and even a few song choices were fitting only with the inclusion of the female jodi. I was a fan of the 5 male/1 female jodi combo, but I wonder how others felt. I wonder if anyone critiqued them for not having a 100% all-guys team.

Congrats on a well-deserved win! Hope to see JVD compete again next year!

---
Rivalry Call-Outs:

I like rivalry call-outs if they are excuted well and don't detract from the set. Unfortunately, for most teams, I think they take away more from the performance than they contribute.

Rivalries of the past developed naturally, not through competition rubrics. Although they certainly hype up the show, they contribute little in my opinion. I'm in favor of doing away with them as rubric requirements. I'm interested in hearing what others think of this.

Jay Sean:

Great choice of artist. I remember following Jay Sean when he was with Rishi Rich and Juggy D in the UK. I was a bigger fan of him then, not so much now, but I thought he was very good at WBBC. Quite a few people left the audience after Jay Sean finished performing.

After Party:

Didn't end up going, but I had a good time hanging out with everyone in line haha. The line/mob progressed very slowly. We waited outside for a while (arond 45 min or so), then headed back to the bus with others who were also tired of waiting in line.

A very BIG shout out and congratulations to Raj Minocha, Ankush, Faizan, Jaggi, Disha, Harsh, Sumit, the Anakh-E-Gabroo team and WBBC staff for another successful show. World's Best Bhangra Crew made history once again, featuring the most regionally-diverse bhangra line-up ever, and Jay Sean.

 

[Amarsbar]

To me I think this competition and 2015 itself was the Bhangra Renaissance for the UK Bhangra Circuit as well as the North American Bhangra circuit

 

[Guppi]

Not sure if this has been brought up or talked about but will the judging score sheets be put on btf or no? After watching the videos that GTV have uploaded so far it must have been really tough to judge this competition. I was just curious to know how each team had ranked overall.

 

[yraparla]

Not sure if this has been brought up or talked about but will the judging score sheets be put on btf or no? After watching the videos that GTV have uploaded so far it must have been really tough to judge this competition. I was just curious to know how each team had ranked overall.

Yes, they'll be posted in a few days

 

[Aman-Singh]

Congratulations to all the placing teams. Glad I came out to see this one.

 

[Ministry of Bhangra]

[SIZE=small]Hi everyone, sorry for the delay, but here is Ministry of Bhangra[/SIZE][SIZE=small]’[/SIZE][SIZE=small]s review of the WBBC weekend.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=small]Arrival:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]We stayed at the Hyatt with all the other teams. The hotel was very nice, spacious and comfortable +1 that there were many food choices close to the hotel! The committee did an awesome job arranging pickups for all of our team members, even though we arrived in several waves throughout the day. We were also welcomed by the committee members in great spirits, and Ankush was definitely a great host and supporter all weekend. Our liaison was very responsive to our requests and questions, but not necessarily the most [/SIZE][SIZE=small]“[/SIZE][SIZE=small]present[/SIZE][SIZE=small]”[/SIZE][SIZE=small] throughout the weekend. While MOB is a fairly self-sufficient team and we do not need our liaisons to hold our hands all competition, we do enjoy it when liaisons hang out with us a bit more throughout the weekend.[/SIZE]

Mixer:
We were given dinner (Pasta) in our rooms before the mixer. The pasta was a great idea in our opinion and worked well. Mixer had some introductions and explanations of rules & regulations. Teams were assigned in groups to have a “dance battle”. The line up was chosen randomly, which is always the best way to do it. The hype at the mixer and dancing with other teams really got us excited and ready for the rest of the weekend.

Tech Time:
Friday before the mixer teams were given a perfect size room to go over anything our team wanted to for practice, and then again after the mixer. Both were in the hotel, which made it easy to coordinate. School buses took us to the venue (about 25-30 minutes away) which was tiring and a bit far from the hotel, but this was a trade-off for such a great hotel. Everything seemed to be running on time and we were constantly given clear instructions. Our tech time was 20 minutes long and we appreciated all the help because it ran rather smoothly. After our tech rehearsal though we were expecting water bottles (1 of the 4 cases for the weekend) but then were told we would get them at the hotel. With no food in our system and having done a rehearsal, we would have liked water bottles right away. Randomly we were then given three cases of water bottles and bagels on the bus going back to the hotel. Basically we do not know who was giving the wrong info vs. the right info, but these cases were taken back once we got the hotel. We would have rather just kept the water, as we didn’t get water again until hours later. Overall, better communication about the water situation would have been appreciated (if we had known we weren’t getting water at tech-rehearsal we would have gotten our own). Subway sandwich lunch was provided a good time in our rooms, and they definitely gave us enough food.

Show:
We shared a “dressing room”with Ankhile and BASS - both teams were very friendly and sharing the space was no problem at all. Loved having the chance to chat with a few of the team members and have to say the foreigners were very supportive. Show started a bit late, but it was expected. No issues. We went on stage, danced, and it felt amazing! Being fourth, we hoped to have somewhere to sit so we could watch the other teams, but we understand it was a sold-out show and that was great so we found a few places to stand with other teams. All the teams did fantastic! Jay Sean was fun and definitely a crowd pleaser. Winners were announced - and Ministry of Bhangra won the Midwest Massacre Match-up! We were extremely happy and proud just being on the WBBC stage.

Judging:
All the experienced judges gave thorough feedbacks and we appreciate their honest insight of our performance. We were able to also talk to a few of them afterwards and are very thrilled to receive great comments and constructive critiques on points to be fixed for the future. Thank you!

After Party:
Less than half our team got inside, and the other half had to wait in the cold for over 45 minutes and then never got in. We understand that bar/club venues can go over capacity but making people wait in the cold with false hopes and especially if they were a part of the show/teams shouldn’t happen. Also, it would have been better if the PR had made it clear there would be a completely separate, non-connected (but in the same building) afterparty for those under 21. I don’t know if this was something the venue decided without telling the committee, but it was definitely a surprise. A couple of our members are under 21, so if they had gotten in, they wouldn’t have even been with the rest of our team. Ultimately after all the buses were back at the hotel, the teams just chilled in the lobby and got late-night food, which was also a good time.

Overall:
This was an excellent competition, but there is always room for improvement
The committee members were on point and seemed to handle every detail very efficiently so that we were comfortable and had a weekend we will never forget. Congratulations to Ankhile Co-ed, FCB, NSG for also winning their match-ups and JVD for winning overall, all were well deserved. WBBC is an excellent platform for strong established teams, but also for passionate rising teams, and we would like to thank the committee for inviting us.
-MOB

 

[randz728]

Arrival:
Although our flight was slightly delayed, and getting out of the airport was a mission, our pickups hung around without hassle to transport us to the hotel. We had people coming on different flights over a couple of days and on the most part, the committee were accommodating in ensuring our team members were picked up.


Comp Hotel:
There wasn’t anything significantly wrong with last year’s comp hotel – it did the job, but this year’s hotel was definitely a BIG step up. A good hotel makes a lot of difference to those few intense days. Plus points: hotel service, food, use of shuttle bus, on-site mixer/rehearsal space.


Mixer:
Full sleeve tops in comparison to the t-shirts we got last year were sick! Some of the things in the team hamper/basket were really useful and came in hand. A shame the committee didn’t accommodate for more than just pasta as dinner (same as last year). Not sure if it was because the hall was quite big, but the mixer itself felt a bit disjointed at times and didn’t run as smoothly as last year. Practice space/time was decent.


Comp Day:
Sharing the dressing room with our matchup (Furteelay Shokeen) was cool - they were very friendly and throughout the rest of the day, some of them helped us out backstage…thanks to Gurrsimrun and your team! Tech time ran smoothly and we never really felt rushed to get on/off stage (thanks Ankush). One thing we got annoyed by was the placement of the black panel at the back of the stage for the back-lighting. This essentially reduced the depth of the stage dimensions we had practiced to, and making adjustments to what was already a small-ish stage wasn’t ideal on the day.

Provision of food/drink was on point as usual by the committee. As we were performing 5th on the night, it was that in-between sort of time in terms of where to get ready. After tech time, we used some of our time to practice in the car park, as did other teams. At first we were told not to get ready at the hotel, as our bus was soon arriving to transport us back to the venue. Then there was a delay in the arrival of the bus, so we were told we could begin getting ready at the hotel if we wanted (which we decided against, as we were in the lobby at this point with all our props etc).

The drive to the venue took a little while, but we began getting ready as soon as we got to the venue. We knew the show was running behind schedule, but were also told what time we’d roughly be up. Naturally, as everyone is busy getting ready you tend to worry more about yourself and your team, rather than focus on the time. A member of the committee came into the room to tell us we were on deck in 5 minutes. At this point, not everyone was ready and we had many other things to prepare, let alone think about warming up and team talks. It’s surprising that we were not given e.g. 30/20/10 mins notices prior to the 5-minute-on-deck notice. Our team liaison was also oblivious to any other time warnings. We had no such experience last year.

This basically set off panic within the team, as we hurried to get everything/everyone ready. Without getting into the specifics, the atmosphere became chaotic and if it wasn’t for those who helped us last minute, I have no idea what would have happened! The committee then did what they could to buy us some time, but ultimately we didn’t get to warm up or have the customary team talk before walking onto stage. We were literally rushed from our dressing room onto stage to perform – not a justification for the blunders that I’m sure everyone has seen from our performance, but definitely not the right manner to walk onto stage. It’s the last thing any team should go through after all the months of hard work that goes into preparing a set. We felt pretty dejected after our performance, knowing that a lot the errors that were committed could have been avoided had it not been for the backstage chaos. At the end of the day, it is what it is – we took it on the chin and knew that things like this happens to teams. There are always two sides to the coin – I guess we’ve learnt for next time! Didn’t get to see any of the show on the night, but heard it was very entertaining! Talking to the judges back at the hotel was insightful and helped us gauge where we stand going forward. Limo to the after party was a nice touch.


After party:
No comment. :-\

Overall:
Massive shout out to our liaison, Avin – this guy did so much for us…thank you for helping us out whenever we needed! Thanks to Baljot for tying our paghaan, and to Ravneet, Sarang & JK for generously helping us out backstage.

Congratulations to the WBBC committee for putting on another great show – after last years’ experience, we expected no less…the infrastructure you guys have behind the scenes is immense! Getting to know people from teams like BASS from half way across the world wouldn’t be possible without your efforts. Little things like having the on-stage projector cover more of the backdrop, made a big difference to the teams that made use of videos. Congrats to all the competing teams for showcasing their sets on this platform – was great sharing the stage with you all. Was a pleasure to see friends from last year, but also to make new ones this time round. Thank you WBBC for having us once again… Until next time!

If you haven’t already done so, check out our WBBC mix, put together by DJ Frenzy – our sets would not be the same without his musical influence!

https://soundcloud.com/desifrenzy/2015jvdwbbcmix