Vistosa festival was held on 6th and 7th of March in Surat. It was organised by me and my 7 other friends from school. The festival was a collective effort of the 8 of us, to make it a big success. The main purpose of this event was more than a source of entertainment and socialising, it was to raise money to donate to the ‘Disable Welfare Trust of India’ founded by Kanubhai. We started from planning the event to finding small businesses, brands and entrepreneurs to buy stalls, making photo booths, finding a band and a few individuals who would be interested in exhibiting their skills, communicating with professionals who helped us in managing the event, it was indeed a great experience yet a very lengthy and challenging.
LO2-Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
Organising a big scale event in the city puts a lot of pressure on us, considering that too many people were involved, thus increasing the chances of miscommunication or obstacles. Putting in order a far-reaching event like Vistosa was something new to us, we had never organised a big scale event like this before, all minor details were lied on us from taking care of each arrangement, selecting a venue, planning the layout of stalls, decoration theme, marketing the event, taking government permission due to COVID, communicating and taking daily updates from people who are a part of the event with responsibilities. Being a part of the organising committee was challenging, given that we had a lot of academic work as well as other extra curricular activities. As the event was nearing, everyone was under a lot of pressure and didn’t pay enough attention on eachother, and that led to a lot of half discussion without reaching a consensus or mismanagement of resources, stalls, materials etc. However, it was very beneficial to work in a group, since responsibilities were divided and if there was any problem at any point we had each other to trust and look after. We overcame all our challenges together by having extra meetings to deal with mashups which helped us listen to each other and avoid any miscommunication.
LO3: Demonstrates how to initiate and and plan a CAS experience
I would say I am an organised person and I love things to be done in a certain manner but when it comes to a fixed deadline I feel overwhelmed and anxious. This entire experience was about planning and organising with deadlines, which made me more confident in terms of managing my time. Through the whole process of planning and exhibiting I realised that event management is something that I am good at, moreover I also realised that I would rather work with a group then alone, sharing my ideas with others help me stay calm, flourish more and complete my work in a timely manner. This experience made me a more confident person as well as made me more responsible because my responsibilities had consequences and impact on a lot of people thus sticking by my task was necessary. If I get another chance to host an event like this I would definitely do it as now I have learnt how to manage an event like this.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience
Commitment and perseverance was extremely important in this CAS experience or it would lead to failure and indignity. Showing commitment in terms of showing up on meetings, checking on the updates, stal-builders, people who would be selling at the fela, band performing etc. was necessary to do everything in a timely manner and well as make the event a hit. I had to show commitment and perseverance in a few personal tasks like finding and communicating with individuals who would like to perform or researching for photo booths ideas as well as making them. Everything was supposed to be done before 6th and 7th to fulfill our purpose of donating so commitment and perseverance was the key to it.
LO5:Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
(covered in LO2 and LO3)
Working collaboratively was very beneficial in planning, managing and organising this event. Without any support from the professionals and other workers who helped build the stalls and put everything in order, we won’t be able do what we do.
LO6:Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
Primary purpose of this festival was to raise funds and donate for a SDG goal of ‘quality education’. All the profit was donated to a well known organization for better education opportunities for deaf and dum students. Irrespective of their gender, abilities and economic condition, social status etc. every individual deserves a quality education and very often people with disabilities are not given enough educational opportunities, because the society believes that they won’t be able to do anything by studying, we all believed that everyone should have access to basic necessities like studying and give. It really felt so satisfying to donate to such a good cause, even though the amount was not that big.
LO7: Recognise and consider ethics of choice and action
One ethical concern which was raised was the gathering of people at the venue for a long amount of time where social distancing won’t always be followed and the risks of catching the virus would increase. As COVID is still part of our lives it was very risk-taking to organise a event like vistosa, however we had government permission to host the event with limited number of people, which we followed sincerely throughout the event and when on the second day we felt like the crowd was increasing, we closed the entries for a long time and after a chunk of people left the festival we allowed others to enter. I doubtlessly believed that we handled the issue of social distancing, wearing the mask, crowd limit etc in a most rightful manner throughout both the days, which made the event look more professional and well managed.
To sum up, this event was a memorable one, it without any donut was a giving, creative and successful event. I was so satisfied with what we all did, also so grateful that I could help through this wonderful process and donate to a very thoughtful cause.
