Article 19 is one of the prestigious events of School of Communication, Manipal University. The four day annual communication fest is the oldest of its kind and a collective space to govern and take leadership with the love of words. This annual media fest welcomes hundreds of registrations coming up with competitions for artists of every facet. Literary, Performance, fine arts and with a lot more spunks, Article 19 is bundled with events like workshops, Fun Fair, Camaraderie and many more. The most awaited carnival Article 19 formed bonds with the grand theme Viva Las Vegas!
A platform for imaginations to take flight in the form of words in an unbounded manner, Article 19 had a footfall of 2000+ this year. Interactions with the mavens of the world of media, Article 19 gets the top speakers from all across the country facilitating the professional preview providing lectures on a huge diversity of topics.
A grand fest endorsing the right to freedom Article 19 was a huge success this year too.
In conversation with Karthik Rajagopal the Coordinator of Article19:
1. From where did article 19 start?
Article19 started in 1999. Though It was paused till 2004 but it resumed back again in 2005. Article19 is all about finding your freedom with responsibility, freedom of expression, freedom of speech etc. as the youth of today are the people of tommorow. Through various workshops, competitions, discussions, etc. we had tried to live up to the tagline of our festival, ‘Freedom your Right’.
2. How many crew members participated in article19?
There were 35 people in the core under 10 various departments. It included two program planners as well. Each department had its own set of volunteers. The team organised it very well including the funfair which was really grand with the theme Viva Las Vegas.
3. Did you get support from college and university at a complete level?
Yes, we did get a lot of support from our university and college. Our teachers were always ready to guide us through. With the collective efforts of our team the Article 19 was a huge success. The documentation work got quite hectic for us at times but with such guidance and support we made it through.
4. How was your experience being a coordinator of this fest?
It was really a great experience. I wanted to be the planner of the fest but being a coordinator too I learned a lot over the course of time.
5. How many participants, speakers were present in the fest?
We had 9 speakers, over 50 delegates and over 250 registrations for competitions. We had 16 competitions in total, online and offline. There were also speakers like Bezwada Wilson who spoke on Swach Bharat Abhiyan, Alex Mathew on how media portrays LGBT rights, Sameer Hashmi of BBC News who spoke on Journalism, Javed Anand, Mo Nang, a famous Tattoo Artist from India and many more.
7. When will be the next article 19? Will you organize it?
Next article 19 is to come up again in February next year. The final dates will be decided by the next core.
Also published on Medium.