The four-day annual international sports and cultural festival of VIT University Riviera 2017 kicked off on Thursday, 2^nd February 2017, in the presence of popular Indian cricketer Suresh Raina.

Highlights of the event:

1. This year, the fest has more than 150 events.
2. Students from nearly 250 institutions are participating in the fest that will go on till February 5.
3. A session on car racing was also organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers and all the members showcased their skills in racing cars.
4. There were the plethora of cultural activities to entertain the students and participants along with the sporting event. The cast of Tamil movie Kootathil Oruvan and singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan also featured in the pro-show.
5. There were eight workshops on freestyle dancing, photography, caricature design and film making.
6. A film festival – The Dream world film festival – showcasing the works of budding directors and actors will also be held. Aikya, a parade depicting the cultures of different States, was on February 3.
7. Pro-shows, one of the highlights of Riviera, featured Shankar Mahadevan on February 2. Actor, director and singer Farhan Akhtar has performed on February 4th , 2017.

Interesting events :

1. On the first day of the festival, a Marathon run for Digital India was organised and the campus was filled with both participants and spectators.
2. Around 5,800 students participated in the marathon. Students from several foreign countries like Ethiopia and Kenya participated in the Marathon with great enthusiasm.
3. In the 9.9-kilometre Marathon, students and staff participated enthusiastically. All the runners won the cash prize of worth INR 20,000, INR 10,000 and INR 5,000 each respectively.
4. Cricketer Suresh Raina distributed the cash prizes to the winners of the Marathon. In his speech, he applauded the role of the University for imparting world-class education and also at the same time in calculating the spirit of sportsmanship.