Imperial Bhangra to hit Wembley stage

Saturday will see almost 4,000 students come together for the biggest student Bhangra dance competition in the UK. The event is organised by Imperial College London students.

The Bhangra Showdown will see eight student bhangra dance troupes go head to head on stage at Wembley Arena, with students travelling from Manchester, Leicester, Nottingham and Birmingham to take part.

The event is organised by Imperial’s Punjabi Society, who have been planning the showcase for nearly a year. A committee of only seven students have put together the evening, and will see teams from each University going head to head before one team is crowned champion.

Teams are made up of 15 to 20 students, and their teams of supporters can extend into the hundreds. This includes costume designers, their make up teams, and also fans of the groups. Alumni of Imperial are also heavily involved, with many coming back to help with the lighting and stage settings for the teams.

Although Imperial’s own team has made it into the final three in the past seven years, Birmingham’s team has managed to take the top prize for two years in a row.

Profits from the event will go towards three different charities: one local, one national and another more internationally renowned.

The charities this year include UK Friends of the Unique Home (Punjabi), which raises money to provide homes for abandoned girls in Punjab, India. They are also raising money for Variety: The Children’s Charity, a UK based charity that provides funding for children’s hospitals, hospices and youth clubs.

All money raised from the night will be split equally between these two charities and Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The Bhangra Showdown has been run by Punjabi Society since 2007, and previously was held in the Hammersmith Apollo. However, with tickets usually selling out, the committee decided to move venues, and ended up booking Wembley Arena, with a capacity for 4,000 students.

Maninder Bhambra, who is the Co-President of the Imperial Punjabi Society, said “I got involved in TBS as a fresher as a dancer. The following year I was involved in the organising committee and now I have the honour of leading the team that is taking the show to its grandest venue yet, Wembley Arena. When you put it like that, it sounds so utterly surreal.”

Deputy President (Clubs and Societies) at the Imperial College Union, Abigail de Bruin said of the Bhangra showdown: “It’s really exciting to see our students not only taking part in but actually organising such a large scale event. I’m really proud of the commitment our students have shown and feel priveleged to have taken part in the process.”