Following a protest for fest permission at Hansraj College in Delhi University’s North Campus last week, the two-day annual fest Confluence ’26 was abruptly shut down on Thursday after clashes broke out in the crowd just as singer Vilen was set to perform.‘Fest got over abruptly’Videos circulating online show outsiders throwing bricks and chairs at each other on the second day of the fest. Students who attended the fest shared that the artist was only allowed to sing for 20 minutes. “The fest got over abruptly. Police got involved since fights were happening in the crowd. Students were dancing on their own on the stage. There was also no checking of IDs and passes at the gate as planned and it was unsafe since there were a lot of outsiders in the campus,” Anjali, a second year history student from Miranda House, said. “The entry was open and there was no issue there. But when the artist came, we didn’t find out because in 20 minutes the event was over since people had started fighting near the stage,” Suhani, a second year psychology student from Laxmibai college said.Crowd exceeded expected capacity: Hansraj Students’ Union PresidentPresident of the Hansraj Students’ Union, Abhijeet Singh said that the majority of chaos and fights were ensued by outsiders with the intent of lobbying. “Throughout the whole night, me and the Union were awake securing barricades for safety arrangements, however, on the day of the fest the crowd exceeded expected capacity. We tried our best to help the students and the artist performance was thereafter conducted smoothly,” he told DU Beat, a student-run online portal. DUSU President had to shut down the fest: StudentsAryan Maan, DU Students’ Union (DUSU) president was also present at Confluence. Students share that when the situation got out of hand, he asked the performance to stop. “Entry mein koi nahi rok raha tha, jitni entry ho sakte pe kara rahe tha. Outsiders and other college students were there who started creating a ruckus near the stage which is why the fest got over early. Aryan Maan was on stage and he asked people to shut down the fest and evacuate,” Muskan, a second year psychology student, who was at the fest shared.
