Ankit Tiwari's concert at GGSIPU’s Anugoonj began 3 hours late? Power cuts, viral Insta Reels add to the drama

Three-hour delay, power snags and blame game during Ankit Tiwari’s concert at GGSIPU’s Anugoonj, kickstart the ‘dramatic’ fest season in Delhi-NCR. Read on

How much would you wait for a performer to arrive onstage for a concert? Is it justified for an artiste to show up late if it’s a college fest and not a regular high-priced ticketed concert? Or is it satisfactory for students to believe that artistes can perform amid poor state of infrastructure and not question the colleges, universities? It’s only wise to address these compelling questions at the onset of this year’s fest season in colleges across Delhi-NCR. Especially after seeing the viral Reels from the recently held Anugoonj, which is the annual cultural festival of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, in Dwarka.

Bollywood playback singer recently performed at GGSIPU's fest Anugoonj. He tells us that the university informed him that the performance will start at 5.15pm, whereas students and media were invited to attend the concert at 3pm. (Photo: Manoj Verma/HT)

“Every year, Anugoonj is one of the most successful college fests in Delhi because of the grand scale and it always has a top artiste performing live,” says Rohit Rao, a final-year student of BCom (Hons) at an affiliated college of GGSIPU. Rohit attended Anugoonj 2026, and felt “very disappointed”. “It’s embarrassing for an artiste like Ankit Tiwari to be upset by students’ conduct on our campus. Seeing the Reels where the university is being mocked at, has ruined the entire celebratory vibe of the fest,” adds Rohit. Adding to this, Aditya Negi, a final-year student of BBA at another affiliated college of GGSIPU, says, “I was near the VIP zone backstage when I saw a heated argument between Ankit Tiwari’s management and some members of the organising committee. I quickly made a Reel that went viral on social media. His manager was shouting at the team organising Anugoonj, and Ankit appeared visibly angry.”

What’s worse is that when on stage, “People from the crowd were throwing bottles across the stage and some even landed on the stage,” informs Kritika Raheja, a second-year law student of the university, adding, “Multiple fights broke out between the students in the audience and disrupted the flow of the concert as the fest management team had to step in repeatedly to resolve . Being present in the audience also felt unsafe at times with a bottle nearly hitting my head a couple of times.”

Ankit Tiwari: It’s disrespectful for an artiste to face these things

When contacted, singer Ankit Tiwari told HT City: “We were informed that the performance will start at 5.15pm. I was at the college before 5pm, and started the show even when LED screen wasn’t working because I was frustrated to see the students standing and the vendors appointed by the college were so unprofessional and inefficient. It’s indeed very frustrating for any artiste; these are basic requirements for a show... It’s very disrespectful for an artiste to face these things.”

Stating that the tech support provided from the varsity’s end wasn’t enough, Ankit said, “My tech team reached a day prior because the college-appointed vendors were not responding and the team was concerned about the show and fulfilment of the technical requirements. Our team tried to sort as much as they can and many of our basic sound, light and stage requirements were not provided, the gensets provided for power backing were also of very degraded quality leading to constant power failure. It is very disrespectful for an artiste to not get his basic technical requirements to do a good show.”

The singer says he still patiently waited for the situation to improve for he felt he owed this performance to his young fans who had gathered to hear him live. “Twice we waited on the stage, only for the love of thousands of students who came to see me. I didn’t want them to go back home without giving them a memorable evening. There was frequent power distribution while I was singing. I was informed that the gensets can’t take load, and my engineers would take sometime to sort this. We had to leave the stage to sit back at the green room... It kills the vibe and energy on stage, but thankfully seeing that wave of students, their love and patience, I came back and delivered a show that me and them will remember for sometime,” he added.

GGSIPU Admin: Ankit Tiwari came late

When HT City contacted the university, Nalini Ranjan, its public relations officer confirmed that the concert was scheduled for 3pm and began three hours late because “He (Ankit Tiwari) came late, at around 5.30pm.”

When probed about the repeated power cuts and the challenges in fest management that led to such a situation, the spokesperson replied: “The show was interrupted for some time due to sudden power cut and the back up generator could not support owing to some technical snag irrupted at that time, however, the singer performed till 8.40pm.”

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