Ranchi: A team of two girls from XISS, Ranchi, was trying to impress the judges with their business model on helping farmers sell fresh vegetables during the event B-Plan.

A few metres away, members of Eternity band from St Xavier's College, Ranchi, was gearing up to present their original music composition at Rhapsody, the battle of bands competition.

Such contrasting and creative events marked the beginning of the much-awaited BITOTSAV'18, the annual three-day fest of BIT-Mesra, in association with The Telegraph, on Friday.

"While B-Plan gave a platform to budding entrepreneurs to showcase their business ideas, Rhapsody was the battle of bands competition in western music. Both the events were extremely creative," said Sandhya Rudravajula of BIT's news and publication society.

Over 4,000 students from across 35 institutes like St Xavier's College, Gossner College, Xavier Institute of Social Service, National University of Study and Research in Law, BIT-Lalpur, NIT-Jamshedpur and Jadavpur University will take part in a host of events across three days.

Another event Footloose saw participants groove to Bollywood numbers while students wracked their brains at Cryptic Crossword.

Other events held on Day One were Mr and Miss Bitotsav, Talkies, a short film contest, Partner-in-drive where participants had to drive a remote-controlled car, Da Vinci Code required students to reach a destination on the basis of clues given and Funk the Junk saw contestants create innovative items using discarded materials found on the campus and then selling them at a highest possible price.

Bands like Swarathma and Anand Bhaskar Collective set the mood as they enthralled the audience with peppy numbers in the evening.

"We generally look forward to such musical nights," said Akash, a BIT-Mesra student.

Saturday promises to an EDM Nite with performances by Sunburn and well-known DJs like Anish Sood, Teri Miko, Rave & Crave and Gaurav Mehta. Events like Saptak (oriental band competition), IPL auction and Technosight will also be held on Saturday.

Events like quiz, journalists' hour, face painting, nukkad natak and dance competitions will be held on Sunday.

The fest promises to end with a bang with a performance by Bollywood singer and composer Amit Trivedi.

"We had heard a lot about BIT fest and for the first time we are participating here. We took part in Rhapsody and loved the experience," said Ashu Ankit Toppo, a student of St Xavier's College, Ranchi.