The Home for Every Bhangra in Ludhiana This October

Every October, college stages across Punjab come alive with the beats of the dhol, colourful phulkari dupattas and the unmistakable energy of bhangra. While these performances are a staple of the state’s youth and heritage festivals, much of the action rarely reaches audiences beyond the participating colleges.

This year, however, YouTube channel Folk World has been bringing Punjab’s college folk scene to a wider audience. The channel has been uploading performances from institutions across Ludhiana, Moga, Ferozepur and neighbouring towns. From competitive bhangra routines to gidha performances filled with traditional boliyan, this is an informal digital archive of a cultural circuit.

Punjab’s zonal youth and heritage circuit usually follows a competitive progression, with students advancing from zonal competitions to inter-zonal events. Across the Ludhiana region, Folk World’s uploads have featured bhangra teams from SCD Government College, GGN Khalsa College, Arya College and Panjab University’s Regional Centre in Ludhiana. Performances from DM College in Moga, RSD College in Ferozepur, Guru Nanak National College in Doraha and Govind National College in Narangwal have also made their way onto the channel.

For students, these recordings offer something that traditional festival coverage often misses: an opportunity to watch competing teams, revisit their performances and discover folk talent emerging from colleges across the region.

Among the gidha performances shared online, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana’s winning routine stands out, with approximately 3,300 views according to the supplied figures. The performance demonstrates how student-led folk traditions can attract an audience beyond the festival grounds.

But while the performances are finding their way online, the students behind them aren’t always receiving the same visibility.

There is a noticeable gap in how these performances are documented. While the college names and festival details feature prominently in video titles, individual performers are often left unidentified.

This is particularly significant for gidha, where the boliyan (traditional folk verses) are central to the performance. The singers are not simply accompanying the dancers; they are helping drive the performance. Without individual credits, viewers cannot easily discover the singers, dancers or student artists behind it.

Interestingly, detailed documentation is not entirely absent from the college festival circuit. GGDSD College’s 2025–26 cultural prize list records individual students alongside their achievements across competitions. This shows that student-level recognition already exists in records, even if it does not consistently reach public video platforms.

Platforms such as Folk World are indeed contributing to the preservation of Punjab’s student folk culture. Their uploads make it possible for future performers to study routines, compare interpretations and revisit performances long after the festivals conclude.

However, a more complete archive would include the names of the dancers, singers, choreographers and musicians involved. Even basic credits in video descriptions could help audiences connect with individual artists and allow students to build a public record of their creative work.

The next step is ensuring that the people keeping these traditions alive are remembered alongside the institutions they represent. After all, preserving a performance should also mean preserving the names and voices behind it.