This Saturday, thousands of people filled the Classic Center for the 23rd annual UGA India Night, an event put on by the Indian Cultural Exchange. The ever-growing cultural phenomenon started in 1994, with the intent of showcasing and celebrating Indian culture in a way that both captivates and educates the audience. UGA India Night is now one of the largest culture shows in the southeast, with more than 2,000 expected to attend this year. “India Night is one of those really amazing things for the community,” said Radhika Patel, ICE’s Vice President of External Affairs. “Culture is something that students want to celebrate.” Over time however, the event has grown significantly. In 2015, the event became a dance competition, where Indian dance teams from other universities were invited to compete for cash prizes. This year’s India Night is an organization first as a Desi Dance Network Legends Bollywood Championship event. As a Legends event, the 8 teams that competed at the event did so to jockey for points and standing on DDN’s national circuit to qualify for a position at a the national championship. The name of the game is Bollywood fusion dancing, a style of dance that, as the name would imply, fuses together traditional Indian and modern western styles of dance and music. Eight teams attended from Ohio to Texas, each bringing their own themed numbers. These themes did more than set aesthetics for the dancing, they told a story. The opening number from the University of South Carolina’s USC Moksha for example was titled “House of Cards” and retold parts of the plot the Netflix series by the same name. The night featured several other attractions, as the competitive events of the night were punctuated by other acts. UGA’s very own dance groups UGA Asura, UGA Champa and Chameli, and UGA Talwar performed at the event non-competitively, accompanied by a performance from Musical Avish, a Philadelphia Bollywood fusion singer. Hosts from ICE performed comical skits and introduced numbers. These skits fit in with this year’s theme of the show Athens Ki Masti. In the spirit of Masti, a hindi word meaning fun, the participants and crowd were all in high spirits the whole night. Though the event is now an elite level competition, it has maintained its air of camaraderie and community as event meant to be fun for all. Patel, a performer as well, said that ICE wanted to make sure that the event embodied Masti, hoping that both performers and attendees would remember the event as a fun one to return to in the years to come. The event lasted from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and after hours of dancing, clapping and laughter, the judges came to the stage and with the results in hand. Ohio State University’s Buckeye Fusion dance team took home the first place prize for their dance troupe's number inspired by the story of Little Red Riding Hood. As the events of India Night 2017 come to a close, preparation for India Night 2018 begins. Now a Legends event, India Night will be accepting applications for performances well before they could possibly plan to host them, which means that when looking towards the future venues have to be booked and plans for expansion have to be made as soon as possible. “We want to reach out wider” said Patel, who hopes that word will spread even further, and that maybe next year the Classic Center will host teams from the midwest and west coast. “We’ve come so long and far and I could not be more proud to stand here tonight,” said ICE President Sanya Patel addressing the crowd at the start of the event.