Authors: Hetal Nimje & Freya Hemalbhai Shah | Published: April 2026 | Arizona State University
Hundreds of students filled SSV Lawn on the evening of April 16 as ASU's International Students and Scholars Center and Graduate Student Government hosted Basant Mela 2026, the campus' annual South Asian spring fair. Between a dozen club booths, twelve live performances, a passport stamp challenge and the smell of freshly pressed sugarcane juice, the event made one thing clear: for many students at ASU, the campus has quietly become a second home.
Kite cutouts, marigold garlands, and the sound of a dhol warming up on the main stage were the first things students noticed when they arrived at SSV Lawn on April 16. By the time the sun dipped below the buildings along University Drive, the space had transformed into a full spring fair, loud, colorful and easy to get lost in. Basant Mela 2026 was the third edition of a tradition that started small in 2024 and has grown in scale and ambition with each passing year, refined by the people who plan it, and shaped by the community that shows up for it.
Basant, which marks the arrival of spring across several South Asian calendars and is celebrated from Punjab to Bengal under different names and with different customs, is at its core a festival about renewal. For students who come to ASU from across the subcontinent, it carries the specific weight of a holiday observed far from family. ISSC has built Basant Mela around that reality; the event exists to give the South Asian and broader international student community a reason to step outside, find their people and be reminded that belonging here is something that has been built deliberately. This year's edition was co-organized by student workers Freya Shah, Hetal Nimje, and Siddhesh Badani, working under South Asian student coordinator Shailja Jawa, alongside GSG, the Coalition of International Students (CIS) and thirteen partner student organizations. Planning started during winter break, and the outreach to clubs moved quickly because Basant Mela has already established itself as one of the few ASU events that gives both performing and community clubs a stage, and not just tabling space.
By the Numbers
Total Attendees
1,000+
Co-Presenting Clubs & Departments
14+
Hours of Programming
3
Interactive Activity Booths
12+
Performances on Stage
10+
Free Ice Cream Coupons Distributed
400+
The Energy on the Lawn
Students arriving at SSV Lawn were greeted by a setup that felt more like a street fair than a campus event. Paper kite cutouts and marigold garlands marked the entrance to the booth zone. Prize wheels spun at multiple tables, and the sound of an acoustic guitar mixing with a bhangra warmup could be heard before the stage was even in sight. The air around the sugarcane juice stall, where cups were available at a price most students could justify on a weeknight, stayed busy for most of the evening.
People moved in no particular order, drifting from the henna stalls to the game zone, checking their passport booklets to count their stamps, then circling back to catch whoever was on stage. A passport was handed to every attendee at the entrance; a small booklet listing all the clubs present, with a simple deal attached. Collect stamps from at least eight tables and you get a free ice cream coupon. The format pushed students to explore booths they might have walked past, and it worked. Queues at smaller tables filled up steadily through the night.
Clubs, Culture, and Community
The booth zone was where Basant Mela 2026 showed its range. Thirteen organizations brought activities that went well beyond information tables. Punjabi Student Association ran two stations: a Mehendi tattooing booth with a catalog of designs to choose from, and a Pugh Bandh station where volunteers taught attendees how to tie a turban. Pakistan Students Association set up their own Mehendi and henna stall, adding marigold garland decor and a spin-the-wheel for prizes. Lasya at ASU hosted a Mandala art station where students painted on small canvases using stencils and wooden boards. Punjabi Health and Tech Association ran one of the busiest tables of the night, where a spin-the-wheel landed on earrings, sunglasses, bindis, decorative pakhi fans or pins. Hindu YUVA offered jewelry and bracelet making alongside a candle stall. Inferno Lens Collective set up a DIY keychain station with photo challenges attached.
SIVA brought the heaviest game program: an axe throw where top scores earned prizes, a can knockdown lane, and a tug of war that drew some of the largest crowd clusters of the evening. Kannada Sangha ran a ring toss and a cornhole game. Sur Devils hosted a "guess the singer" challenge tied to a playlist. Telugu Student Association added their own game setup, and the Eventure Booth photobooth, stocked with phulkaris, dupattas and jewelry props, gave students a dedicated space to document the night.
In the background, the ISSC information booth, GSG, CIS and Desert Financial kept resource and community information accessible to anyone who wanted it, making sure the fair served both cultural and practical purposes at once.
"I have been at ASU for almost three years, and tonight I genuinely felt like I have two homes, one back in my country and one here on campus. It is the kind of event that makes that possible."
— Attendee, Spring 2026
Another student offered a thought that captured what many in the crowd seemed to feel, they had expected to find a very rigid American campus culture when they arrived in the United States, but instead found European, American, South Asian and other Asian students, all playing ring toss and getting henna done side by side, and clearly having the best time doing it.
Performances and Stage Highlights
An afternoon of rehearsals came first; cues timed, transitions run, sound checks stacked back to back as the setup crew worked around them. By evening, the ten acts took the stage. Punjabi folk dance from PSA and PHTA, acoustic sets by Vicky & Aviroop, classical showcases from SPICMACAY and SIVA, dance by Aishwarya and two classical dance sets from Lasya, and vocals from Neel and Sur Devils.
Lasya's second set, Neel's vocals, and Vicky & Aviroop's guitar drew the biggest cheers of the night. Between acts, students walked up to the organizing team asking if they could perform too; a moment that said everything about what the evening had become.
Event Highlights at a Glance
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Hundreds of students from across the domestic and international community attended, with representation spanning over 30 countries.
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The passport stamp challenge drove consistent foot traffic to all 12+ club and vendor booths throughout the evening.
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Free ice cream coupons were distributed to students who collected stamps from at least eight tables.
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Sugarcane juice, available at a low price point, was one of the most visited spots on the lawn all night.
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Desert Financial and campus partner booths gave students access to resources and community information alongside the activities.
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Ten acts performed on stage, and multiple students approached the organizers on the spot asking how they could participate next year.
Food, Flavors, and Festivity
The food at Basant Mela 2026 was not an afterthought. A full catered spread anchored the lawn with the kind of meal that signals a celebration rather than a snack; Punjabi pakoda kadhi with rice, naan and roti, bhindi masala, and paneer and for dessert, moong daal halwa. For students who grew up eating these dishes at home and had not found them on a campus menu since arriving at ASU, the spread carried a weight that had nothing to do with portion size.
The freshly pressed sugarcane juice drew its own crowd. Available for purchase near the catering area, the station became one of the most photographed spots of the evening partly for the drink, partly for the novelty of watching it being made outdoors in an Arizona April.
The food was also woven into the event's larger logic. Students who completed the passport stamp challenge by visiting eight or more club booths earned a free ice cream coupon, which meant that exploring the fair and eating well were not separate activities. They were the same activity. The line for the ice cream at the end of the evening was, in its own way, a measure of how many students had gone booth to booth rather than standing in one place.
"It was such an exciting experience being part of something so big, especially with everything happening behind the scenes and so many performers to keep track of. I made sure everyone knew when they were up and coordinated with my senior, and honestly, it was really fun. Seeing everything come together and the crowd enjoying the performances made it all feel really rewarding."
— Yashvi Patel, Volunteers Lead (Production), Spring 2026
A Reflection on What It Meant
Basant Mela 2026 was not just a well-run event. It was a case study in what campus programming can do when it is designed around the actual experience of being an international student, specifically the experience of rebuilding a sense of home in a place that did not start as one. The games, the henna, the stage, the passport booklet with its list of clubs; none of those elements were accidental. They were planned over several months, starting in winter break, by a small team that knew from experience what students needed to feel welcome and seen.
What does not show up in the photographs is the months before April 16. The volunteer threads on WhatsApp, the performer cue sheets, the floor plans, the quiet back-and-forth about booth assignments and food logistics, the event that felt effortless to attend took the opposite of effortlessness to build. There is something particular about organizing an event like this as an international student yourself. You are not designing for an abstract audience. You are designing for people whose experience you recognize; the first semester when nothing felt familiar, the slow process of finding your people, the specific relief of a space that does not ask you to explain yourself. Basant Mela 2026 was built from that recognition.
What the evening also demonstrated is that cultural programming is practical programming. Students who visited eight booths went home knowing eight organizations they could join. Students who watched a turban-tying demonstration or painted a mandala, left with a new skill and a new contact. Students who asked to perform next year left with a reason to come back. The event was built for these exact reasons.
Basant Mela sits at an interesting position in ASU's programming calendar because it is one of the few outdoor events that draws both South Asian and non-South Asian students to the same space, around the same activities, without any one culture being the primary audience. The European, American and Asian students who showed up and stayed for the full three hours were not there because they were obligated to be. They were there because the event was genuinely fun. That is, in its own way, the best version of what inclusion looks like.
The event has grown every year since 2024. The scale of the clubs involved, the production of the stage, the detail in the activity setups and the size of the crowd all point in one direction. Basant Mela is a fixture of the Tempe campus spring calendar now, and the students who helped build it, both behind the planning tables and in front of the booths, are already thinking about what the next version looks like.
Acknowledgments
Basant Mela 2026 was organized by the ASU International Students and Scholars Center (ISSC) and the Graduate Student Government (GSG), co-presented by the Coalition of International Students (CIS) and the following student clubs and partner organizations: SIVA, Punjabi Student Association, Pakistan Students Association, Hindu YUVA, Kannada Sangha at ASU, Sur Devils, Telugu Student Association, Lasya at ASU, Punjabi Health and Tech Association, Inferno Lens Collective, SPICMACAY, BCA Society, Indian Cultural Association, Chandler Fashions, Asian Routes and Cuisines, and Folks and Films at ASU. Sponsored by Desert Financial Credit Union. Event photography by Eventure Booth.
About the Authors
Hetal Nimje
MS Aerospace Engineering · Ira Fulton School of Engineering · Arizona State University
Hetal Nimje is a second-year graduate student in MS Aerospace Engineering at Arizona State University, a student worker with ISSC's South Asian initiatives team and an active member of PIERA. He focuses on creating welcoming spaces, from cultural festivals to policy conversations, that help international students connect with each other, with ASU resources and with the broader Tempe community.
Contact: hnimje1@asu.edu | linkedin.com/in/hetal-nimje/
Freya Hemalbhai Shah
MS Data Science, Analytics and Engineering · Ira Fulton School of Engineering · Arizona State University
Freya Hemalbhai Shah is a graduate student in Data Science, Analytics and Engineering at Arizona State University and an Indian Student Support Assistant with ISSC's South Asian initiatives team. She was part of the core organizing team for Basant Mela 2026, handling volunteer coordination, performer logistics and event-day operations. Her work sits at the intersection of data, programming and community building, creating spaces where international students feel seen, supported and at home.
Contact: fshah14@asu.edu | [LinkedIn / portfolio URL]