Saarang (means 'Chital' or Spotted Deer in Sanskrit, a common sight on IIT Madras campus) is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a 5-day long festival usually in the second week of the year. Founded in 1974, Saarang is the second oldest college festival in India. It was started in the name of 'Mardi Gras' with a small number of quizzes and music events. It adopted the name 'Saarang' and grew with the help of corporate sponsorship, collaboration with large-scale event organizers and international artists.

Saarang is a not-for-profit, entirely student-run, ISO 9001:2015 organization. All organizing members of the festival are current students of IIT Madras. 450 coordinators are organized as per function, in 12 departments, each headed by a 'core coordinator'. The 12 departments are led by the 2 cultural secretaries, who are elected by the institute annually in March.

In the early 1970s, a "cultural week" festival was held.

The fest was formally started in 1974-75 as Mardi Gras, the focus of the festival being to promote interest in cultural and literary activities and to develop the organizational skills of the students. The event was renamed to 'Saarang' in 1996 to give it a more 'Indian' theme. Commercial sponsorships for the event increased significantly in the late 90s.

Saarang has observed a wide range of personalities present lectures and conduct demonstrations during the event and as a part of Pre-Saarang activities. "Spotlight", a concept in the previous editions of Saarang was a platform for famous and notable persons from various fields to address the audience and hold interactive sessions with them. Past speakers featured in Saarang include Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Kamal Hassan, Shriya Saran, Manu Joseph, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani, Leela Samson, Leander Paes, Kiran Bedi, Anita Rathnam, Ira Trivedi and R. Balakrishnan.

Competitive events are held throughout Saarang and registration begins in December through their website. There are events in every field of art, dance and music, apart from literary events and group events like Scavenger Hunt. There are also informal stalls set up every day for spectators to participate in many small events.

The World Fest, previously known as "World Culture Show" (WCS), at Saarang is a platform to showcase culture and talent from around the world and hosts artists from various countries across the world. There have been many such performances at Saarang, in many kinds of music, like Irish folk, contemporary music, alternative rock, hip-hop and acoustic music. In the past, World Fest had introduced artists into Chennai's cultural scene through the contributions of Goethe-Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan, Alliance Française de Madras, the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Embassy of Israel, and the US Consulate in Chennai, among other international organizations, in support of their respective artistes.

At The Rock Show of Saarang, musicians of international bands of rock, alternative rock, metal and fusion have performed.