{"id":19505,"date":"2021-07-08T11:59:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T10:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=19505"},"modified":"2021-07-08T11:59:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T10:59:38","slug":"seven-days-to-celebrate-seven-continents-planned-as-mela-returns-to-belfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2021\/07\/seven-days-to-celebrate-seven-continents-planned-as-mela-returns-to-belfast\/","title":{"rendered":"SEVEN DAYS TO CELEBRATE SEVEN CONTINENTS PLANNED AS MELA RETURNS TO BELFAST"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Northern Ireland\u2019s largest cultural diversity festival, the 15th<\/sup> Belfast Mela, sponsored by Sensata Technologies will take place across the city this year starting on Monday 23 August and running until Sunday 29 August.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A wonderful line-up of music, dance, cookery, visual art, theatre and wellbeing from around the world is planned, led by artists and performers who have made Northern Ireland their home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U105\u2019s Carolyn Stewart and UTV\u2019s Paul Reilly will host a spectacular FREE \u2018Mini Mela\u2019 celebration<\/strong> on Saturday 28 August transforming the city centre into a global village with a pop-up programme of music, dance and art, as current Covid restrictions would make a return to Botanic Gardens for the traditional Mela format unworkable until 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, all week starting from Monday 23August, ArtsEkta, organisers of the Belfast Mela will be bringing the magic of Mela to outdoor spaces and venues across the city – North, South, East and West as well as the city centre with events to celebrate cultural diversity. Highlights include a Silk Road Supper Club <\/strong>eveningcelebrating food and traditions of our newer communities; a Caribbean Carnival<\/strong> night; the first Global Ceili<\/strong> of its\u2019 kind in the city fusing together Irish trad, Indian and Chinese dance; a spectacular Luminate <\/strong>large scale outdoor lighting event in CS Lewis Square; Taste the World<\/strong> at St George\u2019s Market; as well as lunchtime tasting tours; a beautiful evening of Sufi Music<\/strong> at St Anne\u2019s Cathedral and Wonder Walks<\/strong>, an immersive family storytelling experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spectacular FREE outdoor cinema<\/strong> event is also being planned with showings of Danny Boyle classic Slumdog Millionaire<\/strong> fused together with live Bollywood dance from ArtsEkta\u2019s South Asian Dance Academy and an Indian Summer BBQ on the 28 and 29 August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nisha Tandon OBE, Founder of the Belfast Mela and Director, ArtsEkta said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeven is a very special number for this year\u2019s Belfast Mela Festival, with the seven continents and the seven seas we decided to put on seven days of Mela to reflect Northern Ireland\u2019s growing diverse communities from all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing our successful Virtual Mela at Home last year which attracted an audience of over a quarter of million people worldwide, we are optimistic that given the current vaccine roll out in Northern Ireland we will be able to put on a series of wonderful events across the city this August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it will not be possible again this year to hold the large-scale event at Botanic Gardens which normally attracts in excess of 30,000 people, we want to make sure the joy and positivity for which the Belfast Mela is renowned reaches as many people as possible while respecting current public health guidance as we emerge from the pandemic cautiously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTherefore, we are planning a week-long programme this Summer, with exciting events being organised in a variety of venues and public places in different parts of the city which everyone can enjoy in a safe and responsible way. Audiences can look forward to a spectacular return of Mela at Botanic Gardens in 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets for selected Belfast Mela events are available to book via https:\/\/belfastmela.org.uk<\/a>. Full details of the complete Belfast Mela 2021 programme will be announced in early August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belfast Mela is principally funded by Belfast City Council with support from Arts Council for NI; Tourism NI, Community Relations Council; National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Lottery Community Fund, Public Health Agency and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The title sponsor is Sensata Technologies and Media Partners are UTV and U105.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland\u2019s largest cultural diversity festival, the 15th Belfast Mela, sponsored by Sensata Technologies will take place across the city this year starting on Monday 23 August and running until Sunday 29 August. A wonderful line-up of music, dance, cookery, visual art, theatre and wellbeing from around the world is planned, led by artists and … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19507,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19505\/revisions\/19507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}