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Date: 17 Aug 2024
Category: City centre, Culture and arts
This year’s Belfast Mela Festival started today with an amazing free Mela Carnival Parade through the streets of Belfast city centre.
A series of Mela Plus events will follow across the city this week, leading up to the annual Mela Day extravaganza in Botanic Gardens next Sunday August 25.
Northern Ireland’s largest cultural diversity festival, the 18th Belfast Mela, sponsored by Sensata Technologies, invites the world back into the heart of the city with an amazing line-up of global music, dance, art, theatre, wellbeing and food.
More than 800 participants representing more than 20 different cultural groups and from neighbourhoods across the city took part in the Mela Carnival Parade through Belfast city centre today, led by the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Micky Murray, and Belfast Mela Founder Nisha Tandon, with pulsating world music and dance and amazing sculptures.
The Carnival joined a Global Village at Belfast City Hall with live on-stage performances hosted by U105’s Carolyn Stewart and UTV’s Paul Reilly along with food and arts workshops.
Belfast Lord Mayor Councillor Micky Murray said: “I was honoured to have the opportunity to lead Belfast’s Mela Carnival Parade through city centre today. It’s been really uplifting to see this wonderful showcase of cultural diversity – and to see our streets filled with vibrancy, positivity, and joy once again. I’d like to say a big thank you to ArtsEkta, and to all the artists, community groups and performers who made today possible – as well as the thousands who joined us to celebrate. There’s a fantastic line up of Mela Plus events in store all week, culminating with Mela Day in our beautiful Botanic Gardens next Sunday – so make sure you don’t miss out on the fun!”
Dr. Nisha Tandon, OBE, Founder of Belfast Mela and Director of ArtsEkta said: “The wonderful turnout for our carnival today is testament to the support the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland have for cultural diversity. We are so proud to showcase all the diverse communities who have made Belfast their home and look forward to celebrating our city’s growing cultural diversity at Mela Day in Botanic Gardens next Sunday 25 August, 2024.”
The full Mela 2024 programme is available at https://belfastmela.org.uk