PAKISTANI rock stars, Bollywood-inspired salsa dance, pyrotechnics and fountains plus six stages of the best live music, comedy and dance. This year's London Mela has something for everyone and, best of all, it is entirely free.
The largest South Asian outdoor festival outside the sub-continent, the London Mela, brings some of the biggest names in Asian entertainment to west London, as well as commissioning emerging artists and companies to create new work.
Now in its fourth year it features ten zones, six stages and 450 artists spread over 30 acres of Gunnersbury Park.
Councillor Nigel Sumner, cabinet member for health and community wellbeing, said: "The London Mela is now firmly established on the summer festival calendar and is a wonderful day out for the family with a diverse range of entertainment, from music and dance to arts and performance. This year's mela will be full of colour, creativity and no doubt a number of surprises.
"I encourage anyone who enjoyed the blues, global and jazz events in Walpole Park to come to Gunnersbury and be part of the whole Ealing Summer experience. The London Mela will be a fantastic finale to this year's festival."
The main stage includes acts like Pakistan's Atif Aslam, making his first UK appearance, Pascal of Bollywood, and Chirag Pechchan, who will perform with Amarjit Sidhu and Mangal Singh. Other performers include Ajay, Hard Kaur and Menis Nazza.
Bobby and Nihal of Radio 1 return to host the popular London Flavas stage. Headlining this stage, which presents the best in live British Asian Urban music, will be The Kray Twinz, The Rishi Rich Project, Jag and Sonna Rele.
The classical stage sees pre-20th century music and dance presented in an unique concert hall setting. Headlining this stage will be Habib Sabri and South Asian dance company Akademi, which will host a programme of classical and folk dance.
With an unique mix of the sassy, experimental and crazy, the cabaret stage has something for everyone - featuring circus artists, comedians, contemporary dance, hip hop, and spoken word. Headliners include the Espirro crew firing it up and rappers D'Archetypes.
Illustrating the mela's commitment to new and emerging talent is its community stage. Regarded as the stepping stone stage for showcasing future Mela headliners, this year's performers include Jay Kumar's Dance Asia, the Angel Dancers, Threebee and Desi Dholi.
Throughout the day visitors will also be able to enjoy indo-electronica, a range of street arts and installations and many different exhibitions.
For general information call 020 8825 6640 or log on to www.ealing.gov.uk/ealingsummer for performance times.
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