大象传媒

By Faizel Vohra
He's partied at the Preston Mela for the last three years in a row but Faizel Vohra's been told the Blackburn event is bigger and even better. So he decided to go along and find out for himself - and ended up backstage chilling out with international popstar Raghav...

After a bit of a dull, grey start to the weekend - things soon hotted up in Blackburn's Witton Park with the Mela providing plenty food, fashion and most of all fun.

Bombay Baja kicked off the 2-day event, by treating the crowd made up of all cultures and age groups to classic tunes in their own unique style.

Next up was the Rangeela group who performed a traditional style Gharba dance to Hindi pop and Bollywood music followed a group of Qawwali singers (Bakshi Javed Salamat Qawwali Group) who played a stunning set.

Qawwali (for those who don't know) is Islamic devotional music and perfect for a chilled out sunny afternoon.

Sahara then rounded off the first day, fusing Bhangra and Pop for another great performance.

While I really enjoyed the first day, the second and final day was even better which was probably helped by the weather and that Raghav was playing!

I managed to blag backstage to watch Raghav (see Raghav Rules) live from the wings. He was awesome! He sang his last 2 singles plus a couple of new tracks, alongside Franky Max who provided the reggae vocals.

He certainly got everyone on their feet and dancing when he played "So Confused" and "Can't Get Enough" - with the girls screaming for more!

Having come from London's RESPECT festival, he said how great it was to have a diverse audience and promoted respect between cultures.

Other acts in the afternoon included Revive, Silinder Pardesi and Hunterz, with the event ending on a high as the extremely popular Pakistani singer Shehzad Roy took the stage.

Throughout the weekend there was plenty of great food from traditional Indian dishes to kebabs and of course Kulfi ice-cream.

The funfair kept the kids entertained and in the evening it lit up the park.

Asian fashion was also on show with clothes, jewellery and plenty of accessories like bangles, bindis and henna tattoos.

Blackburn College and 大象传媒 Radio Lancashire's media tent invited people to come along and try out radio presenting and MCing; there was a lot of undiscovered talent around!

Amongst the other activities and workshops were cheerleading, Pilates and Arabian dancing.

I won't be missing anymore Blackburn Melas - I hope I'm not disappointed with the Preston Mela As a venue, Witton Park was a really good choice much better than Preston's Avenham Park.

However, this year's line-up for Preston looks much better than previous years. Sneha Mistri's appearance will hopefully get more female performers to headline at the summer event; us guys need some eye candy too!

Dr Zeus will also be there, as well as local lads Illegal Demos.

I think the Blackburn Mela was great. I've been in Glasgow for the last 8 years and the Blackburn one is loads better than the Glasgow Mela.The country park in Blackburn was brilliant - especially the last bit of Shezhad Roy. That was so cool!
Shakeel Azad

i loved it it was great fun my friends loved it too i will definitely go next year
mehtab bhatti

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