Preparations are now at an advanced stage for the annual Maidstone Community Mela and Food Festival which will be taking place in Whatman Millennium River Park on Sunday July 22nd between 12.30pm and 6pm. The free event which has been taking place in the borough since 2003 is a celebration of music, food and dance from around the world and is organised by Kent Equality Cohesion Council and Cohesion Plus working with local community groups through the Mela Advisory Group.

There is an exciting programme of artists due to perform on and off stage including Maplesden Noakes School, Reel Eire Irish Dancing, Lambrego Brazilian band, Kitka Bulgarian Folk Dance, Maidstone Nepalese Community Group, Dance Asia Bollywood Fusion and the Chinese Lion Dancers. The Mela will be headlined by Folkin Fusion drumming collective which fuses the traditional dhol drum from North India and the Djembe drum from Southern Africa mixed with a little bit of bhangra and hip hop to get everyone up and dancing and Tanni Browne one of the UK’s leading Bob Marley Tribute acts.

According to Gurvinder Sandher who is the Artistic Director of Cohesion Plus, “I am really excited about this year’s Maidstone Community Mela and Food Festival. When Cohesion Plus started this was the first festival we arranged and over the years despite many obstacles especially the last few, we have managed to put together great artistic stage programmes which celebrate the diversity of Maidstone through the arts. This year we have a range of genres from Bhangra to Bollywood, Brazilian fusion to Bulgarian Folk, Chinese Dragons to Nepalese Dancing. I would like to thank everyone who has worked with us to make the Community Mela and Food Festival dreams a reality.”

Off stage the food festival will have something for everyone ranging from British, Indian, Greek, Spanish, Nepalese, Chinese and Thai cuisines as well as doughnuts, ice cream and hot drinks. In addition there will be a number of information stands including National Citizenship Service, Kent Police and the Rotary. The Mela will be officially opened by the Mayor of Maidstone Councillor David Naghi and Helen Grant MP.