Gateshead based organisation GemArts has launch this year’s Masala Festival, a weeklong event to celebrate South Asian art and culture. This year, the Masala Festival will commence on 17 July and continue till 23 July.
The festival was launched in 2016 and has since become an annual event in the North-East.
The festival commences with a performance by ‘Roshni’ by Sonia Sabri Company, which will entertain the audience with live music and a dance performance.
The second day will see a screening of ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’, a film revolving around a medical school lecturer who witnesses the sexual assault of one of her students. The film will be screened at the Tyneside cinema.
On 19 July, the event will see a performance by Michael Messer’s Mitra, a band fusing guitar and tabla.
20 July will see the recitation of Sri Lankan poetry translated from Tamil and Sinhala, at the event titled ‘Out of Sri Lanka’. This event will also see the launch of the book, going by the same name at the Culture Lab in Newcastle University.
The fifth day will see dance performances by Amina Khayyam dance company while for music lovers, Masala Festival has collaborated with BBC Proms at Sage Gateshead for a late night special of extraordinary music performed by two leading lights of the British jazz scene – Yazz Ahmed and Arun Ghosh.
The sixth day on 22 July, will see a screening of ‘Topographies: Places and Space”, a series of short films to cover the urban and rural landscape across South Asia.
The final day will see a mini-mela which will include Bollywood dance workshops, block printing, rangoli and kite making events. The day will also be a mini book fair that will include books on South Asian heritage.
Alongside the special events, the Masala Festival will also have a food mela across the seven days at Dabbawal branches in Newcastle. Apart from this, there will also be a fabric exhibition set up for a week by Sajil Kaleeem.
Vikas Kumar MBE, Director at GemArts said: “Now in its eighth year Masala Festival 2023 will be bringing to venues and spaces in the North East the very best regional, national and international artists from across the South Asian diaspora.
“This year we are celebrating and exploring contemporary experiences of migration, identity, existence and place through music, dance, literature, poetry, films, exhibitions, workshops, events for children and families, and of course, delicious Indian food. We are really excited about this year’s programme and looking forward to welcoming audiences from across the region and beyond!”
