How lucky was The Swindon Mela this year?! It must have been the hottest day of the summer and along with the temperature the spirit of fun and excitement swelled the crowds to over 20,000 making it one of the most well attended events of the year.

As always there is loads going on in the lead up to the event. Through a grant from Awards for All, the Mela organised Pre Mela arts workshops with the following groups to create banners and décor for the site.

• Swindon Asian Women’s Association
• Swahili Youth Group
• Learning for Life
• Swindon Tamil Association
• The Harbour Project
• Bangladeshi Youth Project

The centrepiece installation - Gajendra The Elephant was proudly made by Swindon Tamil Association who took over The Studio at the Arts Centre for several weeks to construct and decorate her.

As always there is a huge amount of music and dancing on show with International acts such as the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band (from Rahjesthan) side by side with Junior Mugdha (from Swindon Dance Studios) Topping the bill was Jassi Sidhu a brilliant and charismatic Bhangra artist who played for a capacity audience.

Arts & Crafts workshops were helped by an SBC Grassroots Grant and so this year along with Block Printing, Rangoli, Henna Art, Alpana and storytelling there were taster sessions in a variety of South Asian musical instruments including the sitar like Veena, Accordian, Tabla and Dhol drums.

There were also delicious food stalls, a Mela bazaar, cookery demonstrations all of which filled the park with wonderful colours and aromas.

Full details and a gallery of photographs can be seen at www.swindonmela.com