Belfast will be awash with colour, culture and creativity as the 17th annual Mela bursts across the city from the 19 – 27 August 2023. Join ArtsEtka for a week long wonderland of world music, dance, food and art finishing with our spectacular festival weekend at Botanic Gardens
Botanic Gardens will once again be transformed into a global party of music, dance, food and art on Sunday 27 August from 12- 6pm. The celebrations will be hosted by U105’s Carolyn Stewart and UTV’s Paul Reilly who are pictured in Botanic Gardens this week with ArtsEkta Chair Anna Lo and CEO Nisha Tandon alongside artists Weihong Tu, Lauren Martin and Joia Raychoudhury to announce this year’s festival plans.
To add to this year’s ever-growing programme,they are excited to announce a brand new event Mela Colours on Saturday 26 August at Botanic Gardens. The event will welcome thousands of people for one massive colour throwing spectacular on the Great Lawn and is a great way to extend your festival experience across the bank holiday weekend.
In addition, a week-long series of events will take over the city the return of our Mela Carnival on Saturday 19 August through the streets of Belfast and a free family day in the grounds of City Hall afterwards, along with an extended schedule of daily events throughout the city all week with our MELA+ programme
Nisha Tandon, Founder and CEO of ArtsEkta who created the Belfast Mela in 2007 says: “We are absolutely delighted to announce the return of Belfast’s most loved family festival for its 17th year. This year will be our biggest ever with events taking place over nine days to celebrate our city’s growing cultural diversity like never before.
ArtsEkta are particularly excited to announce an extended programme at Botanic Gardens over two days with Mela Colours on Saturday and our Mela Day finale on Sunday. This will be an ideal opportunity for people to soak up even more of the party atmosphere in the park over the bank holiday weekend.