An array of colors and floats filled the streets of Belfast today as Northern Ireland's biggest festival of cultural diversity took place.
The Mela Carnival Parade winds its way through the city - bringing music, dance, art, food and festivities back to the streets.
The carnival marks the start of the Mela festival, which will take place over the next week.
Hundreds of artists from across Northern Ireland took part in the parade, which started at Writer’s Square and made its way to City Hall.
Great to attend the launch of the Belfast Mela with Mayor of Belfast @CllrBlack
Mela is our biggest multi cultural festival and this year it will run for a week showcasing our rich diversity through music, dance, food, language and much more! pic.twitter.com/huaZhi8de0
— Deirdre Hargey (@DeirdreHargey) August 3, 2022
This year's festival marks its return after a two-year hiatus brought on by the Covid pandemic.
Following the carnival, there will be daily Melas and other festivities all across the city the following week, building up to the annual Mela Day spectacle in the Botanic Gardens on the following Sunday.
The festival features a roster of international music, dance, art, theatre, wellness, and cuisine.
The new Mela carnival march through the city centre featured a thousand participants from more than 20 different cultural organisations.
It featured pulsating world music, dance, and sculptures and was hosted by Belfast's Lord Mayor, Councillor Christina Black, and Belfast Mela founder Nisha Tandon.
At City Hall, there was also a global village with workshops for food and the arts as well as aerial acrobatic acts by Fidget Feet and live performances from around the world.
The upcoming week will feature Neil Martin's Connections Concert, which will feature 14 local musicians from all over the world who are now residing in Northern Ireland, on Tuesday at St. Anne's Cathedral.
To honour Mela's commitment to sustainability, a climate change animation film will be screened on Wednesday. On Friday, the Global Ceili will feature dancing from Scotland, Ireland, China, India, and Mexico.
Next Sunday's Mela Day in the Botanic Gardens will mark the festival's conclusion.
For the grand conclusion of the Mela, thousands of tourists are anticipated at Botanic Gardens from 12 noon to 6 pm.
"We are happy to be back with our first full festival since the pandemic and our most ambitious programming to yet featuring the long-awaited return to Botanic Gardens for our festival finale," said Ms. Tandon, OBE, creator of Belfast Mela and director of ArtsEkta.
There is truly something for everyone at what is now the largest celebration of cultural diversity on the island of Ireland, from outdoor spectacles to late-night music, pop-up cuisine events, walking tours, exhibitions, wellbeing days, cinema screenings, and theatre.
"We are looking forward to welcoming up to 60,000 attendees to activities over eight days. We are extremely delighted to have been working with hundreds of artists and thousands of participants."
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