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Bradford Mela back in city for weekend

BBC A woman with tied-back brown hair and wearing a green sweatshirt standing on some grass with an empty stage in the background.BBC
Organiser Fatima Patel wanted to carry on the legacy of the original Bradford Mela

Fatima Patel has very fond memories of the original two-day Bradford Mela, which ended back in 2012.

The occasion, which reportedly attracted crowds of up to 100,000, meant so much to her that she has now brought back the famous event albeit as a commercial, rather than council, gathering.

Lister Park is the setting for the Bradford Food and Lifestyle Mela on Saturday and Sunday, with thousands expected to take part in the celebration of South Asian culture.

The free-to-enter event will feature a mix of music, food, fashion and other events.

A blue metal sign with gold lettering in the foreground and a Yorkshire stone building in the background.
Lister Park was one of the locations for the original Bradford Mela

Ms Patel, 49, said: "We started off doing what was called the Curry Mela. We were trying to showcase the best of South Asian cuisine.

"And it was at those events that people said, 'the mela, that word means a lot us. Can you not bring that back?'

"I was like 'we'd love to' because even I remember it and I used to love it.

"But it used to be on a huge scale, huge budgets used to go into it.

"We didn't have those kind of budgets but we thought we'll attempt it, but in our version."

Bradford's first major mela took place in 1988 and is widely regarded as being the first of its type in Europe.

Staged on fields near Bradford University, the two-day celebration moved to Lister Park before going to Peel Park - but was cancelled in 2012 due to bad weather.

From 2013 the event was reduced to a single day and moved to Bradford City Park, where it was absorbed into the Bradford Festival.

A balding man wearing a grey suit jacket and white, open-necked shirt standing in the park with a Yorkshire stone building in the background.
Councillor Mohammed Amran has supported Ms Patel's efforts to organise her event in the council-run Peel Park

This weekend's mela includes performances by Apache Indian, girl group Girls Like You as well as Bhangra stalwarts B21.

There will also be cookery demonstrations and a fun fair plus a host of stalls.

Heaton ward councillor Mohammed Amran, who also chairs the Bradford West Area Committee, helped get approval for the event to take place in the council-run green space.

He said: "It brings communities together and it puts the park on the map. The park itself is one of the best in Europe.

"It's so good that we can bring communities from different faiths, different religions, different organisations and different cultures together to celebrate on a weekend.

"This ensures that the park is well used but also recognises that mela brings people together."

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