Toronto’s fifth annual South Asian arts festival, Masala Mehndi Masti, just posted a lengthy schedule for this year’s event (thanks, jo). You can also see it by day or by category.
The free festival runs from August 3-7 at Harbourfront Centre in the shadow of the CN Tower. With 80,000 attendees in 2004, it’s the the largest such festival in North America. Toronto’s desi population of 500K is 2 œ times the size of New York’s. It may be the city outside the subcontinent with the most desis.
Just a few of the events:
- Lots of new bands
- Kathak-flamenco fusion
- Brits: Sonik Gurus, Rhythm, Dhol and Bass
- Kalapani, a play about the Indian middle passage to the Caribbean
- Your Palace in the Sky, a performance piece about the Air India bombing
- Tina Sugandh
- American Daylight, an indie film about Indian call centers, featuring Koel Purie
- Sam and Me, Deepa Mehta’s first feature film
- Short films
- Sketch comedy
- Spoken word
- Shayari
Neha comments about last year’s fest:
… I found the music portion incredibly varied, from Rishi Rich to qawwali parties… The Filmi festival was on at the same time, which focused on South Asian Canadian films… if you get lost just let the Hondas lead the way.
Related post on the Artwallah festival here.
