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Baishakhi Mela
What a great Mela, the atmosphere was excellent, I love Bangla New Year now , for sure and what a perfect time to party.
The music was jumping, punctuated by low flying MTV style cameras, the coverage was a success, the audience |
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going mental, the musicians gave it back with excellent performances.
If a Mela is gauged by how well people enjoy themselves then Baishakhi Mela is really not to be missed, there is a real feeling of community and independence, which is fair enough, although, there is also a feeling of being in someone else's house, more so than other Melas.
There is no true cross-over, no sense of inclusion with rest of the whole community of East London, no multi-cultural element that makes a good Mela a great one. |
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Channel S put up a good show, the TV coverage was decent with a large viewing screen so no one missed any of the action on stage.
The presenter was constantly swamped with people trying to get their faces on the screen, but he seemed to handle the crush with some humour (at least when the cameras were on ) some of the crowd were generous enough to form a circle around him and the show went on.
A few other TV companies also showed up, but it was a token |
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representation and they didn't have the same enthusiasm as Channel S.. |
There were also a few disappointments...
Programme information wasn't clear, no one making PA announcements and the free programme handout was more full of advertising than information on the acts.
More importantly there was no time schedule, so it was impossible to know what was on where and when.
The layout of the stalls was not customer friendly, arranged in squares it made the walk ways difficult to pass and the stalls difficult to get to. |
The biggest problem was without doubt, the rubbish...
There were no bins and subsequently people threw their rubbish where they stood, after a while the entire field resembled a tip with adults and children and babies in push chairs all trying to scramble over junk.
I hope when the Baishakhi Mela post mortem takes place they seriously reconsider this approach and provide disposal bins, regularly emptied at the next event.
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Ultimately, these objections could be ironed out and it certainly should not put you off going to this Mela.
I'd definitely recommend checking out the enthusiasm of the Baishakhi Mela and to have this in the heart of Londons east end is not to be missed if you are visiting the capital. |
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