Manchester Mela

[David Johnson]

Hi
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Manchester Mela, an outdoor festival celebrating South Asian culture.

I'm sure all forumites will join me in agreeing what a wonderful example of multiculturalism in action this is!

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[andy at handiwork]

Marvellous event by the looks of it.

[Arginald Valleywater]

And if they'd organised a full scale British cultural event it would have been banned for being racist no dobut.................

[David Johnson]

Yeah they banned the Fleetwood Folk Festival last year for being racist. It only had Morris dancers, clog dancers and singers who did old English folk songs e.g. sea shanties.

Oh no, they didn't. It runs every year and it's ace.

Arginald - give me fucking strength!

[andy at handiwork]

The calender is full of full scale British cultural events as you well know. Hard as you might find it to acknowledge, events like the Mela are part of the British cultural scene.

[bernard72]

David
Its looks like a great day. But not really multi when it is celebrating asian culture.
That said we do have some great parties in Manchester.
Gay parades, Irish parades, some great parties in Rusholme at Eid, chinese new year.
Just wish the council would put as much effort into St Georges day without the usual lefties coming out and saying it will upset the minorities.
They never fucking ask the minorities. The ones I know want to know why we don't celebrate it and they ask why we are so scared of flying the flag.
I think all people would get along a lot better if we didn't have people in power trying to tell us how to think and feel.
Rant over

[andy at handiwork]

St George and his flag have largely been hijacked by the far right; many people dont feel as though he or it is theirs anymore.

[David Johnson]

"But not really multi when it is celebrating asian culture.
That said we do have some great parties in Manchester.
Gay parades, Irish parades, some great parties in Rusholme at Eid, chinese new year.
Just wish the council would put as much effort into St Georges day without the usual lefties coming out and saying it will upset the minorities."

First, Bernard it is worth pointing out that asian culture is not homogenous. It represents countries like Pakistan and India which have differing cultures and religions, as well as a history of going to war with each other. So it's good to see people from those cultures sharing a festival.

Secondly, Bernard there were a number of Union flags on the field together with the flags of Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka etc. Schoolchildren groups who were overwhelmingly white performed in the marquees and there were a lot of white families knocking around, joining in and getting their face painted etc etc. So it was a multicultural event.

And as Andy implied, the fact is that many of the Asian community attending were actually born here as a number of them said they were proud to be British and Asian. This is multiculturalism in action.

Andy is right that to a certain extent the extreme right has hijacked the Union flag, but throughout the country there are many, many festivals that celebrate traditional aspects of British culture such as folk festivals, festivals celebrating the sea and fishing, local agricultural shows with traditional crafts, woodfests, battle re-enactments, World War remembrance events, even stuff like cheese rolling and worm charming! This all celebrates the history of this great country.

Cheers
D