logo
Glasgow Mela draws big crowd to Kelvingrove Park

Glasgow Mela draws big crowd to Kelvingrove Park

BBC News23-06-2025
Scotland's largest South Asian festival drew more than 21,000 people to Kelvingrove Park on Sunday.Organisers hailed crowds at the Glasgow Mela as "a sight to behold", with live music, art and workshops on offer throughout the day.Festivalgoers also sampled food from around the world and tried their hand at a mix of sports including tennis, pickleball, kabaddi and volleyball.This was the 35th edition of the event, after it started in 1990 as part of Glasgow's European City of Culture celebrations.
Bailie Annette Christie, chairwoman of organisers Glasgow Life, said: "Seeing thousands of people pack out Kelvingrove Park for the Glasgow Mela is always a sight to behold. "The 2025 Mela proved why Glasgow is known the world over as a diverse, multicultural city full of artistic talent. The Mela is a firm favourite in Glasgow's cultural events calendar and provides fantastic free performances and a fun day out for everyone."This year was particularly special as the spirit of Glasgow 850 was woven into the programme."
Acts including Gtown Desi, Saloni and Maya Lakhani performed at the Mela, which means means "gathering" in Sanskrit.It aims to promote local artists and their rich cultural heritage, with funding provided by Creative Scotland.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Scotland's first skatepark to be dug up by archaeologists
Scotland's first skatepark to be dug up by archaeologists

BBC News

time24 minutes ago

  • BBC News

Scotland's first skatepark to be dug up by archaeologists

For five years it hosted the country's finest and keenest skateboarders, witnessing flips and tricks as a new subculture boomed in Scotland's first ever skatepark is to be resurrected by a team of archaeologists hoping to preserve the site's University of Glasgow team will work with volunteers and students to undertake excavation and survey work at the former Kelvin Wheelies park in Kelvingrove Kenny Brophy of the university said the project represented a chance to make sure the skatepark did not become forgotten or lost to history. Members of the public are being asked to share memories, video and photographs of the Kelvin Wheelies, helping to create an online skatepark - which at the time was considered state of the art - opened in May 1978 and featured bowls, a slalom run and a half-pipe, all with names like Jaws, Torpedo and cost £1.80 for three hours and the venue was initially a huge hit, hosting the 1978 Scottish Skateboard Championships - the country's first ever national skateboarding competition. However, concern about maintenance costs and safety led to the park's closure and then burial in 1983, just five years after opening. Jamie Blair, the owner of Glasgow-based skateboarding shop Clan Skates and a former member of the Kelvingrove skateboard team, said he was thrilled that skaters have a chance to rediscover it recalled: "When Kelvin Wheelies opened in 1978, skaters from all over the UK flocked to this radical new facility. "A park team was formed and for the next few years Glasgow was the dominant force in Scottish skateboarding. "Sadly, a dip in skateboarding's popularity in the early 1980s and the construction of a rival skatepark in Livingston saw a decline."Elements of the original site remain visible near the modern skatepark in Kelvingrove Park. However, there is currently no information available to explain the significance of the site to Kelvingrove visitors or users of the modern skatepark. 'A place that was so special to people' Dr Kenny Brophy, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Glasgow and project leader, called the revival a unique opportunity. He said: "There is a very real danger that this skatepark, a place that was so special for hundreds of young people just decades ago, will become forgotten and lost. "Contemporary archaeology allows us the opportunity to explore even fairly recent events and places to jog memories. "In the case of Kelvin Wheelies, this is a unique opportunity for a generation of skateboarders to relive the excitement of their youth and excavate their own memories of a place that was so special to them."The fieldwork will last from 25-29 August and is being supported by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, which provided a £1,102 grant. Skateboarding has risen again in popularity during the past 30 years, fuelled by popular computer sport made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, and featured again at the Paris Olympics last year.

Court Circular: August 16, 2025
Court Circular: August 16, 2025

Times

time4 hours ago

  • Times

Court Circular: August 16, 2025

St James's Palace16th August, 2025The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron, Edinburgh International Festival, this morning attended a performance by Wroclaw Baroque Ensemble at The Queen's Hall, 85-89 Clerk Street, Edinburgh. The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron, Edinburgh International Festival, and The Duchess of Edinburgh this afternoon attended a performance of 'Orpheus and Eurydice' at Edinburgh Playhouse, 8-22 Greenside Place, Edinburgh. His Royal Highness, Patron, Edinburgh International Festival, and Her Royal Highness this evening attended a performance of 'Mary, Queen of Scots' at the Festival Theatre, 13-29 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh.

The Toxic Avenger review – strong cast struggles to revive stale horror franchise
The Toxic Avenger review – strong cast struggles to revive stale horror franchise

The Guardian

time5 hours ago

  • The Guardian

The Toxic Avenger review – strong cast struggles to revive stale horror franchise

The 1980s schlock-splatterfest franchise, originating from the famously low-budget, low-morale Z-list horror studio Troma, is now rebooted with an impressive cast and unimpressive script; it gets its somewhat delayed premiere at Edinburgh, two years after its completion. (It's billed as a world premiere, though a presumably different version screened at a couple of film festivals in 2023.) The original film was about a cringing nerd, sexually humiliated by bikini-clad women and brutalised by jocks, who then falls into a bin of bubbling toxic waste and is transformed into a hideously disfigured bulbous monster wreaking a terrible vengeance on all the bullies. This new version is not more progressive exactly, but the scantily-clad-babe factor, so important in bargain-bin 80s movies, has been dialled down. Now it is Peter Dinklage as our antihero, playing Winston, a humble janitor at a creepy corporation pumping out the poisonous waste – although Dinklage only has to act as himself in the film's initial scenes. After the big transformation it's another actor body-doubling his part in a green monster suit while Dinklage phones in his dialogue from the voice studio. Jacob Tremblay plays Winston's poignantly lonely and vulnerable teen son Wade (another factor that the 1980s original did not consider relevant or necessary) while Taylour Paige plays heroine JJ Doherty, who is out to take down the amoral corporation led by a slimy plutocrat, gamely played by Kevin Bacon with much panto villainy. He has a submissive brother-slash-helpmeet resembling the animated baddie Gru, played by Elijah Wood, and his uptight office assistant is played by Julia Davis. However this solid roster of acting talent can't do much about how frankly uninteresting and unfunny The Toxic Avenger is most of the time. As satire or spoof of both superhero movies and scary movies it is abysmally obsolete, and on its own terms as horror-comedy it achieves neither scares nor laughs. But in fairness, there are some good gags in Sunil Patel's cameo as a sorrowing doctor who has to break the news to Winston about his condition. The Toxic Avenger screened at the Edinburgh film festival, and is in Australian cinemas from 28 August and UK and Irish cinemas from 29 August.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store