Telus Mosaic 2009 – South Asian Heritage Festival of Mississauga

All roads led to city centre this past weekend, wet sometimes, where the 4^th annual TELUS Mosaic Festival took place. The festival, kicked off with the largest South Asian Miniature painting exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga a few weeks ago, presented the biggest and the best line up for any South Asian festival this year.

 

“When it comes to art and culture, Mississauga doesn’t need to compromise with inferior production or presentation quality” said Asma Arshad Mahmood, the Festival Director for Mosaic. Asma, who is a professional artist herself, is the chair of CCAI, a non for profit organization that organizes Mosaic festival. “We are all volunteers, the board of directors of CCAI comprises of professionals who all share a common passion for art and culture. This is one festival where the festival director is also a voluntery position”. And Hazel McCallion, the mayor of Mississauga couldn’t agree more, “What impresses me most about this festival is its dedicated group of volunteers”, said Hazel in her opening speech on Saturday. Other speakers included Harinder Takhar, Amrit Mangat, Gurbax Malhi, senior executives of TELUS, RBC Royal Bank, CIBC, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation and Etihad Airline.

 

The outdoor festival opened at 6:00pm on Friday evening and the highlight of the evening was “Singh is King”, the hit Bollywood comedy featuring music of UK based band RDB. This was the first time that a screen that big was used in Mississauga to show a Bollywood film. The 25 foot screen was set up in front of Mississauga Central library and was easily visible from as far as Square One shopping Mall. Thousands of Mississauga residents enjoyed this hit comedy under the summer sky. They watched from garden chairs, picnic benches or sitting on the grass, until 11:30 at night.

 

SWAMI, the number one band from UK headlined the Saturday night stage. Thousands of fan danced in pouring rain that night to the beats of their new release “Sugarless”. “It was really impressive to see so many people come out to see their favorite band despite the pouring rain which had started early the night before. SWAMI also sang their popular songs like “Electro Jugni” and “Ching”. Their concert ended with a firework show from the roof of Mississauga Library. Shiamak’s Indo Jazz Dance was the closing act of Saturday night.

 

The Kathak duo Vidha and Abhimanyu Lal performed earlier that evening. Vidha and Abhimanyu come from Delhi where Abhimanyu is a dance teacher and Vidha is a professional Kathak dancer. “We are so happy to be in Canada and to perorm for such an enthusiastic audience”, said Vidha as they ended their performance with a standing ovation from the audience.

 

More than 26 acts were presented on Saturday and Sunday including Cassius Khan from Vancouver, Kreuger Singh from Salt Lake Island, Shweta Subramaniam from Edmonton and Ustad Irshad Khan and his ensemble from the GTA.

 

“Nachange Saari Raat” is the amateur dance competition open to anyone and everyone. We get so many calls from people who want to perform at Mosaic Festival but cant because we can only accommodate just as many as the time allows us. So we started this amateur dance competition this year and were really amazed at the response we got. 10 finalists were short listed through qualifying round to perform at the the grand finale on Sunday. They competed for one solo and one couple winner postion on the main stage Sunday afternoon. The judges included Vidha Lal and Mittul from the Shiamak Davar International. Each winner received a cash prize, a shield and free dance lesson certificates at Shiamak’s Mississauga school.

 

The highlight of the evening was RDB on Sunday who made a dramatic entry on a 70’s convertible car equipped with hydraulics. The car drove through the audience all the way to the stage with three brothers singing from inside the car. Thousands of fans were screaming and shouting to get a glimpse of their favorite band.

 

This was the first ever performance by full RDB family in Canada together with Nindy Kaur. During their 45 minutes concert they sang the ever popular songs from Singh is King, Aloo Chaat and Kambakht Ishq.

 

“We want to bring to Mississauga the best of the best” says Arshad Mahmood, the founder and lead organizer of the festival. “ Mississauga is the 6^th largest city in Canada and South Asians are the largest visible minority in this city. There is close to 100,000 South Asians living in Mississauga, add to them the 200,000 from Brampton and Milton and you got a lot of South Asians” he said. “ All these people used to go to Toronto to attend festivals and other cultural activities as there was nothing in this side of GTA. They spend on fuel, parking, admission tickets and food. These are dollars that should be spent in our city and should fuel our economy. Our festival is unique. It not only gives you the top of the line artists for free it also provides its patrons free parking as well.” I am of the view that a family of five going to a festival with $10 admission ticket or $20 parking is already in minus by 50-70 dollars even before they enter the venue. Mosaic visitors can spend this same amount on their food and drinks”.

 

The next year is our fifth year and we want Mosaic to be the most memorable festival of 2010. We have already started talking to artists and will bring lots of pleasant surprises for our patrons. Mosaic 2010 will be a free festival open to all and present artists from UK, USA and the Sub-Continent. So stay tuned and check out www.mosaicfest.com for latest on Mosaic festival.