This year's Mela Festival is well underway and we have already put behind us a weekend full of talented artists and good atmosphere here at Melahuset .
This year's festival started on Friday 13 August, and was officially opened by the Minister of Culture and Gender Equality, Abid Raja.
Stian Carstensen , Rohini Sahajpal, Jarle Vespestad and Jai Shankar gave an intimate but powerful opening concert that made the audience forget that they were sitting in a slightly more modest hall inside Melahuset , and not in the magnificent hall inside the City Hall.
Saturday was dedicated to Norway's young and talented female artists! Many of them made their artist debut the same evening, and played for an almost full hall. Namibia , Awissi, Royane, Darkowa and Akuvi performed on stage - all to great excitement and praise from the audience. The evening's In-house DJ was DJ Melange, who set a nice musical framework for the evening.
After two festive days, it was time for romance, poetry and classical South Asian music in the form of raga. On stage was first Melas raga ensemble ( Fahem Ajmal Jamil Malik, Syed Ali, Asif Masih, Islam Umar ), followed by Ragatid with Reshail Mansoor, Aryan Mansoor, Andreas Bratlie and Patrick Vedlog . For Mela's typical and long-standing audience, this evening was a special highlight when the audience was left with the feeling that the long-standing search for synergy between Norwegian and South Asian music came together in a highly natural setting on stage.