{"id":350915,"date":"2025-08-17T05:28:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350915\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T05:28:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:28:45","slug":"belfast-mela-thousands-line-streets-as-annual-festival-brings-colour-and-music-to-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350915\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast Mela: Thousands line streets as annual festival brings colour and music to city"},"content":{"rendered":"

The event marked the beginning of the nine-day festival\n<\/p>\n

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Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

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\"Revellers<\/p>\n

Revellers dance around a PSNI officer during the Mela Carnival. Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

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Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

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Thousands lined the streets of Belfast on Saturday as the first day of the annual Mela festival got underway in the city.<\/p>\n

First launched in 2007, the festival is organised by cultural organisation ArtsEkta and brings together music, dance, arts and food from across the world to celebrate Belfast\u2019s cultural diversity.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s festival attracted a record-breaking crowd of almost 60,000 visitors.<\/p>\n

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Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s programme kicked off with the Mela Carnival, which was held for its fourth consecutive year and was led by Deputy Lord Mayor Paul Doherty.<\/p>\n

Participants in traditional dress paraded from Writer\u2019s Square to City Hall, where a \u2018Mini Mela\u2019 celebration took place, hosted by U105\u2019s Carolyn Stewart and UTV\u2019s Paul Reilly.<\/p>\n

\"Revellers<\/p>\n

Revellers dance around a PSNI officer during the Mela Carnival. Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

Belfast city councillors S\u00e9amas de Faoite of the SDLP and the Alliance Party\u2019s Micky Murray and Emmet McDonough-Brown also took part in the parade.<\/p>\n

An outdoor theatre production was also held on the lawn at City Hall, while a series of events also took place across the city’s Cathedral Quarter.<\/p>\n

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Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

Several events are also planned across the nine-day span of the festival, which culminates in Mela Day at 12pm on Sunday August 24.<\/p>\n

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Why is the M3 closed this weekend ? <\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the celebration of sights, sounds, tastes and traditions of Belfast\u2019s multicultural community.<\/p>\n

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Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n

Tickets are required for the Mela Day and are available from the Belfast Mela website.<\/p>\n

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Pic: Press Eye<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The event marked the beginning of the nine-day festival Pic: Press Eye Pic: Press Eye Pic: Press Eye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,122257,1300,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-350915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-belfast-mela","10":"tag-liam-tunney","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115042459785026323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}