Event: Celebrate The Harvest
Date: Saturday June 2
Event Time: 3:00pm – 8:00pm
Event Venue: Central City Plaza (outdoor)
Brace yourself for wild dance routines, amazing bands and all the Bhangra you can handle! Enjoy performances by the best Punjabi dancers and musicians and learn a few new Bhangra moves along the way. Featuring Vancouver’s finest talent from dhol drummers, to singers to Bhangra dancers and a host of cultural mashups! We’ve also partnered with the Jewish Cultural Centre to feature a joint performance between Israeli and Punjabi artists.
HSBC City of Bhangra, North America’s Largest Bhangra Festival
11 days of drums, dance, music and discussion May 31 – June 10, 2012 in Vancouver & Surrey
Vancouver, BC – April 24, 2012 – Experience the sights and sounds of Bhangra when the streets come alive from May 31-June 10, 2012 as the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration (VIBC) Society presents the 8th Annual HSBC City of Bhangra Festival. This year’s festival is expanding to two cities, Downtown Vancouver and Surrey, over the span of 11 days. The festival will host over 14 independent events, hundreds of performers, and international artists from the U.K., New York and India.
The festival, organized by the non-profit, VIBC Society, encourages cultural exploration and community participation though a diverse series of events highlighting the Northern Indian art form of Bhangra. The festival will include free concerts and dance performances at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Bhangra workshops, a Bhangra conference and percussion events. This year VIBC will be introducing its newest event, Celebrate the Harvest, a Bhangra block party in Surrey where the beats, rhythms and movements of Bhangra will have your heart beats racing.
“Every year the VIBC Society aims to push the boundaries about what Bhangra is and how it is performed,” says Sukhi Ghuman, VIBC Director. “In our eight year we are revitalizing the entire festival by taking a form of dance and music created hundreds of years ago in celebration of the Harvest in Punjab, India and bringing it to Vancouver and Surrey, making it accessible to people of all cultures, with more than half the festival events being free of charge.”
This year the festival includes many cross-cultural collaborations, including a Jewish/Bhangra performance, to rePercussion led by Sal Ferreras, to the FREE outdoor concert at Celebrate the Harvest and two days of VIBC’s Downtown Bhangra. The festival will conclude with special performances by folk singing sensation, Dalvinder Singh and Tarli Digital, musical guests Bikram Singh, Bhangra inspired violinist, Violinder and JK from the United Kingdom, and the world’s first female Bhangra DJ credited with introducing Bhangra music to North America, DJ Rekha.
For more information about the HSBC City of Bhangra Festival, visit www.cityofbhangra.com
About VIBC
Since 2004, the not-for-profit volunteer-run, Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society (VIBC) has been dedicated to elevating the art form of Bhangra and strengthening Vancouver’s multicultural community. VIBC accomplishes this by producing an annual festival of music, dance and discussion: the HSBC City of Bhangra Festival. Now an eleven-day event, the HSBC City of Bhangra has grown to become the largest of its kind in North America. This colourful festival will take from May 31st to June 10th, 2012. VIBC’s vision is to embrace the spirit of celebration, generosity and the community of Bhangra. VIBC is dedicated to spreading the universal rhythm of Bhangra and welcoming people from all cultures to enjoy the beats of this beautiful art form.
