23
Where on the verge, so still, We stand on the very edge of a Summers fire light.
Diana Scarboro
Report for the MELA Festival.“ Communities Together”-a Multicultural Fiesta!
Cleethorpes 9th June 2013
We had arrived early as we wanted to find the venue and a decent parking space but we needn’ t have worried. The car park was almost empty. A band of Scottish pipers and
drummers were tuning up outside the gate and made a dramatic marching entrance as the gates were opened and we followed them into Meridian Park. It was an overcast day and fairly chilly and perhaps this had had an impact on attendance.
We ambled around the park eager to see the diversity of cultural delights promised by the promotional posters. We had wondered why the event wasn’ t more heavily promoted as we had only found out about it through Facebook as the Earthbound Misfits had a circus skills workshop arena there. There had been no signs directing us to the event and even when we arrived at the venue there was no indication of what could be found inside.
To be blunt the event was somewhat disappointing. There was one Indian Food stall, one Chinese and one Polish, there was also an Indian jewellery and henna stall, but beyond that there were a couple of( English) craft stalls and far too many council public awareness stalls. Some of the stall holders really looked like they would rather be anywhere else. There was the inevitable bouncy castle and face painting, and a climbing wall to keep the children entertained – and of course the happy go lucky Earthbound Misfits-a bright spot in proceedings.
The Scottish Pipers took to the stage and regaled us with some well known Scottish tunes. They were to be followed by Taiko Drummers – who were in fact schoolchildren from the Immingham Academy – very enoyable and great to see young teenagers making such an effort. The headliner“ Indian Elvis” was next and he was rather good too, I had to wonder if he was disappointed by his meagre audience ……
There were other events scheduled such as a cookery demonstration, Sari wearing(?) and Sikh martial arts, but there wasn’ t enough to keep us there for the duration, and we had spent some time at the bouncy castle and face painting.