| Local heroes En Karma and DJ Intense will be performing at the Free Downtown Bhangra concert on June 17, for the City of Bhangra Festival. The Free Downtown Bhangra show moves to Surrey’s City Hall Plaza for the first time, with a full day of music, dance, and celebration.
The theme of this year’s City of Bhangra Festival is INTERSECTIONS. Buoyed by the success of last year’s GENDER narrative, the 2017 festival continues to create space in our community for those whose identity doesn’t fit in a category. With the theme of Intersections, we have programming that features world-class events that helps us recognize both diversity and interconnectedness in culture and community. We are not simply female/male, queer/ straight, cis-gendered/ trans-gendered – but a complex combination of these.
June 11: VIBC’s Desi Music Incubator – Surrey Arts Centre, 12-6pm. FREE
In partnership with the Surrey Art Gallery. Sponsored by Music BC and Creative BC
A special one-day series of skill-building and networking sessions for youth interested in music and the music business, the Incubator features: a music production workshop with India’s EDM superstar Nucleya; a lyric workshop with Vancouver rapper Horsepowar; a DJing workshop with DJ Khanvict; and an industry workshop with members of Music BC, Nimbus, and SOCAN. Reaching across cultural and age boundaries, this event brings together some of the finest international and local South Asian talent and music industry professionals to share skills, network, and build community.
June 12: Reel Bhangra: VIBC Short Film Fest – Vancity Theatre
Featuring the world premiere screening of Bhangra City produced by Delhi 2 Dublinwith funding from Telus.
The City of Bhangra Festival introduces an inaugural evening of film spotlighting the voices of young South Asian filmmakers. This 2-hour event showcases several local and international short films. A mixer with Delhi 2 Dublin and special guests follows the screening.
June 14: Rupi Kaur – Vogue Theatre – SOLD OUT
Renowned feminist, poet, multi-media artist and international phenomenon Rupi Kair will headline a show at the Vogue Theatre. Called the “Voice of her Generation”, Kaur’s first book of poetry and prose, Milk and Honey was on the New York Times bestseller list for over seven months, and she has over 700K Instagram followers. Opening for Kaur’s spoken word performance is Baltimore-based singer, Beya Likhari, who performs a unique East Coast style of Bhangra.
June 15: Bhangra: WE – Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey 6-9pm FREE
Following the success of last year’s groundbreaking panel, Bhangra: SHE, the festival delves deeper into an exploration of the complexity of our identities as young South Asian change-makers. Bhangra: WE features presentations as well as panel discussions on the theme of Intersections. This year’s panel includes a range of progressive women artists, academics, musicians, dancers and writers.
Topics will include: creative entrepreneurship; the diasporic arts; female identity in Punjabi music and Punjabi culture; and social media and the arts. |
