BY STAFF REPORTER, BRAMPTON:
The largest South Asian festival in Brampton launched its first digital event, #VibrantBramptonFest, making it the biggest digital festival in Canada. Presented by National Bank and supported by Lazeez Canada, the festival concluded its successful virtual buzz on August 12. Thousands of people attended the ‘festival of festivals’ each day from their own homes, revelling in live performances, participating, applauding and generating a massive audience reach.
This year’s festival, conceptualized and arranged by the Arts & Culture Initiative of South Asia (ACISA), presented a remarkable lineup of over a 100 artists including local and renowned international names. This year’s main festival event that began on July 21 until August 11 was so popular and well attended that organizers had to add one additional day – August 12 – as the grand finale.
Fusion performances, dance presentations and varied music from across the globe were the highlights of the festival that brought in much applause and appreciation from audiences.
The numbers of social media reach and engagements ballooned, right from the commencement of the festival on June 22nd, with the launch of its emerging artists talent hunt program #VibrantStar, followed by the main festival that concluded on August 12.
“We are pleased to announce that the #VibrantBramptonFest was very successful despite the pandemic. Our Social Media reach for both Facebook and Instagram was immense with the total post reach at 543,081 and the total post engagement at 291,776,” says Ricky Bajaj, co-founder and president, ACISA.
“We would like to take this opportunity to specially thank National Bank, this year’s festival title sponsor, as well as Lazeez Canada. We would also like to send a shout out to all our local and international artists, community collaborators, volunteers and media partners, without whom #VibrantBramptonFest would not have been possible, added Arpan Banerjee, one of the founders of the festival.
This is also the first year for #VibrantStar, the emerging artists talent hunt contest with eight winners in different genres of performing arts – vocal, instrumental and dance. A total of 33 were selected from hundreds of video entries, part of a 4-week LIVE online audition from June 22 until July 17, 2020.
“Vibrant Star was held to support local talent with a vision to groom musical and dancing abilities and to provide an opportunity to perform in Brampton’s largest arts, culture and heritage festival, #VibrantBrampton,” said Sandeep Prabhakar who chairs the Board at ACISA.
Stemming from the need and demand for a platform for local Classical Music & Dance artistes to showcase their art forms in GTA, a new festival called Vibrant Classical Music & Dance is also being launched this Wednesday August 19, in a digital format until September 2nd.
“Classical Music and Dance has always aimed for the “classes” and not the “masses” But our goal is to let the masses experience & enjoy the class of this genre. It is the purpose of this festival to allow classical music and dance to reach as many ears & touch as many lives as we can” adds Sandeep Prabhakar.
Day 1 – SREERAMA CHANDRA
The amazing lineup of artists commenced on July 21 with the celebrated Sreerama Chandra, Indian Idol 5 winner and Bollywood playback singer from Mumbai, India. Along with Anita Lerche, renowned Danish Punjabi Singer currently living in the USA and award winning Canadian Indigenous artist David Maracle.
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Day 2 – AMAN TRIKHA
On July 22, Aman Trikha, India’s playback singer from Mumbai, took the stage performing LIVE from Mumbai. He was supported by local Canadian Bollywood Singer Parichay and several other local artists.
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Day 3 – SAHIR ALI BAGGA
July 28 brought in Pakistan’s award winning musician of Coke Studio fame – Sahir Ali Bagga, who has composed music for TV performances of Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Azra Jehan, Sanam Marvi and many more performers. Earlier in the evening Maza, the Band, local Canadian pop band also of Pakistani origin, enthralled the online audience.
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Day 4 – BHOOMI TRIVEDI
The spectacular lineup continued on August 4 with live performances by Bhoomi Trivedi, well known Bollywood playback singer and Indian Idol finalists, and renowned Broadway Singer and artists Syndee Winters.
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Day 5 – LV REVANTH
On August 5, LV Revanth, Indian Idol 9 Winner and Bollywood Playback Singer graced the stage with his mesmerizing presence as the headlining act. Earlier in the evening Raghav, renowned Canadian Bollywood pop singer and Toronto’s successful award winning dance duo – Hemant and Vaishali Panwar – well known for their kathak performance, blew the audience away with their performances.
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Day 6 – HEMANT BRIJWASI
The brilliant singer, Hemant Brijwasi took the stage, keeping the audiences spellbound with his performance. Brijwasi is the winner of India’s prestigious reality TV singing competition Rising Star 2 and popular singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs. He has also sung for films like Soorma, Genius, Bhootnath and many more.
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Day 7: NAVRAJ HANS
The #VibrantBramptonFest grand finale featured Navraj Hans, Punjabi heartthrob, singer, actor and emerging youth icon. The Son-in-law of Daler Mehndi, he has done playback singing for several Bollywood and Punjabi movies and some of his best known works are “Jind meriye” from the Bollywood movie Purani Jeans, “Chote Chote Peg” for Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, and “Mundiyaan Tu Bachke” with Palak Muchhal for Baaghi 2.
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#VibrantBramptonFest has proved to be a success featuring local talent and performances by the likes of Kinjal Chaterjee – famous Bengali and Bollywood Playback musician, Sarabjit Cheema – renowned Canadian Punjabi folk singer and other well-known personalities. Those who missed the #VibrantBramptonFest 2020, all E-Festival 2020 videos can be found here.
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