#BhangraLove is the theme of the 10th annual Vancouver City of Bhangra Festival, and it celebrates all forms of cultural and interpersonal love. | Photo courtesy of Vancouver International Bhangra Festival

The 10th annual Vancouver City of Bhangra festival (May 29–June 7) is more than a celebration of folk music and dance from the Punjab regions of India and Pakistan: it is a living metaphor for cross-cultural collaboration, diversity and inclusion, upheld by more than 300 performers, 17 events and over 15,000 anticipated local and international attendees.

Bhangra as a fusion platform

Operated by the non-profit Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society (VIBC), the festival aims to build an accessible and all-inclusive arts community that uses bhangra as a platform to promote music, dance and culture.

“VIBC uses bhangra as a tool, as a hook, but the experience everyone will have will be beyond the typical bhangra. We will be pushing those boundaries and introducing the audiences to whole new experiences,” says Anita Lal, the festival’s first general manager.

Bhangra in itself is fusion friendly, and festival events merge it with other forms of music and dance. Lal cites the festival’s inclusion of Middle-Eastern Sufi music, which will be represented at the May 31 performance of Saieen Zahoor, a Pakistani Sufi musician.

Lal also points to the Balkan Bhangra show (June 6 and 7)
that features four groups: Orkestar Slivovica Balkan Brass Band, Vijay Indian Brass Band, Vancity Bhangra Dancers and Luciterra Bellydance. After performing individually, the four groups will take the stage together, with both brass bands playing Bollywood tunes, and belly and Bhangra dancers collaborating on a partially improvised piece.

Oliver Schneider, Orkestar Slivovica’s bandleader/manager, explains that the band’s Balkan brass sound is the western name for a variety of traditional wedding and festive music originating from Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Because traditionally many Balkan brass musicians are Roma, whose ethnic origins trace back to India, many of the tunes are inspired by Indian music. Therefore, it seems only fitting that Balkan brass music will be performed at a bhangra festival.

“We enjoy a multicultural audience already, and it is both fun and good business to expand our audience reach [with festivals like VIBC],” says Schneider.

Bringing communities together

This year, Lal and the festival organizers are particularly proud of a collaboration that brings together for the first time Punjabi Indian and Pakistani communities. She explains that while they share a similar cultural background, the two interact little here in the Lower Mainland. It was therefore particularly important to VIBC to attempt to bridge that gap through, for example, a collaboration with the Surrey-based Naad Foundation, which promotes and celebrates world music.

“Our goal is to bring communities and audiences together,” says Amarjeet Singh, Naad’s artistic co-director.

The foundation offers classes in Indian dance and music and features performances by groups such as Saanjh which, along with Singh, are comprised of a number of the foundation’s instructors.

Saanjh is a Punjabi word that translates as ‘connecting, sharing, partnering,’ and is symbolic of the band’s eclectic mix of Indian classical and Punjabi music blended with progressive rock, jazz, funk and Caribbean beats.

The group plans to perform a new piece at the Media Arts Mehfil event on May 30, and they hope it will transport the audiences beyond their musical comfort zone.

Challenging cultural norms

Another unique aspect of VIBC is its ability to honour tradition while challenging established social norms. Though bhangra dancing was traditionally performed solely by men, the festival features the rising trend of all-female bhangra dance teams such as the UBC Bhangra Club Girls Team.

This new team looks up to, and follows in the footsteps of the UBC Girlz Bhangra Team which pioneered all-girl bhangra performance in Vancouver, and paved the way for greater inclusion and respect that the female teams currently enjoy in that performance community.

“When we are dancing, we see it as an expression of empowerment. We have control of our own identities, are standing up to the overall male dominated culture regardless of its ethnic origin, and are expressing equality and cultural pride,” says Raveena Oberoi who is the co-captain of the UBC Bhangra Club Girls Team along with Manjot Khosah.

According to Lal, even the festival’s theme, #BhangraLove, is equally intended as a general metaphor for the appreciation of bhangra and cultural fusion, as it is an expression of support for all manner of love in light of the reinstated ban on homosexuality in India.

“[It was VIBC’s goal] with this #BhangraLove theme to be able to push the envelope, to have people comment on the issue and to start the conversation. With #BhangraLove, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, and whom you love,” she says.

For more information on the festival, visit www.vibc.org