Ground-breaking South Asian arts festival to be held in Hounslow

Image by Bell Square London

The Hounslow Town Centre will be hosting ANHAD, a new and exciting outdoor multi-arts festival featuring exceptional, cutting-edge contemporary work by South Asian artists based in the UK, in celebration of the South Asian Heritage Month on August 13 this year.

The festival, directed by Mira Kaushik OBE in partnership with Bell Square London, will be a colourful and vibrant celebration of contemporary South Asian outdoor arts – including processions, performance, dance, music, family shows and much more.

The festival will be one-of-its kind providing a platform to showcase UK South Asian creativity across all arts. The purpose behind the event is to make ANHAD an annual attraction in Hounslow and be the premier UK event for shining a spotlight on contemporary South Asian creativity to the wider world.

Mira Kaushik OBE said, “The festival promises the very best of UK-based South Asian outdoor arts performed and created by the best South Asian artists from across the country working alongside Hounslow’s artists and communities. This is a pilot to celebrate of this immense creativity. within South Asian communities across the UK – artists that bring their own style and take on traditional arts.”

Several music artists will be performing, including Anando Mukerjee, UK’s leading operatic tenor of Indian origin; Nadia Javed, solo artiste, activist and lead singer of The Tuts and Zayn Mohammed, Jason Reyes, Filippo Galli, Ruhiya Rutherford (Zayn Mohammed Trio).

Guests will be able to enjoy some exquisite dance performances by some of the most celebrated artists, including Nina Rajarani, MBE (Jham! by Srishti);  celebrated local artistes Pratap Pawar MBE, Ashwini Kalsekar (Kathakology by Kirti Kala Mandir, UK); Shyam Dattani (Bedam commissioned by Akademi); Balbir Singh (Hopscotch & The Two Fridas by Balbir Singh Dance Company); Odissi Ensemble (Aroha); Bollywood Dance School; Anvi Prabhu (JOGI), movement artiste Manuela Benini (with guest dancer Jesal Patel) and amazing Anusha Subramanyam (Choogh Choogh by Beeja).

The festival is set to begin at 2pm with performances in Bell Square, the square outside Holy Trinity Church on the High Street and will wrap up at 9.30pm.

The festival is being supported by Hounslow Council as part of the borough’s ‘Summer of Culture’ and is also one of many that has been supported by The National Lottery Community Fund — the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Jan Lennox, Director, Watermans (Bell Square) said, “This will be a fantastic platform for South Asian creativity. The breadth and depth of contemporary South Asian outdoor arts is huge, so it will be wonderful to see such diverse acts performing in Hounslow and we hope this will become an annual celebration of an important part of UK culture.” More information about the event can be found on https://www.bellsquarelondon.com/anhad-limitless.