'Fiesta Bollywood in Fitzroy' will kickstart ten days of fun celebrations

The event is celebrating its tenth anniversary in style with an expanded program in 2023.

'Fiesta Bollywood in Fitzroy' is a free, family-friendly celebration, which will showcase everything the Indian culture has to offer from dance performances to food stalls and children's craft.

Festival and Events officer for Tamworth Regional Council Crystal Vero said the offering is an exciting addition to the Fiesta program in what is a milestone year.

"There's going to be some great traditional live performance from local dance groups as well as demonstrations, so bring along comfortable dancing shoes and learn some Bollywood moves," Ms Vero said.

"And there will also be some great foods stalls, children's craft, face painting, beautiful photo displays that you can get some opportunities to take some wonderful photos with, some wonderful decorations.

"We're really lucky here in Tamworth, we have 94 nationalities living here in the Tamworth region, so we want to showcase the wonderful multicultural city and region that we are.

"And we're really fortunate that we are a regional city that has been celebrating multicultural events now for ten years, so we didn't want to just have a one day only event this year, we wanted to do it over ten days and feature wonderful events for anyone, all ages to come along and enjoy with their community."

Vice President of Multicultural Tamworth, Shalini Pratap, a third generation Fijian Indian, relocated to Tamworth over 20 years ago for work, but she has never forgotten her cultural roots and is keen to share her culture with the city.

"It is very important for me because that's something that has been passed down from generations," she said.

"So my ancestors when they moved from India to Fiji they brought their culture and they passed it down to us with their art, the use of social media, the internet and all that sort of stuff, so it was like passed down from generation to generation.

"So I think it is very important for us to be able to keep that tradition going and pass it down to our children to ensure that they learn about the culture, the music and the food and our traditions.

"It is very important to celebrate this festival because Tamworth is a very multicultural community and for us to embrace the whole multiculturalism and give people an ownership of one event where they can come around, celebrate their own culture in food and music, it's fairly important."

The night will be the first of ten days of activities.

"We've got a what's on program that tells you everything that's happening if you want to visit the Destination Tamworth website, but there will be a Latin party happening at the Post Office Hotel next Friday the 20^th, so if you want to learn Bollywood tomorrow night and then want to learn some Latino dances the following week that will be on," Ms Vero said.

"There's also some wonderful workshops happening at Pino and Picasso, so if you want to grab tickets and go be creative and do some Fiesta-inspired art work.

"And there's also some wonderful specials on menus from some restaurants that have wanted to support the Fiesta program, so go along to the Pig and Tinderbox and the Post Office Hotel, what they're offering is all on that program on the website."

'Fiesta Bollywood in Fitzroy' runs from 6pm until 10pm on Saturday, October 14.

Fiesta will conclude with Fiesta La Peel in Bicentennial Park on Saturday, October 21.

See photos from the March 2022 event here.

READ ALSO:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: