Belfast Mela

 Last Years Man (Leonard Cohen)
Continuing along the lines of 'Nowhere To Go' we went to the Belfast Mela. It was held in The Botanic Gardens and there was an entry charge of £2.00, not a great deal for a great day out.Kids were £1.

The Crowd

Table Top Joe (Tom Waits). When we got in we were taken aback by the crowds, the place was hiving. They were playing some Indian music which was banging out from massive speakers and you couldn't help but bounce along with it.
"Ok, lets make a start on the tents" said the good lady. "Alright" I answered in a meek and obedient voice.
So we started at one end to work our way round, there was loads of them ffs. Having said that I actually quite enjoyed it.I'm a King Bee (Rolling Stones). Food tents, clothes tents, nik naks, jewelry, there was a crystal stand. The PSNI, Fire Brigade and various Charities and lots more, too many to list.

Eternal Taal

While the good lady was busy spending money I slipped out to have a Jeff Duke at the stage. There were a couple of people from UTV on introducing the live entertainment and the next act was Eternal Taal. they were brilliant.Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones) Apparently they are the only female group of their kind. after that there was a Dhol drumming group, four guys who beat the shit, living daylight out of their drums to a backing of some Indian techno music. They were soon joined by a couple of girls who hammered those drums just as much as the guys.

Dancin' In The Park

At the Chime Of A City Clock (Nick Drake). By this time the crowd were joining in clapping, jigging about and there were some dancing who seem to know just how to dance to Dhol drums.

Time was getting on and we had to go, much to our disappointment but we had the grand kids coming to tea and then we had a gig to go to that night. All in all it was a great day out. Life Is Good Blues (Laura Veirs) and we will be back next year. The whole thing was promoted by Artsekta and I can say they did a good job. Of course there was a lot more went on but this all happened in the hour or so we were there.
Cytcha L8r
Oh, I forgot to mention there was face painting by a very talented young woman Lizzie Atkinson (Spektrum Arts.