Vancouver Celebrates Diwali

The 9th annual Vancouver Celebrates Diwali Festival will take place November 5 – 11, 2012. This year promises to deliver an ambitious and exciting array of events, talents, and festivities. Stay tuned to this website for more info soon!

Johanna Ward hosted The Express from Shaw TV at our Diwali Downtown celebration on Sunday, October 23. Here’s the final result!

Part 1

Part 2

This day-long event takes over the entire Roundhouse and includes dozens of performances taking place on multiple stages all across this famous Yaletown facility. Color! Music! Food! Neighbors! Culture! Get Mehndi tattoos and help to build a giant rangoli!

Bring the entire family down to enjoy a full day of music, dance, crafts, interactive performances, and of course, tons of great Indian food. This event is open to the entire community, with admission by donation.

Rangoil built at the 2010 Diwali Downtown

Artists include:

• bharata natyam dancers Malavika Santhosh and Sujit Vaidya
• sitar / tabla combo Mohammed Assani & Sunny Matharu
• bhangra glitch-hop musical group Banyen Roots
• the amazing Senior Ladies Garba dance team
• a carnatic musical experience led by Vidyasagar Vankayala
• a dance fusion experience featuring kathak dancer Anita Sharma with Celtic sensation Fred Nguyen
• sitar / tabla combo Freedom & Leela,
• fresh-on-the-scene bhangra dance sensations Jawani Bhangra,
•  a showcase dance performance from Shiamak’s Bollywood Jazz Dance

Lady Garba performs for the crowd at last year's Diwali Downtown

See you there!!

Rooted in the ancient Vedic  hymns, Carnatic Music is one of two major systems of music from India. Carnatic music represents the classical form of music from Southern India.

Performing at Diwali Downtown on Sunday October 23 at The Roundhouse, the Sangeetamaruti Arts Academy group is led by Dr. Vidyasagar Vankayala, a well-known performer and teacher of Carnatic music in the Lower Mainland. He has performed extensively in several international venues. The performance today also features four young performers who are all currently learning Carnatic music from Vidyasagar. The music uses the voice as the main performance medium, with a very complex system of Ragams (modes) and Talams (Rhythmic Structures). The compositions used cover a range of themes including devotion, philosophy, romance and descriptive poetry.

About a year ago, Vancouver started issuing licensees for food carts in the city. Prior to that, the only food carts allowed on our streets were hot dog carts, but a whole new era of gourmet street food has now been unleashed on our lucky Vancouver taste buds!

One of the newest food carts (they’ve just been up and running for about a month) is Soho Road Naan Kebab. Owned and operated by Sarbjot Mund, this cart serves up Indian and Pakistani delights. Sarb has a Tandoor oven built right into his cart, in which he makes kebabs and fresh naan bread right in front of your eyes, and then wraps the freshly-roasted, spicy meat in the warm, pillowy naan, sauces it up, and hands it to you.

Soho Road Naan Kebab on Facebook

Soho Road Naan Kebab on Twitter

Shiamak Davar is the guru of contemporary dance in modern India whose award winning work in Indian films has changed the way the world looks at Bollywood Dance today! With centres across Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, the Shiamak Bollywood fever is surely spreading across Canada   The performers are from Vancouver, and will display Shiamak’s unique style of choreography called Bollywood Jazz fusing Indian dance styles with western techniques and spiced up with the colour, energy and flavour of Bollywood!

You can catch Shiamak’s Bollywood Jazz Dance at 5:30 pm on Sunday, October 23 at Diwali Downtown at The Roundhouse.