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Councils withdraw financial support from London Mela

ZEE London Mela 2015
ZEE London Mela 2015

This year’s London Mela in Gunnersbury Park will not be taking place after Ealing and Hounslow Councils withdrew financial support from it.

Ealing Gov website reports that mela organisers, Remarkable Productions, will be focussing on setting up a new independent trust to manage the mela. The trust will focus on bringing the London Mela back to Gunnersbury Park in 2017 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence.

The trust will also work to produce a new London Mela presents programme to celebrate the diverse communities from the Asian sub-continent living in the capital. The programme is being supported by the Greater London Authority and Arts Council England and will launch in the summer with a few key events, with many more planned for 2017 and beyond.

The new trust will work with public funders, commercial partners and the wider public to develop funding, sponsorship and ticket sales strategies to be able to fill the gap left by the reduction in funding from local authorities.

The trust will be committed to keeping the event affordable and to bringing back the same breadth of high quality entertainment that mela fans have come to expect of the event.

Councillor Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, said: “We appreciate how popular the mela has been and that its success has been internationally recognised. It will take on a different approach this year, while Remarkable explore how the mela can be improved and become self-funding before bringing it back next year.”

Julian Rudd, director of Remarkable Productions, said: ���The London Mela is in the process of development and reinvention as it marches towards trust status and financial independence. It is right that we have a fallow year in 2016 in order to get that right. We are aiming to celebrate the birth of the new independent London Mela Trust in 2017, on the 70th anniversary of Indian independence, with the greatest London Mela yet.�۝