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Extravagant ZEE Mela ’04 overshadowed by security

This year’s bumper ZEE Mela held at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre has been hit by controversy for the first time in its three year run.

The ZEE Network organised do ended tonight abruptly after a security breach involving the main stage and its artists. Shortly after 2pm this afternoon, the main stage was brought to a halt due to health and safety reasons.

Spectators complained about the lack of space and the shoddy organised music stage. The NEC were forced to shut down the stage due to public safety. One visitor was disgraced by the move calling the event “very poorly organised.” “I paid �12.00 to get into watch Juggy D, Steronation and Hrithik Roshan and they closed it down. How unprofessional is that? They could’ve simply sorted out the problem and the show would have continued normally…I want my money back!”

Big artists such as Juggy D, Veronica, D/I/P, Stereonation and many more had to be turned away from the scheduled performances. It’s not the first controversy of this year’s ZEE Mela, earlier this week, the organisers cancelled headlining Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan’s visit to the Mela on Friday (its opening day). Then a visit to the ITV Carlton stage was cancelled on Saturday afternoon again due to security reasons. The rest of the ZEE Mela continued as normal with exhibitors raking in mullah from the sold out three-day mega event.

The organisers issued the following statement: “We very much regret cancelling some of the scheduled appearances both by Hrithik Roshan and Main Stage artists late on Sunday afternoon. We understand that some of our visitors were very upset at not being able to see him. However, the rest of the event and exhibition did continue with various other celebrities and guests appearing across the show. We had to make some very difficult decisions during Sunday, but the safety of the public is paramount, and after exhausting all alternative solutions a final decision to cancel main stage appearances had to be taken.

Despite these setbacks ? the vast majority of visitors had a great day at Mela 2004, and many people went home having enjoyed a great family day out.? Raj Ghai, Managing Director of Mela 2004 Ltd.