ACISA, largest South Asian Festival to feature arts, culture, music digitally

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Brampton (ON), Jun 12 (Canadian-Media):  Arts & Culture Initiative of South Asia (ACISA), a non-profit organization will present this year's festivals in Brampton, digitally owing to the current COVID-19 pandemic from July 21 to Sep 3, media reports said.

Image credit: Website

“More than ever now is when arts and music and culture have the power to uplift spirits and to bring people together in these unprecedented times. Our festivals endeavour to do just that” says Ricky Bajaj, ACISA co-founder and president, said June 11 in a press release. 

ACISA with a vision to cross cultural understanding in bringing a diverse community together to celebrate life, culture, art, and tradition is mandated to promote the diversity of South Asian art forms a wide range of both Non-South Asians & South Asians audience.

This year's festival would showcase the participation from more than 100 local and international artists from the Bollywood playback and Pakistan music industry and enable different communities in Brampton to experience rich South Asian heritage.

“The festival promotes local talent and includes an exciting line-up of emerging artists and well-known names in the entertainment industry which appeals to all ages,” adds festival art director and co-founder, Arpan Banerjee, a press release of June 11 said.

Four events included in this year's festival Vibrant Brampton, Vibrant Star, Visual Arts of South Asia (V.A.S.A) Arts festival and META would digitally showcase the culture and diversity of Ontario.

VibrantBrampton would present performances from renowned and emerging artists every Tuesday and Wednesday from July 21 to August 5, 2020. 

VibrantStar would showcase six finalists in their hunt for talent combating to win the top prize in three categories- vocal, instrumental and dance.  Online auditions will begin from the week of June 15 followed by quarter finals in the week of July 13, culminating in a finale in the week of July 20, 2020.

Vibrant Star. Image credit: Website

VibrantClassical- Launched this year, this to provide a platform for classical artists to showcase their art forms, this new segment is scheduled to run every Thursday starting August 20 for three consecutive weeks until September 3, 2020.

Visual Arts of South Asia (V.A.S.A) festival- In this arts festival artists would be provided with an opportunity to connect,  create, and promotes visual arts through educational workshops and performances.

META- A digital and modern art festival in which exciting content will be live-streamed  every Tuesday and Thursday for the entire month of August. Tuesdays will be devoted to workshops/panels featuring local creators and partners, while Thursdays will feature live-streamed performances from global and local artists. The first two Tuesdays/Thursdays will focus on Brampton, while the remainder two Tuesdays and Thursdays will shine the spotlight on Mississauga. 

​These projects promote cross-cultural understanding, multiculturalism, local talents, grow community pride, strengthen civic engagement, increase attendees not only from Brampton and greater Toronto area but also from neighboring cities such as Ottawa and Montreal, South Asian art lovers from the USA and, west coast South Asian population e.g. Winnipeg, Edmonton, Surrey, and Vancouver. 

Partners of this year's festival include the City of Brampton, Canadian Heritage, Canada Council of Arts, City of Mississauga, Brampton Library, Mississauga Music, Beaux-Arts Brampton, and Visual Arts Mississauga.