Nottingham’s Riverside Festival and Nottingham Mela join to create a vibrant cultural experience.

Last weekend saw the Nottingham Riverside Festival combine for the first time with Nottingham Mela to showcase a vibrant and colourful cultural festival. Situated on the banks of the River Trent, The Riverside Festival has enjoyed an excellent reputation of late for offering world music and culture. With fairground rides and stalls dotted along the Embankment, the festival this year was abuzz with people enjoying the sunshine. Street performers kept the crowd entertained as they listened to live music and, as a predominantly family festival, there were many free activities around including kite making, circus skills and dance workshops. The firework display on Saturday evening is always a dramatic display, with the river creating the perfect setting for the end of the day’s events. Mela is Nottingham’s Asian Festival which took place on the Sunday and this year included a performance by the well renowned Trans Global Underground. A strange and enjoyable tradition that takes place at the Riverside is the charitable Dragon Boat Race along the River Trent where teams take it upon themselves to outpace other boats in a race. Always a highlight of the event it has become something of a permanent fixture. Nottingham is a fantastic multicultural city and it’s great to have the Mela with the Riverside Festival showcasing what a colourful and vibrant place it can be.