What more could London want — a glorious warm sunny day, a fashion show, a music concert and a street full of free curry!
LONDON: What more could London want — a glorious warm sunny day, a fashion show, a music concert and a street full of free curry!
Around 60,000 people converged on possibly the most famous street in the country, Brick Lane in the East End of London for the 11th annual Brick Lane festival that rocked well into the evening. Organised by the Ethnic Minority Enterprise Project and supported by the office of the Mayor of London, the Brick Lane party which is held on the second Sunday of September each year is now becoming a fixture on the city's calendar that is awaited with mouth watering anticipation.
The street which had become famous for its Indian (owned mostly by Bangladeshis) restaurants long before the best-selling book by Monica Ali, was filled with stalls of freed food lined up on the pavements outside the 56 restaurants. Chefs and owners alike offered free samples of lip-smacking curries to the thousands of white, brown and black visitors who thronged the festival, hoping that the punters will be enticed by the tasters to enter the restaurants. And they were not disappointed. The queues outside each of the restaurants spiralled out of view. “The festival is just getting hotter and hotter! This annual event is fast becoming the mother of all curry festivals,” said Imam Uddin of Bengal Village restaurant, and the founder of the Bangla Town International Curry Festival.
Apart from good food punters were entertained with a music concert, a fun fair, a fashion show and the debut of the event’s first film festival. Between 11am and 8pm the Chilli Film Festival showcased a variety of animations and documentaries from around the world. Apart from an eight part animation of Sita Sings The Blues, there were short documentaries like Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh; Me, My Swami and I; Azan – The Call to Prayer and Four Brothers and a Funeral and many more.
For those with an interest in clothes, two one-hour long catwalk shows were held during the day where nine new London-based fashion designers showcased their autumn collections. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, who inaugurated the festival, said the event was “one of London's most important multicultural events with the contribution of every element Bangladeshi, Jewish, Cockney and Afro Caribbean viewed as an important factor in its continuing success.”
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