Vibrant Brampton’s first virtual South Asian Festival draws over half a million audience

The popularity of this year’s main festival event which began on July 21 and was scheduled to conclude on Aug 11, had an overwhelming response, and organizers had to add another day to conclude the grand finale on Aug 12.

The highlights of the festival including fusion performances, dance presentations and varied music from across the globe were greatly applauded and appreciated from audiences.

The inflation of the numbers of social media reach and engagements right from the commencement of the festival on June 22nd, and the launch of its talent hunt program #VibrantStar by emerging artists was followed by the conclusion of the main festival on Aug 12.

“We are pleased to announce that the #VibrantBramptonFest was very successful despite the pandemic. Our Social Media reach for both Facebook and Instagram was immense with the total post reach at 543,081 and the total post engagement at 291,776,” says Ricky Bajaj, co-founder and president, ACISA.

“We would like to take this opportunity to specially thank National Bank, this year’s festival title sponsor, as well as Lazeez Canada. We would also like to send a shout out to all our local and international artists, community collaborators, volunteers and media partners, without whom #VibrantBramptonFest would not have been possible, added Arpan Banerjee, one of the founders of the festival.

This is also the first year for #VibrantStar, the emerging artists' talent hunt contest with eight winners in different genres of performing arts – vocal, instrumental and dance.  A total of 33 were selected from hundreds of video entries, part of a 4-week LIVE online audition from June 22 until July 17, 2020.
 

“Vibrant Star was held to support local talent with a vision to groom musical and dancing abilities and to provide an opportunity to perform in Brampton’s largest arts, culture and heritage festival, #VibrantBrampton,” said Sandeep Prabhakar who chairs the Board at ACISA.

The artists who performed from Day 1 - 7 included  Sreerama Chandra, Aaman Trikha, Sahir Ali Bagga, Bhoomi Trivedi, LV Revanth, Hemant Brijwasi and Navraj Hans.

#VibrantBramptonFest has proved to be a success featuring local talent and performances by the likes of Kinjal Chaterjee - famous Bengali and Bollywood Playback musician, Sarabjit Cheema - renowned Canadian Punjabi folk singer and other well-known personalities.  Those who missed the #VibrantBramptonFest 2020, all E-Festival 2020 videos can be found here:

Local Artists included Bollywood Dance School Canada; Jadoo Entertainment; The Butler -Fearon O’Connor School of Irish Dance; Syndee Winters; An Trio Ensemble; Toronto Chinese Orchestra; Zakisha  & LiftID; Young Blood; Raz Hilland Quartet; Shivanjali Dance Academy; and Masaisai Afro-Fusion band.

A non-profit organization with a vision to promote cross cultural understanding, Arts & Culture Initiative of South Asia (ACISA) aims to bring a diverse community together in celebration of life, culture, art and tradition. 

With its mission to promote the diversity of South Asian art forms, ACISA showcases local artists and provides them with an opportunity to present their work to a wide audience, break cultural barriers and encourage participation.

ACISA continues to evolve imbibing the cultural values of Canada by allowing all communities from Brampton and rest of Canada to experience the different forms of South Asian Arts and culture to showcase South Asian heritage to communicate key messages that share the philosophy of diversity with residents of Brampton and rest of Canada. 

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)