[Madhatter]

Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning get together. In modern usage in the United Kingdom it has become a term for a multicultural (though mainly Asian) festival incorporating music, dance, food and other aspects of British Asian culture in the UK.

Melas regularly are held in larger towns in the UK, especially in areas with large ethnic minority populations. They are often considered important as a way of improving relations between the "indigenous" (white) UK population and the Asian population. The Melas began in the nineteen nineties.

Public money is sometimes available for these festivals. They have also been seen as a way of ensuring that festivals are available for the whole population. (The Arts Council produced a study on this examining eleven festivals in the Leicester region).


I'd like to know when, because I'm by leicester and I've never heard of a mela.
so basically it's a word for carnival bought in to use by non whites because our word carnival or festival isn't good enough. A so called multicultural word.
Why don't you just call it what it's always been called.