Aberdeen Mela to benefit in the latest awards round of EventScotland’s National Funding Programme

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Aberdeen Mela to benefit in the latest awards round of EventScotland’s National Funding Programme

 

Edinburgh, Scotland, 2017-Jul-28 — /Travel PR News/ — A cultural festival which brings together diverse communities in Aberdeen and the North East is amongst 14 events across the country benefitting from a share of £145,500 in the latest awards round of EventScotland’s National Funding Programme.

Aberdeen Mela – One World Day 2017, will be a celebration of music, dance, theatre, song and stories and many international visitors from the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF) will also be in attendance.

The free family event, which takes place at Westburn Park on 30th July, has been awarded £9,700 from EventScotland, a team within VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, which is being spent on bringing in headline performers from London and the central belt, as well as providing support for marketing and infrastructure.

This vibrant festival celebrates culture, arts, food and family and combines them with activities to highlight the richness of many different cultural groups in the area. It is a day where sharing each other’s lifestyles, cultural diversity and ethnicity is at the heart of the celebrations.

Performers at this year’s Mela include well-known musician and TV presenter within the Asian and international community, Sandyman; Rise Kagona and the Jit Jive Band, The Desi Bravehearts and The Aberdeen Bhangra Crew.

Taking place between July and November this year, the 14 events from across 10 local authorities have received the funding from EventScotland’s National Programme Fund to support their delivery and help develop the country’s diverse events portfolio.

Jo Robinson, VisitScotland Regional Director, said: “We are delighted to give funding towards Aberdeen Mela – one of the 14 events across Scotland to have been successful in this round.

“Aberdeen is an extremely welcoming multi-cultural city, attracting visitors from around the world, so this event, which celebrates cultural diversity through music, song, stories and theatre, is a perfect fit.

“The National Funding Programme plays a vital role in maintaining Scotland’s reputation as a great destination for events that celebrate our culture and heritage whilst delivering real economic benefits to their local communities.”

Stewart Aitken, the CEO and Artistic Director of AIYF, said: “The partners in Aberdeen Mela One World Day are delighted that EventScotland has decided to invest in the event, this has helped us to put a larger scale, multi-cultural event in Aberdeen City for the first time.

“The award has enabled this original Aberdeen Multicultural Centre event to be more ambitious and look at connecting with a wider range of the community and providing a platform for greater cultural exchange. We just hope people from all parts of the city and North-east will come along and enjoy the day.”

Last year, over 4,000 people attended The Aberdeen Mela in Union Terrace Gardens and around 6,000 people watched some of the street performances as part of the AIYF’s Festival in the City event. For 2017, organisers are hoping to have upwards of 5,000 attendees sampling the performances, diverse catering, craft stalls, children’s activities and workshops.

The full list of events which received support in the latest (Round 35) awards from EventScotland’s National Funding Programme are:

  • British Transplant Games, North Lanarkshire: 27 – 30 July (£25,000)
  • MugStock Festival, East Dunbartonshire: 28 – 31 July (£6,000)
  • Aberdeen Mela – One World Day ,Aberdeenshire: 30 July (£9,700)
  • European Dodgeball Championships 2017, Wishaw: 8 – 20 August (£9,500)
  • Scotland’s Salmon Festival, Highlands: 29 August – 2 September (£5,856)
  • St Andrews Photography Festival, Fife: 1 – 30 September (£5,500)
  • Electric Fields, Dumfries & Galloway: 1 – 2 September (£11,500)
  • Skyline Scotland, Highlands: 1 – 3 September (£12,000)
  • Bo’ness Revival, Falkirk: 2 – 3 September (£8,500)
  • BOWFest, Argyll: 8 – 10 September (£6,000)
  • The Highland Military Tattoo, Highlands: 8 – 10 September (£19,000)
  • Loch Ness Knit Fest 2017 , Highlands: 13 – 15 October (£10,500)
  • The Spree, Renfrewshire: 13 – 22 October (£10,500)
  • Colours of Cluny, Moray Speyside: 8 – 19 November (£6,000)

For more information on Aberdeen Mela, visit: http://aberdeenmela.wordpress.com

Notes to Editors

* EventScotland is working to make Scotland the perfect stage for events. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the economy by attracting more visitors. For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news visit www.EventScotland.org. Follow EventScotland on Twitter @EventScotNews.

* EventScotland is a team within VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, the national tourism organisation which markets Scotland as a tourism destination across the world, gives support to the tourism industry and brings sustainable tourism growth to Scotland. For more information about VisitScotland see www.visitscotland.orgor for consumer information on Scotland as a visitor destination see www.visitscotland.com.

* The National Funding Programme supports the strategic delivery of events taking place outside Edinburgh and Glasgow with the aim of driving domestic tourism, delivering economic impact for local communities, and generating media profile for Scotland.

* Enabling existing events to expand what they offer visitors, extend their marketing reach and enhance the on-site experience of attendees are just some of the ways that National Funding Programme support is used to help regional events continue to flourish and grow further. This in turn strengthens Scotland’s overall events portfolio – a major contributor to our national economy.

* The National Funding Programme plays a vital role in maintaining Scotland’s reputation as the ‘perfect stage’ for events. The programme is key to ensuring that the country has an exciting, vibrant portfolio of annual events promoting Scotland’s cultural heritage and delivering positive for local communities.

    • Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
    • VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
    • The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
    • This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
      1. Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
      2. Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
      3. Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
      4. Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
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2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology

  • 2017 is the year to delve into the past and discover Scotland’s fascinating stories through a wide-ranging variety of new and existing activity to drive the nation’s tourism and events sector, boosting tourism across Scotland.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology begins on 1 January 2017 and will end on 31 December 2017. It will build on the momentum generated by previous themed years in Scotland including the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Creative Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is supported by £570,000 of Scottish Government funding.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
  • For more information visit visitscotland.com/HHA2017 or join the conversation at #HHA2017

Contact:
Barbara Clark
Head of Corporate Communications
Corporate Media, Partnership Communications, Internal Communications
Barbara.Clark@visitscotland.com
0131 472 2212
Out of hours – 0131 472 2324

Source: VisitScotland

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