This all Indo-Canadian & South Asian festival is happening in Kelowna

The OKGN Mela South Asian Arts Festival is back, bringing art, music, and food to life.

The event celebrates Indo-Canadian and South Asian culture with a unique platform for young artists to showcase contemporary music, poetry, and visual art.

The two-day festival will be at both Lake Country's Creekside Theatre and Kelowna's Innovation Centre.

Among those performing, is Kelowna’s Deepak Bhatti, who spoke with Ara from 103.1 Beach Radio ahead of the festival. He attended last year, but this time, he's eagerly looking forward to experiencing the festival's performances beyond the music.

“I want to see the poets, and I want to see the actual visual artists,” he said. “There's not a specific single one that I'm really excited about, because everybody brings their own unique flavor and everything.”

Bhatti, who has been making music for over 10 years, said in today's era of technological advancements, the process of making music has evolved to become a powerful tool for aspiring musicians, offering more opportunities and empowerment than ever before.

“I look at how cool it is that Steve Lacy was able to record his album and get it Grammy nominated just through his iPhone and how back then how expensive it was before to like, you know, get a studio, all the equipment,” he explained. “Now you can literally just go get an iRig, connect it to your phone, and then you can record right on there.”

Check out the video to Bhattis perform in studio.

Tickets for the event can be purchased online.