Highlights from Night of Festivals Hounslow in June 2018
Night of Festivals Hounslow
9-10 June 2018
Night of Festivals returned to Hounslow for a fantastic fourth year!
The free 2-day outdoor event brought a vibrant programme of music, dance and world-class carnival to Hounslow’s Bell Square and High Street. Two days featuring everything from Punjabi folk to Hip-Hop, from Bhangra to Jazz. A new addition to 2018’s event was the ‘pop-up museum’ - community researchers worked with Hounslow’s Local Studies Department to reveal the people, places and stories that make the town tick.
The museum was hosted outside Holy Trinity Church on the Saturday, and in Bell Square on the Sunday.
For all those carnival lovers, Mandinga Arts brought larger than life carnival costumes that paraded up and down High Street, including the florescent chickens, giant skeleton and the pineapple Queen!
Carnival on the High Street
World-class carnival creations took over Hounslow’s shopping district
The world renowned Mandinga Arts brought their incredible creations back to Hounslow.
The Pop-up Museum
From Friars to Fairs:
Community researchers worked with Hounslow’s Local Studies Department to reveal the people, places and stories that make the town tick. Throughout the festival audiences were encouraged to visit the ‘pop-up museum’ for free to explore this new material.

The Giant Skeleton

Live from Bell Square!
SATURDAY 9 JUNE
Strizzy Strauss and Starboy Sun Sun (16Ten)
12:00 - 12:40
This upcoming hip-hop duo are members of the midlands based Creatives Collective 16Ten. 16Ten aims to provide an alternative to the current hip hop narrative in terms of sound and content. They use their experience of growing up on a deprived estate to provide a positive message for the next generation. The pair have music available on digital / streaming services including, Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music, and Music Videos on YouTube channels such as Grm Daily and Mixtape Madness.
Iryna Muha
13:00 - 13:40
Iryna is a singer and songwriter, performer of Eastern European folklore. Her songs, accompanied on guitar and hurdy gurdy, tell timeless stories of old and new Ukraine, often from a pure female perspective. Her traditional vocal style captures listeners' imagination and let it wonder to natural landscapes and mystical sceneries. Growing up in Ukraine, Iryna’s early music influences were her father’s accordion playing and her mother’s singing at home. It was when Iryna migrated to USA, and later to the
UK in 2003, that she developed a keen interest in her roots and started to explore Slavic folklore.
MUDIBU
14:00 - 14:40
Mudibu is a self taught Burundian musician living in the UK. He posses a rich and powerful voice and a charismatic stage presence. You don’t need to know anything about Mudibu’s past or understand his language to feel the message conveyed in his songs; his intensity and passion instantly captures audiences and reaches deep inside.
Gurdain Rayatt
15:00 - 15:30
Born and bred in the UK, Gurdain Rayatt is one of the finest young tabla players in the country today. His rigorous training from his father and grandfather, and also the late Pandit Shankar Ghosh, has resulted in a varied and rich lineage of repertoire and style from the Punjab, Benares and Farukhabad gharanas. He was a prominent member of the tabla-tarang group “Chakardar” showcasing tabla solo repertoire within a group of 5-10 tabla players at a time as well as Sam-Yo, the South Asian Music Youth Orchestra which combined both north and south indian melodic and percussion instruments.
Namvula
15:50 - 16:25
As well as Co-Founding Director of Film Africa, London’s largest celebration of African cinema and culture, Namvula is one of the few Zambian singers performing in Europe. Her music fuses the folk and urban traditions of her Zambian homeland with her Scottish roots and London’s vibrant eclectic music scene. She has worked with some of UK’s most respected African, jazz and folk musicians, including
Mercury-nominated Led Bib bassist, producer Liran Donin, saxophonist Chris Williams, percussionist Mamadou Sarr (Baaba Maal), and guitarist Jack Ross.
Amrit Kaur Lohia
16:35 - 17:05
Amrit is a singer-songwriter, Sarangi player and vocalist in genres of Punjabi folk, jazz and soul. She also plays the Mbira and Dilruba. Based in London, she tours internationally as a performer and composer at events and festivals including Glastonbury Festival 2017, Jaipur Literature Festival (India), Googleplex (California), UN General Assembly 2015 for Unicef (The Town Hall, New York), Royal Festival Hall, TEDxSOAS, Casa De La India (Spain), Embassy of India (Washington D.C.), Ashoka University (India), UC Berkeley, Princeton University and Columbia
University.
MML Dhol Beats UK
17:15 - 18:00
MML are the only band in UK to play Traditional Maharastrian Dhol Tasha. They have performed at major UKs event including the City of London Holi Celebration, Trafalgar Square’s Diwali celebrations, and in 2015 they performed to the crowds at Wembley Stadium to welcome Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister.
SUNDAY 10 JUNE
SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMANCE FROM XFACTOR FINALIST TALIA DEAN
16:00
Hounslow’s very own Talia Dean closed the festival with her first home gig since her TV appearance in 2017. The singer-songwriter is mostly known for her powerful voice and endearing nature. She has recently been a finalist on the XFactor UK 2017, making it to the live shows as a public favourite.
For Night of Festivals Talia will returned to her routes with a ‘busking style’ performance. She performed with instrumental accompaniment from guitar and tabla.
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