I had the privelage of being the official photographer for the first annual South Asian Festival  took place at Confederation Park in the heart of Ottawa!  Thousands of people attended despite the few spells of rain we received! A big thanks to all the organizers for doing a flawless job at organizing this event, all the vendors for not only the amazing goods and services but also for opening up their booths to let people stand in the shelter while it poured on the grounds! The Volunteers for doing an amazing job at keeping on top of everything! and the biggest shout out goes to all those who attended! It was definitely an unforgettable day and it wouldn’t have been half as fun if you guys didn’t come out to show your support!

Now a little about the festival - There was such a wide variety of performances all day. One of the earlier performances was the ‘Atan’  by The Afghan Student Association. Atan is a traditional dance where everyone dances in a circle to the beat of the dhol & shehnai.  Just Wow!  There were two stunning performances of the Snake Dance from Sri Lanka.  Very soothing beats of Calypso performed by Sri Lankan groups.  Of course lots of Bollywood dance numbers and Bhangra teams and a whole lot of others!  Prita was the last perfomer for the day…she is such an  amazing singer and the fact that she’s South Asian is super! She’s so down to earth and was just great at getting everyone dancing to her songs.  The evening wrapped up with the DJ mixing some amazing bhangra and bollywood beats.

I can promise you that this Festival is going to only get bigger and better! See you all next year!

To view all the pictures from the South Asian Festival. Please go to:

www.amnahakim.com > portfolio > clients > Events: South Asian Festival   [You can download pictures from there.  If you want prints or high resolution files, feel free to send me an email.]

In the meanwhile enjoy some of my favourite shots below followed by a slideshow.

A few of the Afghani Dancers. I love their clothes! They are sooooooo lovely!

Prita performing one of her awesome songs.

The crowd having an amazing time.

This is what happens when it rains buckets..no one wants to leave..so everyone just waits for it to stop raining…! hehe

and when it stops raining..it’s like nothing ever happened! hahaha we’re back to enjoying ourselves!

Now the slideshow:

I’m so excited for this Saturday becuase I’m going to be Photographing a fantastic event that will be taking place in Confederation Park in Ottawa! The South Asian Festival is going to be a one of a kind event and it’s going to be so much fun..lots of performances all day - vendors, stalls and amazing food!

So make sure you come out and show some support! and dont forget to come say hi to me! I’ll be the one with the camera… 

July 18, 2009 - 11am - 8pm - Free Admission - Confederation Park - info@southasianfestival.org

For the performance schedule and other details - please visit www.southasianfestival.org

Hi guys - I had the opportunity to go out and photograph a Cocktail Party at the East India Company.  This was the Event Launch for the upcoming 1st Annual South Asian Festival that is to take place on July 18th, 2009 at Confederation Park in downtown. 

The turnout was just great - everyone came out to show their support.

While photographing that evening, I got to mingle with people and I got to meet some very interesting people.  

So - I’d like to take a moment to pass my best wishes to NETIP-Ottawa - This festival is going to be HUGE!! Everyone make sure you get involved and definitely come out and just enjoy the activities planned for the day.

I’m going to be photographing the Festival also…so stay posted…for now..have a look at the images I got at the Event Launch.  These are just a few of the images from the evening - for the full album, visit:

www.amnahakim.com > portfolio > featured

enjoy! 

 Hello Everyone - A little while back I posted the Poster for the Flower show at Algonquin College.  I finally got the chance to post some of the amazing shots I got at the show - Photography and plants are both my loves…so you can well imagine what a great time I had taking these shots! So enjoy yourself and try to visit the school yourself to have a look at the amazing display!

Once again - don’t forget to leave comments and tell me what you think!