RED FM Summer Bhangra Jam returns to Surrey with dance performances and family activities
Local teams will compete in a bhangra competition for cash prizes and awards
The top bhangra dancers at the event will receive a $6,000 cash prize and trophy. (Submitted)
This year’s RED FM Summer Bhangra Jam is set to take place in Surrey’s Holland Park on Aug. 2, celebrating South Asian heritage with dance, food, and music.
The highlight of the festival is the bhangra competition, where local teams will compete on stage with traditional dance performances.
The top three winners will receive trophies along with cash prizes, with first place taking home $6,000, second place receiving $3,000, and third place receiving $1,000. The teams will be judged by professional judges.
Additional trophies will be awarded for Best Dressed, Most Entertaining, Best Mix, and Best Dancer. The Spirit Squad award will be decided by the audience, based on which team receives the loudest cheers.
To be eligible for the bhangra competition, a team should include eight to 12 dancers and submit an audition video of their dance performance or practice session.
RED FM Promotions Manager Delpreet Bains says the aim of the festival is to promote culture and diversity through dancing.
Apart from the bhangra competition, the festival will offer family and kid activities, such as face painting, balloon twisting, galaxy castles, games, and crafts, among others.
“We want to create an event where everybody can come during the summer,” Bains says. “We know, [in] today’s time, a lot of things are very expensive and it’s hard for a family to go out and do a lot of things.”
Bains adds there will also be free henna painting, a marketplace selling traditional clothes, jewelry, household items, and more, in addition to food trucks.
“There’s going to be a lot of different types of food vendors, so make sure you come hungry,” Bains says.
The night will end with two concerts featuring Punjabi singers Gurnam Bhullar and Harjit Harman. There will also be other local performances promoting Canadian content, Bains adds.
The idea to hold a bhangra jam came up a few years ago in Toronto, Bains says, adding the city had a call out for a cultural event.
“We had applied and got it, and it went so successfully in Toronto. Then, we decided to have it in Calgary and Vancouver.”
The first Calgary Jam took place in the city on July 12 at Prairie Winds Park, Bains says.
“It was an amazing, amazing event, and we can’t wait to be back next year.”
The Toronto jam will take place in Mississauga, Ont., on Aug. 9 at Celebration Square.
“With busy life and the regular Monday-to-Friday [schedule], we just want people to come by on a weekend, on a Saturday, leave their troubles behind at home and … enjoy some time with friends and family,” Bains says.
For more information, visit www.redfm.ca/summerbhangrajam.
