Introduction

23rd September, 9.30pm, Plaça Reial, concert by Cui Jian
24th September, 11am to midnight, Parc de la Ciutadella

In this 8th year there will be a wide range of artistic events, both traditional and contemporary, many of them led by the Asian communities present in Catalonia.

The Asia Festival is now a firm fixture of the programme of the Festes de La Mercè. It offers two main formats:

• A major concert headed by Cui Jian, considered the great icon of Chinese rock, support band of the Rolling Stones in Shanghai (2006) and of Deep Purple in Beijing (2004).
• A whole day in the Parc de la Ciutadella especially aimed at families, where you can enjoy and participate in a handful of activities with the objective of discovering Asia through the five senses: the lake of desires, the marquee of the voice and the marquee of babies. Also all the artistic events in the passeig dels Til·lers such as ikebana, kabaddi, wushu wushu or the art of wearing the sari. You can also see the practices of qi gong with the Taoist master Tian Chengyang, the Bollywood dances with Sunny Singh or Filipino pandangoo sa Ilaw. You can learn to throw the boomerang, to play the Nepalese board game carrom or traditional Chinese games. You will meet the group Natapala and Chinese dragons parading through the park. Moreover, we invite you to discover Central Asia with Clavijo’s travel game and, of course, a whole series of musical performances such as the gamelan of Caraka Laras, , an Indonesian orchestra that, accompanied by two dancers, will open the morning; the Baul inspired music of Sri Gopal Das Baul Group, the popular Pakistani singer Sk 1 or Famiya Khan, an extraordinary Bengali female vocalist who lives in our country. The evening will close with cinema al fresco where you can enjoy the screening of two films: We went to wonderland (China-Great Britain, 2008) and In between days (South Korea-Canada, 2007).

And let’s not forget that from 23rd to 27th you can discover the flavours of the continent in the marquees of the Asian cuisines, that you will also find in the park.