The Preston City Mela festival is a very popular event in the Preston calendar – last year around 5000 people visited the site. There are traditionally 3 types of stalls that provide services or activities for these visitors:
- creatives based in the Preston area, who demonstrate traditional South Asian skills like henna, rangoli, calligraphy and kite making
- voluntary & support sector organisations based in the Preston area, who are able to provide useful support, services, advice or information to festival visitors
- food vendors based in the Preston area, who are there to feed festival visitors and show the important role that food plays in South Asian culture
PCM Bazaar
However this year we are introducing a 4th. Stalls that will feature in our new ‘Bazaar’ section (limited to 10 stalls as it’s our 1st Bazaar). The aim of which is to highlight Preston based South Asian ’maker’ businesses that promote the range of skills that we have in the city. These might be anything from start ups that operate from home or more established names already on the high street – the key thing is that we want to promote the range of Preston based talents that are channelling their creative skills towards a business opportunity.
The hope is that we can show how traditional techniques might be influencing new ways of working and how makers are creating both traditional products and new adaptations. These products could be anything from artizan baking to art & crafts to clothing design to furniture etc etc.
Booking your stall
We have contacted you as one of the providers that we want to be at the 2024 Preston City Mela (do not pass this page link onto other people). We have prioritised providers that are Preston based and from the South Asian community.
Please fill out the form below and where necessary provide the proof of public liability insurance and other necessary certification. Please note that if you do not fill out this form and provide all documents by Monday the 3rd of June we will pass your stall on to somebody else from a reserves list.
Prices for stalls this year will be :
Creative demonstration stall in a main activity marquee – free to the commissioned artist (we pay them an agreed fee for their services, so that they don’t need to charge the festival visitor for doing the activity)
Voluntary & support sector stall in a main activity marquee – free of charge
Food vendor stall based in the food vendor section of the site – £150
Bazaar stall in the Bazaar section of the site – regular stall £50 and large stall £100
*please note – if a fee is due for your stall we will contact you directly once you have registered (all fees will be due within 2 weeks of registration)
