‘Cultures mixed together’: South Asian music festival filling gap during Stampede

Amar Duhra, left, and Jas Toor in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Duhra and Toor have organized North America's largest outdoor South Asian music festival, Stampede Mela. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

For those who don’t necessarily want to kick up their cowboy boots at the Calgary Stampede, there’s Stampede Mela.

It bills itself as the largest 18+ South Asian music festival in North America and begins Friday at The Confluence (formerly Fort Calgary), not far from the midway ferris wheel of the Stampede itself.

“Probably about four or five years ago, we actually decided that we wanted to do something in the South Asian music space in Calgary because Stampede has become quite a big music festival scene,” organizer Amar Duhra said in an interview.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

“Our goal was to bring some representation from the South Asian community.

“We want to bring a more multicultural approach to the Stampede instead of the usual rodeo-style country music.”

Duhra came up with the concept with friend Jas Toor.

The pair held an indoor festival last year with a few bands and 2,000 people attending. This year, it is outdoors. There are 22 artists and the goal is 5,000 attendees. About 3,000 tickets have already been sold.

“The city’s demographics has a very large South Asian population and there’s really no product for those type of people or other types of population at all really,” said Toor.

“It kind of just snowballed over the course of months and grew a lot bigger than we really anticipated.”

There won’t be violins or steel guitars at Mela. The music is bhangra, originating from the Punjab region. It relies on a heavy beat from a double-sided drum called a dhol. As it has progressed, it has been remixed with hip hop, known as folk hop, and rap music.

“A lot of the stuff is done electronically now,” Duhra said. “Drum and bass sounds are really, really heavy in Indian music.”

About half the visitors are from Calgary’s South Asian community. Others attending are coming to Calgary from Edmonton, Vancouver, California, Seattle and Miami.

Duhra said the festival is not meant to take away from the Calgary Stampede. He and Toor grew up in Calgary and are proud of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth — it’s just meant to fill a void.

“For us, it’s not a competition in the sense that we’re trying to steal people from other shows,” he said. “Actually, we’re just very proud of our culture.

“We’re very proud from where we come from. We know that there’s a big population there and we want it to be represented.”

Toor fully expects that there will be plenty of attendees dressed in cowboy hats and boots, but that instead of pancakes, they should expect something more traditional, such as samosas.

“I don’t think you could divorce the actual point of what happens during Stampede with everything that goes on at that time. I think it’s a good thing to have the cultures mixed together.”

Most of the acts are Canadian. Sultaan, a Punjabi musician known to be a big contributor to Punjabi rap music, is from Moose Jaw, Sask.

Other acts include Chani Nattan, Ar Paisley, Inderpal Moga, BK, OG Ghuman, Intense, Big Ghuman, Mohitveer, Jay Trak, Bhalwaan, HRJXT, G Funk, A4, Gmafia, Signature By SB, Cheema, 4MXN, Shally Rehal, Gav, Yuvy, Kanda Music, Indus, and DJ Jazzy Hans.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press