Over the weekend, local Bhangra Community, Apna Virsa took the centre stage at Tesco Extra, Slough Wellington Street, in celebration of the Sikh religious festivities, Vaisakhi.
Dancers were hidden amongst Tesco shoppers, pretending to shop when an announcement was made in store calling for “All Bhangra lovers to make their way to the Customer Services point” of the store.
A countdown began over the intercom and an unknown space was created by the customer service point.
A Bhangra remix melody titled ‘Best of Bhangra 2018’ by DJ Frenzy began blaring over the speaker, and two Apna Virsa members took the centre stage busting out a Bhangra routine.
Slowly, more and more dancers hidden amongst onlookers and shoppers joined in on the routine, surprising the audience and creating a breath-taking performance.
In the end, a large group were dancing to a well-versed routine, ending on a freestyle and a finale chorusing ‘Happy Vaisakhi’ to the onlookers.
Check out a video of the event here: http://www.facebook.com/apna.virsa/videos/2304675676262078/
Bobbi Johal and Seema Kamboj, Project Coordinators at Apna Virsa, said: “What an amazing weekend for the Apna Virsa family! This was a fantastic celebration of Vaisakhi with the community in an exuberant Flash Mob Bhangra display, with loads of smiles and bucketloads of energy and a community spirit at its best. It was an incredible experience for the whole of Apna Virsa team along with massive support from Tutor Priya Sharma and Nav Hothi too. Massive thanks to all our participants for their contagious enthusiasm and support. Big thanks to Slough Tesco for the collaboration and supporting our community events.”
Apna Virsa (‘our roots’ in Punjabi) is a non-profit community organisation based in Slough with the main purpose of exploring, sharing and celebrating South Asian Culture and Heritage with the larger community, promoting awareness, better communications and Health and Wellbeing between different communities.
Vaisakhi is a historical religious festival in Sikhism which commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under one of the Sikh Guru’s, Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and ultimately the birth of Sikhs. It is additionally a spring harvest festival for the Sikhs with celebrations that include decorating Gurdwara’s and community fairs and parades distributing festive foods.
