The Boishakhi Mela was launched in Banglatown located in London's Tower Hamlets borough - the most populated Bangladeshi area outside of Bangladesh.

The Boishakhi Mela is a unique festival, which has been created by a generation of Bangladeshi people who want to celebrate the Bengali New Year.

It inspires the Bangladeshi diaspora to be more creative during the arrival of the event, through the production and the presentation skills of excellent and innovative ideas through participation in the Boishakhi Mela, including the stage planning, music and dancing.

During the 2008 Mela, a great emperor was leading the parade symbolising the traditional landlord (zamindar) of the Indian subcontinent, along with a tiger, an elephant on wheels, rickshaws, and many others.

[1] Brick Lane, which is home to many Bangladeshi-owned Indian restaurants, serves curry along the streets for the visitors, with traditional Bengali cuisine meals, and cooked by prominent chefs from Bangladesh.

The four stages will host Bengali music, theatre including Sylheti drama, and there will also be dance displays throughout the day.

There were more than 250 school children, dancers, musicians and community groups which participated in the event alongside a mechanical Bengali tiger and the Bangla Queen, which is a four-metre tall peacock structure.