desiFEST Montreal 2008




The national cultural phenomenom known as RBC desiFEST made its Montreal debut on March 29th as attendees of all ages and nationalities packed the Just For Laughs Museum to capacity, many travelling from as far as Toronto and Ottawa to offer their support.

MC'd by desiFEST's charismatic founder/CEO Sathish Bala, the Montreal event kicked off with a surprise introduction by Canadian luminary Justin Trudeau who joined Sathish on stage to welcome the national South Asian music festival to his home town.



Maintaining its tradition of bringing the most talented South Asian artists to the forefront of the Canadian music scene, desiFEST's Montreal event was no exception as up-and-coming Montreal pop star Prita became the talk of the town after rocking the crowd with her blend of catchy pop melodies and bhangra dance moves. Little Empire, one of Toronto's most respected rap groups, also brought their own style of hardcore hip-hop with a South Asian twist, and the McGill Bhangra Team added fun Bollywood themed dance routines as interludes between the headliner artists - even returning on stage later in the night after repeated requests for an encore performance.

The long awaited national debut of desiFEST's DJ competition ended the performance component of the night as Canada's most celebrated club DJ Baba Kahn introduced impressive battle sets by DJ Publicity from Toronto, DJ 2 Deep from Ottawa and DJ Kaishma from Montreal with the packed crowd acting as the final judge and jury. Following a close tie between DJ Kaishma and DJ 2 Deep, the competition went into a tie-breaker before DJ 2 Deep from Ottawa was ultimately crowned desiFEST's Montreal DJ winner, who will be brought to desiFEST Toronto to compete for the desiFEST National DJ title.




Continuing its trek across Canada, RBC desiFEST's Vancouver debut takes place on May 3rd with a 10 hour outdoor concert in the historic Gastown district, followed by a return 12 hour outdoor Toronto celebration on May 31st in Yonge & Dundas Square, where over 15,000 attendees offered their in person support last year.

For up to date information on artists and events visit www.desifest.ca