Three-day '˜through the night' music festival returns to Leeds for 8th year

RadhaRaman Folk Festival offers audiences a fusion of Asian and British folk music, with an emphasis on ancient and mystical music.Founder Ahmed Kaysher, 43, said: 'This became an international festival for the celebration of Bengali folk music and its philosophy. 'The festival offers endless fun along with the great opportunity of networking, profound music and dazzling dance by the best of these genres. 'It was set to tackle extremism with the magic of art and music and over the last seven years, has successfully involved a vast number of women and young people who are excluded through religious and social barriers.'many international artists are coming that include Prof Dr Shiab Gibran from Bangladesh, singer Gouri Chowdhury, Amith Dey, Laboni Barua, Saida Tani, Kajal Mukherjee, dancer Sohel Ahmed, Poet David Lee Mrogan and author Mike Sherif from London and poet Ian Duhig and poet Julian Turner from Leeds.The three-day long folk music, dance and poetry festival will run from Friday to Sunday.It will start on Friday at 7pm at Moortown Methodist Church, with folk-influenced semi-classical music by a Leeds-based singer Sumana Basu, poetry, talk and a film screening on folk-philosophy and mysticism. The festival will start again the next day at noon in the Reginald Centre, Chapeltown with a panel discussion, poetry and dance.An evening of music and poetry will take place on Saturday at Otley Chevin from 4pm to 7.30pm, before the next session at Moortown Methodist Church at 8pm, until early morning on Sunday. There will be music, dance and poetry at Bangladeshi community centre, Roundhay Road all day.

RadhaRaman Folk Festival offers audiences a fusion of Asian and British folk music, with an emphasis on ancient and mystical music.

Founder Ahmed Kaysher, 43, a librarian in Leeds, said: “This became an international festival for the celebration of Bengali folk music and its philosophy.

“The festival offers endless fun along with the great opportunity of networking, profound music and dazzling dance by the best of these genres.

“It was set to tackle extremism with the magic of art and music and over the last seven years, has successfully involved a vast number of women and young people who are excluded through religious and social barriers.”

The three-day long folk music, dance and poetry festival will run from Friday to Sunday.

It will start on Friday at 7pm at Moortown Methodist Church, with folk-influenced semi-classical music by a Leeds-based singer Sumana Basu, poetry, talk and a film screening on folk-philosophy and mysticism.

The festival will start again the next day at noon in the Reginald Centre, Chapeltown with a panel discussion, poetry and dance.

An evening of music and poetry will take place on Saturday at Otley Chevin from 4pm to 7.30pm, before the next session at Moortown Methodist Church at 8pm, until early morning on Sunday. There will be music, dance and poetry at Bangladeshi community centre, Roundhay Road all day.