Music is known for its ability to bring together many different cultures, cross barriers and create something unique. One group, Citadels of the Sun, have found a pairing that you might not expect - traditional Irish folk music and traditional Indian folk music blended together. The group, who are taking part in Belfast Mela, said that is something they use as a focus when song writing and performing.
The festival has been taking place over the past week with final celebrations taking place on Sunday at Botanic Gardens. The musicians are performing at the Showcase Stage after performing to a sell-out crowd at The Mac on Friday. The distinctive name for the group, Citadels of the Sun, refers to two sun forts: Grianán of Aileach in Donegal and Mehrangarh in Jodhpur.
The group is made up of Martin Coyle, Paul Cutliffe, Sarah E Cullen, Asin Khan Langa and Sawai Khan Manganiyar. Asin and Sawai told BBC News NI they loved performing worldwide and "can’t wait for our performance at Belfast Mela”. Martin Coyle, from Londonderry, plays the Irish Bouzouki – a stringed instrument which is similar to a mandolin.
“Initially I found the project very daunting as we didn’t know how it was going to gel together but after spending more time with Asin and Sawai, we found out we had much more in common than what we thought,” he said. “It turns out Indian and Irish culture is much more similar than you would believe as a lot of it is based on folk tales, so this gave us a strong b.