FOOD is at the top of the bill once again this year as the annual Glasgow Mela rolls into town.

This year’s colourful event in Kelvingrove Park is set to be bigger and better than ever with every taste and diet catered for.

Organisers have divulged all the catering details, releasing the names of all the food providers who will be pitching up tent for the day in the West End, and what they will be dishing out to the tens of thousands who are expected to flock to the park on Sunday.

Red Cherry and Shangreela will be on hand, dishing out hot and spicy Indian main meals, including rice and a variety of vegetable and meat curries. Other festival favourites will be on the site, including Burger Grill along with LL Catering (fish and chips), Let’s Eat (pizza and churros), Tubzee (kulfi and falooda), Moretti’s (ice-cream, coffee and cake), while Veggie Barn fires up treats for non-meat eaters.

Eight other specialty food providers will be on hand, including Chipstix (potato skewers), Charcoals (Indian barbeque), Babu Kitchen (Bombay street food), Mad About Donuts (donuts), Nomad Pizza (pizza), Pad T’Aye (Thai street food), Shri Bheema’s (South Asian) and Hector & Harriet (crepes and gourmet donuts).

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As well as top food and drink, overall, Mela-goers are in for a treat this year as the annual event takes a new direction.

For the first time, the event is being programmed and curated by the Scottish-Asian Creative Artists Network who are aiming to explore the Scottish-Asian and British-Asian experience. The team is hoping to transform the Mela into a platform for activism through arts and culture, to nurture and grow local artists.

This year’s programme focuses on South Indian language and songs featuring everything from anti-caste protest songs from local noise-rocker Kapil Seshasayee to Scotland’s very first Sufi Qawwali group.

Deepa Nair Rasiya, who has been described as a “pioneering and innovative composer with a deeply soul-stirring vocal style”, will also be making an appearance.

In another first for the Glasgow Mela, the event will be hosting an artist-in-residence, Mila Brown. Mila will be at Kelvingrove Park all day, inviting all Mela-goers to help her make a new piece of work. In a year of change, families will also find comedians, poets and a ceilidh.

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Glasgow Mela’s programmers for 2019 said: “The Scottish-Asian Creative Artists’ Network are proud to present our vision for Glasgow Mela, promoting the visibility of plural South Asian transnational and diasporic identities through new artistic expressions.

“We are excited about the change we have been able to enact through this year’s programme, and the opportunities we’ve been able to create for local artists.”

Glasgow’s first Mela was in 1990 as part of the European City of Culture and was an indoor celebration at the then newly-opened Tramway.

It has since grown into a massive outdoor event which attracts tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of artists and performers from all over the world.

Coming from the Sanskrit word “to meet”, the Mela has become an eagerly-anticipated fixture on the cultural calendar of the city every summer.

Read more of today's top Glasgow stories.

The event starts at noon and runs until 8pm. It is free to attend.

Visit glasgowmela.com.