Location: PAHS > Past Events

Punjabi American Festival 2006

Click here to visit the 2006 Festival Page.  You can also read a newspaper article about the Festival from May 30, 2006.

Punjabi American Festival 2002

Click here to view photos from the festival.  You can also read newspaper articles about the Festival from May 25, 2002 and May 27, 2002.

Punjabi American Festival 2001

This year's Festival was a great success.  The largest audience in the history of the Punjabi American Festival attended the 2001 Festival.  People danced to the live music of Balwinder Safri and the Safri Boys and B21, and listened to the devotional songs of Dya Singh. 

PHOTOS: Click here to view 125 photos from the Festival! Also, click here for an article about the Festival.

Read this article that appeared in the Appeal-Democrat newspaper on May 28, 2001:

Punjabi culture celebrated in Yuba-Sutter
Heritage on display at annual festival

Chris Kaufman /Appeal-Democrat

Harpreet Chahal, center, and other women with the Yuba City Ladies prepare to perform the Gidha Mutiaran Daa during the Punjabi American Festival 2001 at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds Sunday.

Daniel Witter
Appeal-Democrat

Thousands of people flooded into the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds Sunday to celebrate the Punjabi American Heritage Festival's seventh year with music, dance, food and culture.

The crowd was among the largest ever seen at the celebration, according to event organizers. The event brought musicians and others from around the world to perform before a huge crowd sitting on the grass under the shade of trees.

One by one, performers, some as young as 2 years old, went up on the stage in colorful regalia, proudly displaying their heritage. Some danced, some sang, while other performed Sikh martial arts demonstrations.

Tejinder Maan of Punjabi Waves provided the televising and sound equipment for the festival. He said the celebration is designed to appeal to everyone, not just the Punjabi community.

"The goal is to make this as mainstream as possible," he said.

"The greatest (part) is we are adding to the beauty of America," agreed Dr. Jasbir Kang, one of the event's founders.

But Maan said the Punjabi community is making an earnest effort to retain their culture and pass it on to their children.

"If it weren't for this festival, our children wouldn't be hearing about our culture," he said. But by seeing such a large display of art, music, food and community, "It encourages them to learn more about their culture."

One such display was presented by preschool children between 2 to 5 years old, dancing in full regalia to Punjabi music while the crowd of people watched on with smiles.

Dya Singh, an Australian performer, also performed before the large crowd, singing hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Punjabi holy book.

On the perimeter of the audience, merchants were selling everything from bracelets and clothes fabric to paintings.

Darshan Singh of East-West Art was selling paintings portraying Punjabi culture. He said the paintings were selling because they showed Punjabi people in their homeland, living the culture that is so important to them.

Singh said the paintings are important and people buy them and display them in their homes to remind children how life was lived in Punjab.

Among the paintings were portraits of the 10 Gurus that wrote the spiritual words of the Guru Granth Sahib.

On the other side of the fairgrounds, films were being shown, depicting what life was like for immigrant Punjabi people who came to the United States and became farmers within this community.

About 10,000 people were expected for the event, which drew people from all over Northern California.

 

Daniel Witter reports on people and events happening in the Yuba City and Tierra Buena areas. If you have a story idea, call Daniel at 741-2400, ext. 312.

Punjabi American Festival (Mela) 2000

This year's Festival attracted the largest audience ever; over 12,000 people attended.  Photos: You can now view pictures from the festival by clicking here.  Raj Babbar, one of the guests at the festival and star of the film "Shaheed Uddham Singh" is working on two movies.  Click here to read more about them and view pictures from the movies.

4th Annual Youth Seminar

The Youth Seminar (November 20, 1999) featured many interesting speakers such as Narinder Singh, Harvind Kaur, Karamjit Kaur, Kanwaldeep Randhawa, and more. You can read more about it by clicking here.

2nd Annual Essay Competition

Judging these great essays was not easy. Congratulations to everyone who entered for writing some great essays. If you are interested in reading the criteria that the students who entered had to follow, click here.

Punjabi American Festival 1999--10,000 visitors

The 1999 Punjabi American Festival was a great success! Click here to read about it and view pictures.

Click here for more Past Events
 

We have been running a local TV show on public access on channel 37 every Friday at 8 p.m. called Apna Punjab, in which we try to promote Punjabi culture, teachings of the Sikh Gurus, views of different people regardless of their religion, local events (Annual Sikh Parade and Annual Punjabi Mela), etc.