ISLAMABAD: This weekend Music Mela returned to the federal capital and the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) once again became the centre of Pakistan’s music world. The US embassy and the Foundation for Arts and Culture (FACE) jointly organised the Music Mela 2016 boasted more than 15,000 fans over the past three days, excited to hear 30 famed Pakistani, American and global acts. The American band ‘Grupo Fantasma’ stole the show on Friday night, wowing the packed crowed with their Latin funk sound. Fusing American and Latin sounds with international influences, the nine-member band performed hits from their Grammy Award-winning album, ‘El-Existencial’. Bright lights shined upon American sitarist Amie Maciszewski on Saturday night, as she performed a sitar, tabla and Indo-jazz fusion ensemble at sunset. Other headlining acts at Music Mela this year included Noori, Rizwan Muazzam Qawwal, Javed Bashir, Arieb Azhar, Zoe Viccaji, Qawalistan with Imran Aziz Mian and Ali Sethi. While commenting on this year’s artist line-up, FACE Creative Director Arieb Azhar said, “This was Music Mela’s third year and it couldn’t have been better. We’ve been so lucky to have such an amazing group of talented Pakistani and international musicians this year with genres ranging from folk, to rock and to pop”. The artists led workshops on the sidelines of Music Mela throughout the event for established and up-coming music professionals. Grupo Fantasma, Amie Maciszewski and other musicians joined a panel discussion on music and globalisation. Other sessions included a songwriting workshop by Ali Noor and Ali Hamza and a discussion of online music promotion by American music publicist Tristra Yeager. The US embassy gives over Rs 100 million annually to support arts programming in Pakistan including Music Mela. Each year, with US government’s support, dozens of Pakistani musicians participate in programmes like the Pakistani showcase at South-by-Southwest Music Festival, the Dosti Music Project and Daniel Pearl world music days.