BRIT Award nominee Apache Indian has been confirmed as the headline act for the 2014 Middlesbrough Mela, on June 7 and 8, with multi-cultural support from The Shama Rahman Band, Team PBN, Intenso, San2 and Hussnain Lahori.

Hosted by actor, director and presenter Ameet Chana – probably best-remembered for his roles as Adi Ferriera in Eastenders or the cinema box office hit Bend it Like Beckham – the Mela main stage has a long-standing reputation.

Around 50,000 people attended last year’s two-day celebration of culture and diversity in the town’s Centre Square, with organisers determined to make this year’s event the best ever, thanks to continued support from sponsors Middlesbrough College.

Having sold 11m albums worldwide while enjoying seven UK top 40 hits, reggae and bhangra raggamuffin star Apache Indian is sure to be a huge hit at the Mela. Noted for his distinctive vocal style, that is a fusion of Asian, West Indian and English cultural influences, the Handsworth-born singer-songwriter was one of the first UK artists of Asian origin to enjoy chart success.

A Brit Award, Mercury Music Prize and Ivor Novello Award nominee, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Asian Music Awards in 2011.

The four-piece Shama Rahman Band are masters of what they dub Urban Folk, mixing music from English, Bengali, Bulgarian and West African traditions. Singer and composer Shama plays the sitar as she weaves stories that start life as poems and take flight as songs.

Born and raised in Manchester, emerging artist Intenso is a mainstay of the UK Asian download charts, having quickly established himself as one of the hottest properties of the Desi-Urban music scene with singles such as Thenu Thakia.

One of the UK’s very few Asian female singer-songwriters, Oshin Mehta has performed across the UK since auditioning for Indian Idol in New Delhi when she was just 15.

San2, who performed on Disney Channel’s Star Ticket in front of Samantha Mumba at the age of eight, is renowned for his versatility, able to switch effortlessly from Hindi to English to Punjabi in a number of music genres. International Pakistani singer Hussnain Lahori – self-taught on the guitar and keyboard – will be performing his catchy recent single, Jag Nalo Sohni Tu, a fun dance-floor pop song.

Already confirmed for the Mela were Bhangra stars PBN - Punjabi By Nature – who will perform their party anthems Aashiq, Kaun Nachdi and the recent dance-floor smash Go Crazy.

Acts will also include Asian R’n’B singer-songwriter Aman Any, who is flying in from Germany for a one-off performance at the Mela, while there will be two performances from the glamorous Bollywood Belles, who bring with them all the colour, atmosphere and beauty of Bollywood.

With seven hours of musical performances scheduled for the second day of the festival, event programmer and main stage manager Kash Patel says: “I’m confident we have delivered something for everyone at this year’s Mela. It is an honour and a privilege to have Apache Indian headlining the Middlesbrough Mela mainstage and celebrating his 25th year in the music business."

Mela chairman Naveed Hussain adds: "Year on year, the Middlesbrough Mela develops and grows. We hope audiences this year will see some new additions, while we are already planning for next year's 25th anniversary event."

The event is organised by Middlesbrough Council in conjunction with a steering group comprising members of the local community.

Bookings are now being taken for stalls. For more details about stall booking or about the Mela visit boromela.co.uk