Massive 20,000-person Muslim food and shopping festival coming to London

msn.com:

London Muslim Shopping Festival will once again host the popular cookery theatre and the Food court in association with London Halal Food Festival, will be serving up tasty dishes.

Speaking to MyLondon, event director Waleed Jahangir said: "I myself come from an events background and I'm from the Muslim community, I grew up next to a mosque and at the same time everyone was thrown into a western environment so finding the balance was tricky.

What I wanted to do was showcase the best of the community and culture through trade, economics and commerce. " READ MORE: What makes Southall unique from chaat stalls and fancy Desi clothes to the delicious smell of fried jalebi Waleed continued: "We started this many years ago and although we're the fastest growing community in the world, out needs have not been tapped into in the mainstream.

The first year event was six years ago and we went straight into it, we had various celebrities over the years such as the Citizen Khan crew, then we grew from there and year on year out we've been doubling the rate of exhibitors and attendees. "We started with around 5,000 and this year we're expecting 20,000 people, we had to change venues from Olympia as we started off in a small hall then grew into biggest hall then outgrew it and came to Excel London. "You can look forward to a Halal food court, bazaar, seminars, kids zone and one of the main attractions is a modest catwalk, modest fashion live which is Europe's biggest Muslim catwalk.