Festival review: Edinburgh Mela

After a difficult 18 months,­ ­during which its artistic ­director resigned and its core funding was pulled, the ­Edinburgh Mela has risen like a phoenix from the ashes – albeit with slightly less ­plumage. Former director Chris ­Purnell’s ambitious plans are a distant memory, with three live stages reduced to one, and no commissioned programming on the bill. Instead, this popular and undeniably vital event in the Edinburgh calendar has gone back to its roots. The word mela means “meeting”, and that aspect was alive and well in this new, scaled-down ­version, with thousands of people from different cultural backgrounds rubbing ­shoulders on Leith Links.