By Amit Gossai

The fourth annual Telus Mosaic 2009 South Asian festival takes centre stage this weekend at Mississauga's City Centre at the Square One complex.

The festival, which should attract 50,000 people, runs June 19-21. Admission is free.

"This year, the line-up is the best of any free festival happening in the GTA," said festival director Asma Arshad Mahmood.

Top-notch performers include RDB, Nindy Kaur and Swami.

There will also be performances by the Kathak dance duo Vidha and Abhimanyu Lal, Cassius Khan, Kreuger Singh, Ustad Irshad Khan and the Fusion Ensemble, Shiamak's Indo Jazz, Mississauga's Sampradaya Dance and Sri Sanskriti Dance, DK Bollywood, Nachdi Jawani and others.

Friday night opens with an outdoor screening of Singh Is King at 9:00 p.m.

The festival kicked off last month with the opening of Bazgasht: Traditional Methods and Modern Practices exhibit.

The exhibit features 51 miniature paintings by South Asian artists at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

The exhibition continues until July 12.

"Mississauga has a very large South Asian community and I am really happy to see so many South Asians in the gallery," said Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. "This is a wonderful exhibition and I am happy that the organizers chose Mississauga's own art gallery for this show."

Running alongside the festival is the South Asian Film Festival produced by Filmi.

Brampton-based Dinesh Sachdev founded and established Filmi 10 years ago to support and display South Asian filmmakers in Canada and North America.

Filmi will be screening from June 17-19 at the Noel Ryan Theatre located in the Mississauga Central Library.

Films include The Pool, Ganesh: Boy Wonder, Purple Coloured Curtains, Statures Comes to Life, I Do. Do I?, Wires with Words, Home and Native Land and Ziddi Larki.

All showings are free and open to the public.

For a complete schedule, visit www.filmi.org.

Mahmood said organizers are able to put a great show together because everyone’s a volunteer.

“We have no year-round expenses or salaries to pay. The festival director as well as ten other directors are all voluntary positions,” said Mahmood. “We do it because we love our arts and culture and we want to share it with other communities.”

For a complete list of festival programming, visit www.mosaicfest.com.