Andy D'Agorne

I hadnt heard of this event either, until I was invited to join the great and the good of our city at the Lord Mayor's Breakfast this week. However you need to know that the Indian Film industry is bigger than Hollywood, and their equivalent of the Oscars will be given out at the Sheffield Arena this year, with a worldwide audience of over 350 million!

Previous years events have been hosted in Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam etc. A consortium of five Yorkshire cities will be in the spotlight this June, with a fringe festival and lots of business opportunities to make trading links with the fast growing Indian economy. The cities are Hull, York, Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield. Bradford is no stranger to events such as a Mela, but for the first time one will be held in Hull. York will be hosting a glitzy fashion show close to or in one of our key historic buildings.

And what about the breakfast? Well being veggie, I passed on the bacon or sausage buttie and opted to follow Radio York presenter Elli Fiorentini in having fruit salad and Longley Farm yoghurt. When we get the first Green Lord Mayor we will introduce Quorn sausages and 'cheating bacon' on brown bread to go with the muesli and fresh fruit! And of course we will ditch those aweful coffee machines in the committee rooms that use a sachet of plastic every time you have a drink to end up swelling our landfill sites. (reminds me must start taking a flask again)