Masttones.com and Project Ahimsa bring chart-topping BBC Radio 1 DJ Bobby Friction to Hollywood for Official ArtWallah Pre-Party Friday June 23rd

(SAN FRANCISCO, June 12, 2006) - Project Ahimsa, an internationally-recognized non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of youth through music, and Masttones.com, the leading provider of South Asian-themed ringtones and mobile media, present “Pickin’ Mangoes: the Official ArtWallah 2006 Pre-Party” – a fundraising event to be held on Friday, June 23rd at 10:00 pm at The Standard Hotel in Hollywood, California.

The evening’s headlining performer will be Bobby Friction, the UK-based DJ/Artist who has represented the British Asian sound as a DJ all over the world and has built a reputation as a genre mixing Asian turntablist from Asia to the US, and from the Middle East to the whole of Europe. His British Asian Urban compilation ’Friction’ (On Sony India) has already sold 120,000 copies in India since its release (Oct 2004) and stayed at number 1 for 14 weeks.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Manav Sadhna and Project Ahimsa Mahatma Gandhi Community Music Center in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. The Center will be built inside the Rampir No Tekro, the largest slum in Gujarat, across the street from Mahatma Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. The Center will house facilities for healthcare, education, women’s empowerment and micro credit, in addition to the Community Music Center.

“Pickin’ Mangoes” will be Project Ahimsa’s third benefit event in the Los Angeles area. Previous Project Ahimsa fundraisers were held at legendary Los Angeles venues the Viper Room and the Sunset Room and featured world-renowned artists such as The Black Eyed Peas, 311, Lily Hayden, Ravidrums and Lal Singh Bhatti.

The benefit event marks the beginning of the ArtWallah 2006 weekend, which continues on Saturday with the seventh annual ArtWallah Festival in Los Angeles. To be held in Downtown Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, the ArtWallah Festival is an annual showcase of the South Asian diasporic arts featuring dance, film, music, spoken word, theater and visual arts from artists from around the world.

Through its grants and instrument donations, Project Ahimsa provides music education for children in poor and under-served areas around the world, particularly in areas affected by violence. Project Ahimsa’s goal is to promote non-violence, cultural exchange and the healing power of music to improve the lives of at-risk and impoverished children. In Sanskrit, “Ahimsa” means “non-violence.”

Event co-presenter Masttones.com is also helping pioneer South Asian music in its own way, developing a strong network of niche artists and distributors, and in January signed its 600th artist and 30th publisher. This is significant because much of the global South Asian music market is fragmented, with artists recording for independent labels and distributors located in the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Pakistan, Thailand, the U.S., Poland, Germany, Kenya, Jamaica, Trinidad, and the Middle East. For North American cell phone owners, the service is available on Verizon Wireless, Cingular, Cricket, U.S. Cellular, Alltel, Cellular South, and Metro PCS.

About Project Ahimsa

Project Ahimsa is a global effort to empower youth through music, with offices in San Francisco and Tampa, Florida. Since its inception in 2001, the organization has reached nearly 10,000 children around the globe through music education grants and musical instrument donations.

Inspired by the teachings of non-violence and cross-cultural understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Project Ahimsa creates and supports music education programs for children around the world. Project Ahimsa is a cultural initiative of the Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel Foundation for Global Understanding (www.global-understanding.org), a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

To learn more, visit www.projectahimsa.org.

Contact Information

Sandeep Bhatt

Program Manager

Project Ahimsa

Contact via E-mail