“This is heart and soul, I’ll be back”, said Dave, who had made his way over to The Ranch from Seamills, to enjoy our family friendly Diaspora event on Saturday 4th May. And I think it sums up the day perfectly.
The citywide Diaspora event is about celebrating all the different musicians, dancers, storytellers, and other artists who have moved from other countries and made Bristol more wonderful. And this collaboration of different artists from different countries was exactly what made the festival so wonderful. It ran all across Bristol for the whole Bank Holiday weekend and was full of heart and soul from the opening at the Trinity Centre, to the closing ceremony at Bristol Cathedral.
Most of the Festival took place in central Bristol, because until the new arena is built (right on our doorstep here in Southmead) that’s where most of the music venues are. But as we proved – who says music has to happen in a music venue?
The event at The Ranch was perfect for Southmead. Bristol band, Artuba, brought the sunshine and rocked us for over an while we danced and sang along. Afro-Leana really stole the show – the ten feet tall puppet had her first go on a trampoline, organised a dance-off, and high-fived pretty much everybody in the place! There was delicious food, stalls, temporary tattoos, and good vibes! It ended with a parade of all the flags people had made.
The Flag Making craft sessions have been such a hit (with two workshops before the Diaspora celebration, and one during the event) that we have decided to carry it on at the Southmead Festival (on Saturday 13th July) to make a giant Southmead flag – do come and join in.
Thank you so much to everyone who came to The Ranch, to help, enjoy, and support the Southmead Diaspora events, especially to our Volunteers and to our partners Diverse Artists Network.
We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Southmead Festival this year.
To find out more about community work in Southmead, or how to take part in the Southmead Festival, please contact me:
- Email: lucillesmith@southmead.org
- Tel: 0117 950 3335
