‘In music there are no borders. When you have no borders, you have no refugees.’
Celebrating Sanctuary was an extraordinary event which gathered together established and emerging refugee musicians, dancers and artists to celebrate the positive cultural contribution of refugees to the UK.
Celebrating Sanctuary demonstrates that such a vibrant panorama of sight, sound, aroma and taste would not exist had it not been for the UK’s hard won tradition of providing sanctuary to those fleeing persecution from many parts of the globe.
This years highlights included Indie rockers Noisettes tearing up the main stage and Book Slam. The festival also featured Gypsy Soul from London-based Russian-born singer/songwriter Angelina who is making waves on Atlanta’s R’n’B scene, Congolese soukous from new Londoners Kasai Masai, Sephardic Flamenco by Los Desterrados and Mukka, probably the finest UK-based exponents of Romanian music.
There was also be a multitude of stalls selling mouth-watering dishes and drinks from all over the world, a dedicated dance stage, workshops and activities for children (such as UK charity Afghanaid’s workshops to make kites likes the ones seen in the popular book and film The Kite Runner), plus information stalls in the Festival marketplace.
Book Slam Session in the Acoustic Yurt – hosted by novelist Patrick Neate
With 2008 being the National Year of Reading, Celebrating Sanctuary hooked up with Book Slam, the brainchild of Ben Watt and Patrick Neate, bringing a vibrant literary/ spoken word strand to the festival featuring cutting edge spoken word and acoustic music.
This included two exclusive commissions: Nikita Lalwani whose debut novel Gifted was serialised during the week on BBC Radio 4, and Mir Mahfuz Ali, one of Exiled Writers Ink’s emerging writers and refugee from Bangladesh. The two artists joined forces to create an epic poem which resounds to the themes of Celebrating Sanctuary and Refugee Week: flight, arrival, sanctuary, prejudice, identity, welcome and finding your own voice in a new country. The work was premiered at the festival with a reading by both authors.
Read the work here
The festival takes place each year at: Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London, SE1 (adjacent to Oxo Tower Wharf!)
Celebrating Sanctuary was supported by the Arts Council England, the Mayor of London, The National Lottery and Southwark Refugee Artists Network. It is programmed by Rita Ray and Max Reinhardt. Digital images are available on request.
www.myspace.com/celebratingsanctuary
