Festival celebrating diversity 'more vital than ever'

A grassroots arts festival celebrating cultures from around the world has been more "important than ever in the face of division", according to artists who took part.

DIASPORA!, a 10-day festival run by Diverse Artists Networks (DAN), took place across more than 40 venues across Bristol, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, in early May.

Funded by the Arts Council, 200 artists performed in more than 100 events - doubling in size from its first iteration in 2024.

Vandna Mehta, the artistic director of the festival, said the event had a "ripple effect" and provided a platform where "people can feel like they belong".

"With the rising divisions that are going on in the world, this festival was built on love an trust so people can feel like they belong to something," she said.

A diaspora is a group of people who don't live in their original country but still maintain their heritage and strong cultural ties to their homeland.

Mehta said the festival was attended by "people from every background".

"We are all from a diaspora, this is for everyone," she said.

"Bristol was built on immigration and it was bringing in that music, culture, arts, dance and food to have a ripple effect through the city and into its borders," she added.

Engy Elboreini from Makaani Arts collective, organised the Spirit of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) event at the Trinity Centre with Vilk Collective and Chalguh Chengi, which included dance and percussion, craft workshops, food and music.

Elboreini said it was "really beautiful to come together and celebrate not only where you're from but where other people are from" - especially as an immigrant wanting to find people with shared heritage.

She said it was "really important to create a sense of belonging" and celebrating the arts was one of the best ways to tackle polarisation.

For Emma Allen, who curated the Voices of the Diaspora art exhibition at the Island, it was all about witnessing different cultures sitting together and sharing stories.

Featuring 18 Bristol-based artists with roots from around the world, the event explored themes of identity, home and folk stories.

"This year more than ever with the divisive political landscape, people are feeling separated," she said.

"We're an amassment of cultures and there's so much beauty in that - it needs celebrating," she added.

"What Diaspora Festival did was opened up so many different conversations in a beautifully creative way," said Shakeel Delwar, who organised a Baisakhi event as part of Desi Day, a harvest celebration from across south Asia named after the first month of the year.

"I think the ripples will be felt."

Delwar said his event was all about celebrating our connection to nature and "a gratitude that we are part of it."

Louise Ndibwirende said it was a "an incredible feeling" to screen her film Rice at Home at the Watershed, which has inspired her to keep going as a filmmaker.

"My inspiration was not having black elders when I grew up so I really wanted to showcase that, and I knew three women who had incredible stories, from Rwanda, Bangladesh and India," she said.

"People really resonated with the story whether they were part of the cultures portrayed or not."

She praised DAN for bringing together artists from across the south west, because "the talent is already there" but "creatives like us just want a space to showcase it".

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