South Gloucestershire Refugee Festival

For the third year running, Movema, The Nest At Bean Tree Cafe and South Glouchestershire Race Equality Network hosted ‘Celebrate With Me’ – a day of festivities with global music and dance performances, family crafts and food tasters, helping to create a place of welcome for local refugee communities. 

We were treated to a beautiful day of dance and music from across the globe, via stops including Nicaragua, India, Hong Kong, Ukraine, UK & the Bantu forests of West Africa. 

Throughout this day we saw an incredible lineup of music and dance performances which connected people regardless of ethnicity, religion, or background. This is why we wanted to create this day of shared experiences. The area around the bandstand was filled with people from all walks of life dancing and laughing together, doing what comes instinctively as a community of people, without judgment, barriers or fear of each other.

We would like to say a huge thank you to our funders South Gloucestershire Council, and for our partnerships and support from South Gloucestershire Race Equality Network, Friends of Page Park, SGS College, Bristol Refugee Festival, Julian House, as well as to all of the volunteers and contributors who helped make the day so special.


We also want to send our gratitude to our wonderful dance artists and musicians; RISE Youth Dance, Movema World Fusion, Dawn from HK, Nandini Girish, Anna Kemper, Nicaragua Libre, Sisters Kalianova and Sunflowers Dance troupe, Katrin, Bloco B, Hélélé – and to our fantastic MC and host Omari Douglas.