REPORT

Before the Event

Having successfully applied for CDF funding the whole process of organising and working towards a multifaith and multicultural celebration was much easier. Guaranteed funding took away a lot of the practical problems experienced in previous festivals, for example in 2006 when we were waiting to hear if we had been granted funding up to two weeks before the event.

Likewise, having a nominated contact and advisor, Shamsher, was an advantage. We consulted her on various aspects and also asked her to assist in our efforts to obtain extra parking space.

The constraint on funding, ie having to spend the money by the end of March, caused some difficulties. Instead of a May Day Spring celebration as in previous years, we would celebrate on the Saturday (17th March) nearest to the Spring Equinox (21st March). This ensured it would have to be a mainly indoor festival in case of bad weather.

We had hoped to book the Peepul Centre, a purpose built minority culture community centre in the Belgrave area of Leicester. Though we entered into negotiations and were quoted a price for the rooms we would use, we were eventually refused. Other venues were offered - Leicester New Walk Museum, The Guildhall, Castle Park, and Abbey Park - but all were too small or outside or too expensive, like DeMontfort Hall. Moat Community College was proposed, ten minutes from the town centre and in a deprived inner city area, with sufficient facilities and the offer of a creche, climbing wall, theatre, sports hall, small gym, classrooms, kitchen, dining rooms, outside sports pitches, security team, and cleaners. It was a mainly Muslim area and Moat had established relations with the local Neighbourhood Housing Office and Community Police. After a visit it was decided to hold our celebration there.

We worked informally and at formal meetings in partnership with Moat staff to arrange premises, advertising on the school powerpoint slide show, staff on the day, tables and chairs, health and safety, etc.

We were also contacted by Housing Officer Paresh Chandarana who wished to work in partnership with us. He asked if we could arrange for Orchestra Navrang, a notable Asian band, to play at the event. He felt they would be a popular attraction for local residents. As our programme was already arranged, he offered to pay for a marquee for the displaced musicians (we couldn't use the marquee for Orchestra Navrang as they required a mains powered PA, and we couldn't supply electricity to the outside for health and safety reasons), for a raffle, and for trophies for the 5-a-side cricket matches between local residents, the Housing Office, local youth, and the school. He also offered to pay for a Muslim fashion show, all to promote community cohesion. He arranged for local services to take stalls alongside his, ie Community Police, Community Health, Job Service Partnership, Neighbourhood Management, and the Moat Student Council.

We held working meetings with him and Pushpa Patel at the college and housing office to integrate the programme and provide free stalls for the invited groups. It was suggested that leaflets in Gujarati be prepared, but there was no funding for this. It is the main language of the area after English, so we printed leaflets and posters with the phrase 'free family fun day' in Gujarati. It was translated by a Moat staff member. There was little space for any other languages on the poster, but in hindsight it was an error only having one minority language on publicity. It should have been all or none. At the Bangladeshi Centre, when we distributed leaflets, we were told that Bangladeshis would probably think it was for Gujarati speakers only.

We joined with the Pakistan Youth and Community Association (PYCA) who provided a youth cricket team and the Muslim fashion show. This built upon a relationship begun in 2005 when we both put on separate events, part of the 'Leicester and Me' series of festivals funded by Leicester Museums, as minority cultural groups.

We promoted the event at a Yule celebration at Castle Park that we arranged in December 2006.

In January, 2007 we approached Voluntary Action Leicester (VAL) to register on their database asking for volunteers. This would be available through a web site countrywide. When nothing was heard after four weeks, we contacted them to be told that a staff member had been off sick for a month and the forms were still on his desk. The information was placed in the system on Friday and we checked it the following Monday, but by Tuesday it had disappeared again! We were told that a person unknown had deactivated the entry and that it would be put up again. No volunteers came from this source. Two volunteers who were telephoned by VAL did arrive and were excellent stewards. Our confidence in the ability of the local VAL group to meet our needs has diminished. More in keeping with their usually excellent and professional approach we were offered free training days that were excellent.

We invited Bangladeshi, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese, and Somali groups to participate and have free stalls, but no-one replied. When contacted later the Chinese group said they only had two people working at their centre on the festival day, and so couldn't come. A Somali group offered to sell us their services to video the event for £1500, but we had no money for this. The Sikh community did not respond to our invitations. When we asked for details of Bhangra dancers we were told no-one in Leicester would dance for so little.

Various Somali groups said no dancers were available but Hashim Duale offered to give a talk and to present a table exhibition of Somali culture. We applied for permission to divert funds from the unobtainable dancers to this, which was agreed. The money reserved for the Bhangra dancers was put to a contemporary dance company, Katy Wong's Alley Katz, who demonstrated different styles of modern dance; extra sessions by the peace rapper Hitesh and the dance group from Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University; and the magician Abdul Khalifa, himself an old boy of Moat College.

We suggest that one way round this for local groups might be working with local schools and dance groups who may well perform just for expenses.

We met the Good Values Club, a Saturday club for children of all faiths but mainly Hindu, at Abbey Community Primary School. They invited us to talk to the children about the Spring Equinox and our reasons for celebrating, and agreed to provide Indian dancers and two activity stalls as well as stewards on the day. This partnership has already led to an invitation to come again and explain our beliefs and organise an 'Earth Mother' Day for the club members (aged 5 to 18).

Altogether we gave 53 free stalls to non-profit groups, partly because the venue was large enough but also because we had been involved with them in previous events, eg Leicester Social Forum (a loose group of campaigning groups such as Oxfam and CND), Just Peace Leicester (a Jewish peace group), Leicester Aids Support Services, and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. Fifteen others were new this year, eg PYCA, St Philips Centre, Community Police, the Neighbourhood Housing Services, Fire and Rescue Services, and Derbyshire Pagans, partly because of our growing reputation as an active community group holding this notable event.

Because of the resignation at the end of Beltane (May) 2006 of two of our most hard working colleagues on the committee, there was no opportunity to co-ordinate other aspects. This resulted in fewer paying stalls than anticipated and only limited approaches to mainstream faiths through the Council of Faiths and St Philips Centre, Evington. No speakers were found except for one Christian speaker from St Philips. This was quite disappointing as grass roots Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christian, Pagan and those of no faith were all represented. We would expect clergy to be open minded. However we did make contact with two researchers from the Council of Faiths, Tove Dalenius (a Muslim) and Sarah Wright (a Christian) who were sorry they could not contribute this year as they didn't hear about us in time. Their research is summarised in the press cuttings section.

We were in the Leicester Mercury, the main evening paper in the region, three months before, three weeks before, and two days before the event. We placed adverts in the paper on the two days before the event. We were mentioned on local radio on the Wednesday before. Posters and leaflets were sent to every library in the city and county two weeks before. We leafleted the city centre, and the Highfields, Belgrave, Westcotes, Knighton, Stoneygate, and Clarendon Park areas. Leaflets left in Leicester Tourist Office went missing and were found hidden in a back room, and on another occasion put behind church concert leaflets when there were free slots on the display board.

On the day (please see programme of events)

In the grounds there was an all weather pitch with two 2½ hour cricket matches, supervised and stewarded. A marquee featured fifteen musical and dance acts, including Egyptian dancers.. There was also a beer stall, a hot halal food van, and an ice-cream van. A group of Christians gave an impromptu display and handed out literature. We estimate 200 to 250 people were outdoors at any one time. With hindsight having a beer stall in front of the venue (alcohol was not allowed inside the building) may have been a mistake. Although it did attract many pagans and music fans, they stayed outside with their drinks, many not coming into the venue at all, whilst being easily seen from the road and immediately in front of the main doors. This may have put off some Muslim and Sikh passers-by.

There was access to the main halls from the car park through the open fire doors, so many families would have entered that way and not been counted. The kitchens were likewise affected, with very few coming through the closed fire door into the dining room which looked out upon the beer stall.

In the main hall there were six demonstrations of dancing, a Muslim fashion parade, and two demonstrations of Viking costumes and fighting. 47 stalls offering information, services, and sale items offered plenty to do at other times. We were complimented on our professionalism by Morris Dancers Bakanalia who have danced all over the country at many different events.

Fourteen workshops and talks took place in six classrooms in the Sacred Space section of the event. Anna Franklin was ill and her place was taken by a talk on the 18th Century Hellfire Club. The Goddess Temple was well attended by a wide range of people despite the ban on incense (it would set off the fire alarms). Painting banner flags, prayer, meditation, and silent times were enjoyed.

In the workshops only one did not attract an audience, partly because there was no-one dedicated to raising audiences. Announcements were made, but otherwise we relied on the programme to inform everyone.

The healers' room was popular for meditation and demonstrations of healing techniques, including drumming.

The poetry session was not as successful as the storytelling, though it did attract some Somali boys who showed off their rap and microphone technique. Some poets did not turn up, but there were Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi, Caribbean English, and British English poems and monologues with discussions. A difficulty with amplification led to the PA from the main hall being lent to the poets for two hours, with knock-on difficulties in the main hall.

A last minute addition, a moral play 'the True Story of Little Red Riding Hood', by Az and Shaz Hussain, proved to be the hit of the day, appreciated by youth workers and parents who brought groups of children and insisted it be played twice.

The Open Art Exhibition attracted people through the day. There were requests for a larger exhibition in the future.

The kids' zone was crowded all day long, with fourteen stewards supervising the face painting, bouncy castle, ball pond, circus skills, traditional games from the Boy Scouts, crafts from Leicester Masaya Link Group (Leicester's twin town in Nicaragua is Masaya), and activities by the Good Values Club.

In the theatre nine musical acts attracted a steady stream of visitors. The up and coming Tea Monkeys (voted second hottest unsigned band in the UK and US in a recent magazine poll), Kevin Hewick, and Orchestra Navrang claimed the highest audiences.

There were queues all day for the climbing wall and two stewards in the corridor and one in the harness room had to be on permanent duty to control those waiting. More teenager activities are definitely needed.

Museums Services brought ritual masks from all over the world to try on, a big hit with pagans and non-pagans alike.

After the event Steve Dowell of the college complimented us on our event being the biggest held at Moat and the one with the least trouble, mess, or litter. We were invited back to to use the venue at any time.

Incidents and accidents

The first aiders (British Red Cross) and our health and safety officer on site reported no incidents except a small wrist graze and a child with stomach ache. A group of Somali boys (known to the Community Police and the staff at Moat) passed at least four counterfeit £20 notes to stall holders (Just Peace Leicester, CND, tombola) who reported it to the police. The boys were apprehended and removed from the premises after returning the £15 they had left. We will be compensating groups for their losses from our profit.

Lessons

We sold very few programmes and many difficulties could have been prevented if everyone had seen a programme. Even with a free raffle ticket in each programme, most people preferred to just to look around. A good third of those attending came in through the car park entrance and would have missed the sales point. Most stewards were not asked for directions or about what was on despite their highly visible jackets or sashes. Most complaints on the feedback forms were related not finding parts of the site, such as the creche and dining rooms, despite 'you are here' maps positioned at each part of the site. A lesson for next time is more signs, bigger and clearer, with loudhailer announcements. The creche, staffed by professionals, had no children all day. Several mothers explained they wouldn't leave just one child (the creche catered for 1-5 year-olds only). Others never found it. A complete review of the role of programmes and other means of informing the public of what is available is to be undertaken by the group in the summer. Finding your way round was not a problem in Castle Park, the venue for our previous festivals.

Outcomes of the day

1. A working relationship with 15 new groups, including statutory and voluntary organisations.

2. A successful day culminating in every participant showing willingness to work with us again.

3. The diverse mix of people participating : Muslims, Hindus, Pagans, Christians, Jews; British, Afro-Caribbeans, Somali, Pakistani, Indian, Chinese; campaigning groups, police, fire and rescue, the Housing Officials, trade unions, re-enactment groups, poets, and musicians. Men, women and children.
   And as visitors: Muslims, Hindus, Pagans, Christians, those of no faith, Buddhists; British, Afro-Caribbeans, Somali, Pakistani, Indian, and those with mixed ethnicity.

4. The Braunstone scouts earned over £100 from their games. Braunstone is a priority area in Leicester.

5. More musicians applied to play than we could accept, which leaves us a long list for the future.

6. We turned away (non-commercial) stalls due to lack of space, again giving us more choice for future events.

7. We worked in partnership with VAL even though the request for volunteers was not too successful. Both stewards did a really good job and want to work with us again.

8. We have been asked to put on an 'Earth Mother' day at the Good Values Club to tell the children about our beliefs.

9. We helped provide stewards, radios, and safety vests for Evington Friends of the Village Green for their sponsored toddlers' walk on Evington Green to raise money for play equipment.

10. We have been invited to take part in Leicester Social Forum's May Day activities on May 6th.

11. We have maintained a good relationship with the local press.

12. All our volunteers are happy to work on another festival with us.

13. The cricket matches are to become an annual event competing for trophies donated by St Peters Neighbourhood Housing Office.

14. Over 2000 visitors and participants enjoyed themselves and learned about their neighbours in a relaxed and friendly environment.

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