A Sheffield festival which brings communities together by celebrating international culture is welcoming its ‘best line up ever’ this year.
The city’s ninth Migration Matters Festival will take place on 14 June until 22 June at multiple venues across Sheffield.
Director of the festival, Sam Holland said: “This year’s festival will include our best line up yet.
“Whether you want to discover new stories about people of colour throughout history in South Yorkshire, or dance to African drum beats in the city streets, the festival will have something for you.
“We are committed to giving underrepresented communities a voice through our truly eclectic and diverse programme.”
The festival is the UK’s biggest Refugee Week event, attracting 13,400 people last year.
Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
It takes place from 17 June until 23 June. This year’s theme is ‘home’.
Headliners for the festival in June include Grammy-nominated husband-and-wife duo, Amadou & Mariam, who performed at Glastonbury last year.
Swiss band ‘Sirens of Lesbos‘ and prize-winning poet Roger Robinson will also be performing at the nine-day event.
Mr Holland added: “There is an increased focus on global music due to demand and after last year, where we achieved a new audience record with Kenyan band Sauti Sol.”
The aim of the festival is to celebrate the positive impact migration, refugees and asylum seekers have in Sheffield, the country’s first City of Sanctuary.
Sheffield became a City of Sanctuary on 18 June 2007, during Refugee Week, when Sheffield City Council agreed to support the movement.
More than 50 individual events will take place over the course of the week, including comedy nights, theatre shows, art exhibitions, dance and drag shows, and Latin American film screenings.
A live-streamed sing-a-long with six Sheffield choirs will also take place in Meersbrook Park, with the aim to send a message of hope to Palestine.
Otis Mensah, Sheffield’s first poet laureate in 2018, has joined Howl Yuan as a guest curator at this year’s Migration Matters Festival.
Otis is a hip hop and spoken words artist whose programme, ‘Longerr Inheritances’, will look at jazz experimentation and what it means play with genres and artistic expectations as Black artists and artists of colour.
Tickets for the opening and closing parties, as well as some headline events, are available to book now at migrationmattersfestival.co.uk.
