Bristol Refugee Festival: Festival launches with ‘healing through community’ theme

From chatting, singing and laughing, to activism and to sharing joy and suffering, the meaning of ‘healing through community’ was shared at the launch night for Bristol Refugee Festival.

The festival kicked off yesterday evening (June 6) at the Malcolm X Community Centre in St Paul’s with a family-friendly event featuring live music, food and activities plus the chance to learn more about the festival programme.

Attendees also had the opportunity to foster a Hundreds Of Small Tails (HOST) creature - a small plasticine creature made by refugees and asylum seekers in Art Refuge sessions - until the end of the festival.

HOST has been described as a quiet political movement showing the value of belonging and raising awareness of some of the issues surrounding displacement. The project is being visually documented and mapped on Instagram on @artrefuge_host.

Bristol´s cultural diversity was also highlighted during the event as attendees were encouraged to mark on a world map where they came from and where they now live in Bristol on the Bristol map.

Jules Olsen, the festival director, explained how there was a lot of interest in the festival because of the situation in Ukraine.

She continued by explaining how the theme of the festival was chosen: “The National Refugee Week organisation chose ‘healing’, and then we, in Bristol, added the ‘healing through community’ because we wanted to emphasise how important community is to that healing process, and we all need our friends, family, neighbours, to be able to do that.

“And obviously, refugees and asylum seekers have often lost those connections. So we want to help them rebuild those connections so they then can go on to heal.”

The Bristol Refugee Festival has multiple event partners including community hubs and Bristol Refugee and Asylum Seeker Partnership (BRASP).

During his speech, Baher Al Abd, partnership development officer for BRASP said: “We [refugees] more than anyone else know what kind of help we need. So I believe that our input is really important and I am very grateful for BRASP because they are considering this as their priority.”

How to learn more about the Bristol Refugee Festival

On Tuesday, June 14, an event highlighting the asylum experience and its impacts on people’s lives and communities called “Dear Home Office... An introduction to asylum” takes place at Terrace Room, Barton Hill Settlement between 10am and 1pm.

Also on June 14, a Middle Eastern meal, music and conversation will take place in Step´s “Peace Building with Refugees and Asylum Seekers” from 6pm to 8pm.

On Monday, June 20, an afternoon of music and storytelling takes place at Bristol Harbour from 1pm to 2.30pm.

And on Saturday, June 25, a football tournament takes place at Lockleaze Sports Centre.

For more, visit https://www.bristolrefugeefestival.org/festival-programme/