The Ferham Festival, run by Rotherham United Community Trust, renewed its initial festival collaboration with Flux in 2022. The one-day event, at Ferham Park in Rotherham, takes place as part of South Asian Heritage Month which runs annually from mid-July to mid-August.
Each year, the free festival is a celebration of the rich culture and heritage of the area with music, dance, art, sport and food.
Ferham Festival 2023
For the 2023 event, which took place on 15 July, Flux co-created two elements of the Ferham Festival for distinct types of engagement: creative workshops (held the weekend before as well as during the festival itself) and a live performance stage.
As part of the build-up, Artful Make it Happen, selected three local artists to visit schools in the area to create beautiful art installations for the festival site.
Vicky Hilton ran two sessions at St Pauls Church on Kimberworth Road whilst Angie Hardwick visited Kimberworth Primary School to create paper wind decorations. Uzma Rani visited a local community group, Nayi Zindagi, to create decorations and Karen Hall visited Ferham Primary School to create recycled bunting.
The one-day outdoor festival had to be moved indoors, at very short notice, due to an unseasonal forecast of high winds. Despite this, organisers delivered 60% of the planned activity and performance programme, including outdoor arts, indoors!
This included Artful Make It Happen leading colourful plate decorating workshops, while festivalgoers had the chance to make fabric bunting with Flux Rotherham and produce bark decorations with Rotherham and Sheffield Wildlife Trust. Grimm and Co were on hand running all sorts of “magical” activities.
The event also featured music and dancing, with The Tamil Group performing a traditional Sri Lankan dance, an interactive Zumba performance from Shahina, and a live DJ set. The Nicolas band performed Roma music and Alt-Soul singer August Charles impressed with his expressive vocal arrangements, lush instrumentals and thought-provoking lyricism.
Ferham Festival 2022
In 2022, Ferham Festival returned to Ferham Park after a break of three years, and it did not disappoint. Following on from the pandemic, it was fantastic to see the local community turn out in force to support the event.
This year we were asked to support Rotherham United Community Sports Trust to increase the arts and cultural offer alongside the well-established sports and community offer.
Nearly 2000 people came to Ferham Park on a blisteringly hot day on 11 August 2022 to enjoy performances, take part in workshops, hear live music and get involved in sport and dance.
This year the festival was programmed to celebrate Rotherham’s South Asian cultures and communities through dance, music, sport, crafts and food. The event took place as part of South Asian Heritage Month which runs from mid-July to mid-August every year. It raises the profile of British South Asian heritage and history in the UK through education, arts, culture and commemoration, with the goal of helping people to better understand the diversity of present-day Britain.
Opened by MP Sarah Champion, the event was supported by Rotherham Council, Rotherfed, Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance, Barnardos, Rother Phoenix FC and South Yorkshire Police.
Main performances featured a local Tamil Performing Arts Group, The Sunrit Culture Group with Charu Asthana creating a spectacle celebrating South Asian Cultures, Nisha Lall leading a Bollywood and Bhangra workshop, Heera Singh and the Dhol Drummers and Dancers and a closing set by BBC Asian Network DJ Gracie T.
Rotherham United Community Sports Trust ran high energy football tournaments throughout the day, with the winners receiving their trophy from the Mayor of Rotherham Tajamal Khan.
Other happenings included natural art workshops with Samira and Emily from Aralia Studios, Storytelling from Award winning author and poet Dr Debjani Chatterjee, fantastical adventures with Grimm & Co., Calligraphy and painting with Uzma Rani and Woodblock printing with Shahin Shah.
There was live painting from Street Artist Affix who painted a portrait of Malala Yousafzai during the festival- amazing people with his skills. The portrait will be donated to a community group in the Ferham area.
A huge thanks to all the young people taking part in the National Citizen’s Service programme- they litter picked the park so it was spotless and ran fun activities for people to get involved with. And to Police Community Support Officer Paul Newman, who did a fabulous job as compere for the festival- he’s promised to come back next year and sing in between performances!
Photo Credits Sam McQueen & Video Credits David Sanchez
