Islamic Cultural Fayre 2014 Report – Funding report.

The Islamic Cultural Fayre was a free family fun day held at Eastville Park in Bristol. It is a vibrant, fun and colourful event that has grown from a small community event to one of the largest events of its kind, attracting a large local audience. It aims to make the community aware of various services, opportunities etc available to them.

The event also included a variety of stalls including information stalls, cultural stalls, a bazaar and food stalls. There were also recreational activities aimed at the youth, including a one day football tournament and a large funfair. In addition there was also live stage performances (e.g. acrobatics) all held in a unique culturally sensitive atmosphere that is inclusive of other faiths, cultures and sections of society.

Again this year a highly successful event was delivered. It lifted community spirits especially in current political environment. As it is open to the public it encouraged much needed social interaction between different sections of the community. We had a successful soccer tournament on the day that engaged Young People across Bristol.

Once again at event through a mixture of volunteer sector, public service and commercial stalls & displays, the community made aware of various services and opportunities available to. Also young volunteers from community given key roles in organisation and running of event giving them much needed employment skills in terms of leadership, interpersonal skills, teamwork, confidence building.

Project went well due to strong capable team of staff and volunteers from community. As mentioned above many people from different backgrounds interacted on day so promoting much needed community cohesion within area. This was evidenced by the diverse range of ethnicities present on the day.

This event as usual was only possible through the support of grants like the one allocated for this event.

Some feedback from attendees:

> “Something fun and diverse. plus it's only round the corner and gives me and my children an insight to different cultures.”

> “Just to say, the day was brilliant. It was well organised, interesting, colourful and had a fantastically diverse audience who all looked like they were having a great time.

There were so many volunteers with BMCS jackets on who just made everything work well.

Well done all of you. I hope your management committee are very proud of you and realise what an exceptional team they have.” Shelagh

> “opportunity to interact with people who may have negative view of Islam due to bad media”

> “It's an amazing event for the whole of Bristol which promotes better understanding and mixing of cultures and religions.