Celebrating
Cultural Diversity
in Welwyn Hatfield
"Shared neighbourhoods, shared values"
Kaleidoscope 2009 was organised by the
Welwyn Hatfield Ethnic Minority Group
and held on
Saturday 18 July
at
Stanborough Park
Welwyn Garden City
Here are some initial comments about the event which maintained local interest and stimulated some interesting suggestions!
The Music was again popular - but the wide variety of Food was also popular:
although there was some demand for a broader mix of music apart from "grungy American youth inspired music" and of ethnic food.
This does imply the festival has increased the community's awareness of such diversity
The opportunity to meet and interact with a diverse range and number of people was a plus point:
"networking", "Meeting people", "extremely friendly"
The number porta-loos (ie too few) continue to receive criticism
Parking for exhibitors was a bit of a concern....
...but given the location of the site and its associated parking it is difficult to see how to improve this!
The fact that drink purchased on site could not be taken outside the bar area, coupled with the numbers of people who bring in drink (and so can walk around the site drinking!) is an issue:
"young lads with glass beer bottles walking about", "not being able to take alcohol drinks out of the beer tent"
The idiosyncrasies of UK licensing laws and the loss-leader pricing of alcohol by supermarkets leads to this unavoidable inconsistency.
Also, the amount of rubbish is an issue - the fact is that empty (and discarded) cans and bottle are a major contributor means we must ask people to dispose of such rubbish thoughtfully or, even better, take it home with the!
... and some suggestions:
"perhaps more signs to show different tents"
There were several suggestions to extend the festival into the evening
more stalls would be welcome
more ethnic variety, generally, including goods for sale
other entertainment apart form pop music and dance - a spot by The Thalians was rembered from a few years back
a plea was made for more information on the website about artists and stalls, particularly as the festival approaches....
........but remember there is a link to a MySpace page where up-to-date news is kept! Next year we will make the pupose of that page more explicit!!
Also, remember that the Review newspapers run an advert each week for six weeks before the event - this has information on the programme.
There was overwhelming support for the scope and format of the festival - summed up as:
"Continue to make sure it's a publicised... ... event - as it was this year"
To look at Geoff Collins' pictures of Kaleidoscope 2009, click here
Kaleidoscope 2010 will be held on Saturday 17 July 2010, to contact us about Kaleidoscope 2010:
Surface Mail: