3 days ago
Felixstowe beach carnival to celebrate Nigerian community
A beach carnival will bring together hundreds of people to celebrate their Nigerian Nigerians in Ipswich Community group will host its second annual carnival at Felixstowe beach on Saturday from 10:00 BST to 18: year's event drew 300 attendees, with more expected this Akingbesote set up the community group in November 2023, and said it allowed Nigerians to integrate and come together to celebrate their heritage.
"We put it upon ourselves to create a platform where we can integrate ourselves. As a people we can come together as a community with common understanding and create a platform where people can get settled," he added."We've been through the struggle of trying to migrate and, plus, if you get to a new environment and get to know people from where you are, [they] can help you settle you in the community."
Nigerians in Ipswich Community has a WhatsApp group with over 890 members where they can seek help and support from others in Ipswich."It's been a blessing," Mr Akingbesote said."We always want to come together, see people, talk to people, speak your language with them."We are here to help everyone settle, we here to contribute positively to the Suffolk county as a host community for Nigerians."We keep raising the bar and we keep representing."
Mr Akingbesote said the beach carnival was a family-friendly event and open to everyone."We're going to do a lot of games - tug of war, egg race, sack race, dance competitions, food eating competitions, drink competitions - a lot of stuff that day."For people who like to play chess or play scrabble, we will have table games."We will have couples dance competitions to make it fun, and as well we've got music and our DJ live there."There will also be an after party held from 22:00 BST to 03:00 at Murrayside Community Centre in Nacton Road, Ipswich.
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