Latest news with #RootsOfResilience
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Community calls for new approach to St Pauls Carnival
There are calls for a new approach to St Pauls Carnival after this year's event was deliberately scaled down. The carnival's organisers said they "reflected on finances" and as such there was no big parade but instead a series of smaller events were held to celebrate Bristol's African and Caribbean a spontaneous street party evolved on the evening of 5 July and the area was filled with thousands of Sharry, the carnival director, told BBC Bristol's Joe Sims the original event had to be scaled down due to a lack of money for appropriate safety measures, which were not considered at the "pop-up" event. He said: "I saw some of the young people climbing up on the scaffolding [at the pop-up event] and part of me is like, that's great, but what if someone falls off? Who pays for the injury and public liability insurance?"It's about getting that balance between making sure that the community can still have that grassroots event, but we as a city take ownership of making sure people are safe when they come." The theme of this year's event was "Roots of Resilience" to commemorate the passing of The Race Relations Act Act was introduced two years after the Bristol Bus Boycott and outlawed discrimination in public places. Many people who attended the "pop-up" carnival told BBC Bristol's Primrose Granville this year's festival had more of a community Burton, 30, said: "It felt like a more community thing. It felt less commercialised - felt less like a money making thing."It was just people coming together as a community."After the event, volunteers arrived early in the morning to clean up the streets. 'Ancestral legacy' Mr Burton, who is a filmmaker, added: "Our ancestors brought this carnival to this city."This carnival shouldn't be dictated by this and that. It's our community event - we were there, we looked after the community and we cleaned up after the community."The carnival director said the clean-up was a "testament to the spirit of the carnival".He said: "Back in the day it was volunteers that would come out, pop up, clean up, a week before pull together all of those different aspects of it."Given we were celebrating the 60th anniversary, the fact that the community did reflect on the ancestral legacy of the carnival - that really does epitomise what we're trying to do at St Pauls."
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carnival celebrates 60 years of race legislation
A carnival has brought generations together to celebrate the 60th anniversary of legislation against racial discrimination. Celebrating African and Caribbean culture, St Pauls Carnival returned to Bristol as a scaled down event on Saturday after organisers "reflected on finances", director Ricardo Sharry said. Elders were entertained at a brunch, children sang and danced, and poems were performed. The theme was "Roots of Resilience" to commemorate the passing of The Race Relations Act 1965, which was introduced two years after the Bristol Bus Boycott and outlawed discrimination in public places. More news stories for Bristol Watch the latest Points West Listen to the latest news for Bristol "The carnival really epitomises that spirit - people pop up and they share their music and it covers the whole African and Caribbean diaspora so it's really special." Mr Sharry said. He said he hoped the carnival would be "bigger and better next year" after a smaller event, Back A Yard, was deemed to be "more appropriate" this year. Mr Sharry said: "What's quite nice is we've got the older generation, we've got the younger generation, and then the middle generation - people come to the streets and enjoy the carnival." "It's a really nice balance of 'for the community' and 'supported by the community'." Antonette, a poet, said she found writing about her own experiences "cathartic" and was pleased to read her work at the event. "Today was an excellent opportunity for me to perform some of the poems I have written in the past, related to the Windrush generation," she said. Antonette read poems about her arrival in England from Barbados and the prejudice she faced, as well as her experience of racial and verbal abuse in schools, drawing on what her son had been through. "It was lovely to express myself and I saw a lot of nodding in the audience," she said. "I haven't been upset by all the things that happened to me. I fought back." Antonette said St Pauls Carnival brought "different people together". "It's a celebratory event and especially for elders like myself... it was great," she said. "It's a community thing and it's lovely. I hope it will go on forever." Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. St Pauls Carnival announces scaled-back programme 'Carnival is the heart of the city' St Pauls carnival celebrates Windrush St Pauls Carnival
