Nottingham Cultural Festival 2022

Over 12,000 people attended the cultural festival, which took place in Forest Park last weekend.

It was an opportunity to bring the community together, have fun and celebrate diversity in Nottingham.

We spoke to Ahmed, organiser of the festival, about the motivations behind it.

“We ran an Eid festival years before but decided to turn it into a cultural festival. We already run a trust-building programme, HumanKind, so that was one of the underlying factors for the festival. We were aiming to build bridges and bring the community together in a more inclusive event.

“We wanted to offer something that embraces every community, faith and culture but also wanted the core of it to be true to the Eid festival, as it’s 10 days after Eid.

“This is the second year we’ve put on the cultural Festival and it’s grown and has become better. More of the community is coming down and being a part of it.

What Karima wanted to do this year was promote and support local talent, not only did we have Zara, but we had Aaminah, Taheer Mahmood and Mikhaael Mala.”

As well as having local artists perform, there was the infamous Nana G puppet show, rides, box fit, football for kids as well as great speeches from Dr Musharraf and the rest of the Karimia team.

The event was organised by Karimia Institute, a non-profit community organisation that aims to empower, educate and guide Muslims. They aim to help individuals and families learn life skills, and develop moral and spiritual values through education, worship and recreation.

They are a central hub in Nottingham, acting not just as a Mosque but as a religious and educational institution for adults and kids alike.

The Cultural Festival is just one initiative launched by the organisation to build bridges between the community. They have also recently relaunched their trust-building project, HumanKind.

The project aims to bring the community together, embrace one another’s cultural and spiritual differences as well as realise we’re not so different to one another as we may think. To read more about HumanKind, click here.

As for the festival, we’ll see you again next year!