WFWP Watford/UK held their amazing annual community festival again recently. Here is a full report by Francoise Murphy and a selection of photos, however the complete photo album can be viewed under this linkhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisboff/sets/72157644609865951/ :
‘Watford’s very proud of its Celebration’ This was the title of the newspaper article that appeared in the Watford Observer after the Watford Celebration 2014 event. The ninth annual Watford Celebration took place on Bank Holiday Monday May 5. Held in three venues nearby - the Multi Cultural Community Centre, St Michael and All Angels Church and the Littlebury Hall – the event featured a variety of entertainment including an accordionist, a Chinese choir, a ukulele band, Japanese dance, a Gospel choir, Indian music, English folk songs, a Bulgarian violinist and more. The community centre was full of happy people from various communities enjoying a wonderful afternoon together. Elected Mayor Dorothy Thornhill, Watford Celebration patron, attended the event and commented: “All communities celebrate but to get the communities to celebrate together as they do in Celebration is something Watford is very proud of”. The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, Fergus Mc Mullen and his wife were also present and enjoyed the afternoon. In the Littlebury Hall, children were occupied by a variety of activities and had a great time jumping on the bouncy castle outside. In the vestry of St Michael’s church, people from many faiths including the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, Brahma Kumaris, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Christians Across Watford, Baha’is, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and the Watford Area Humanists gathered to discuss: “Has religion done more harm than good?”. The vestry was full of people, some even standing up in the back, listening to the discussions. Another attraction of the Watford Celebration is its famous international food where the public can sample food from around the world: Pakistani samosas and pokoras, Chinese spring rolls and prawn crackers, Japanese sushi, a variety of Indian food, Italian pizzas, Spanish tortillas, sausage rolls, fairy cakes and more. What a feast for only £2 a plate. In previous years, Watford Celebration had included a large display of stalls from charities,educational and leisure organisations as well asethical businesses. After losing some keymembers on the committee and due to the lack of volunteers, we decided this year not to include stalls. We agreed our main focus was to bring the community of Watford together with all its diversity of culture, faith and ethnicity. It turned out a great success and this year we received much larger coverage in our local newspaper. The event was sponsored by the Watford Borough Council, Watford Community Housing Trust, Herts Fire and Rescue Services, two local businesses and our MP Richard Harrington. Next year, will be our tenth anniversary, we are hoping to get new people to join us as volunteers or as part of our committee and we would like to include an even greater variety of communities to participate in Watford Celebration 2015! Many thanks to all those who came and supported Watford Celebration 2014! You can find more information and see photos taken by Christophe Murphy at our website: www.watfordcelebration.com. Françoise Murphy