22nd Culture and Arts Festival

We are with you with another festival following in the footsteps of the previous 21 years.

London, one of the cultural centres of Europe, is also a city of festivals. It hosts hundreds of festivals throughout the year. Alongside the festivals, it hosts exhibitions, performances, concerts and other cultural activities in its historic and artistic venues. Those ethnic minorities living in London also bring their own cultural and artistic activities to the capital. This cultural transfer, especially for our comunities, reached a peak in recent years. Artists from Turkey and other European countries come to the capital to perform in commercially organised events and concerts almost every week.

Day-Mer, a not-for-profit orginasation, has managed to stage its Cultural and Arts Festival for 22 years against the tide and the seige. The credit is due not just to Day-Mer but also to those hundreds of volunteers, especially performers, who make it possible. For this reason the workers originating from today’s Turkey share the honour of staging the longest running festival in Hackney today.

Day-Mer has always strived to encompass the current social needs and demands within its festivals. We tried to address issues such as unemplyment, injustice and unfair working conditions faced by everyone in UK as well as issues such as discrimination, racism, migration and entegration faced by communities like ours and other minorities. Under the current conditions, every activity must try to solve or create the opportunity for discussions for a solution of problems faced by all communities. In these days where we are faced with historically the deepest cuts in public spending, our festival will be an opportunity for us all to discuss the struggle against this policy of cuts.

We will join once again those sections that we came together with during meetings, demonstrations, activities and struggles in the last year. We will bring together the representatives of these groups with a great mass of people. Our 22nd Culture and Arts festival will start on the 3rd of June and continue for a month. Months of beurocratic, technical and cultural effort will become activities for you.

We hope to see you in the activities of our festival...