MUSIC, art and sunshine brought people of all backgrounds together in Greenhead Park yesterday for a new festival celebrating cultural diversity.
Crowds turned out for A World Together to do everything from watching bands, holding rain forest animals and practising their circus skills.
The event began with a lion dance procession round the park and continued at different performance spaces dotted around the park, where visitors enjoyed everything from tea dances to bhangra, stories and songs from folk to gospel.
Ragroof Theatre Company demonstrated and taught dances from the 1920s to 1940s at the DanceFloor, together with displays from Africa 4 All and Manasamitra.
The Music Stage rocked to the sounds of Skavolution playing a mix of skiffle and ska, as well as bhangra from Silinder and his band Pardesi.
Other entertainment included artists The Mighty Zulu Nation and Shubhra and a fashion show sponsored by Suits Me.
Meanwhile, in the SongSpace, Satellites Arts enthralled crowds with stories from around the world, as did The Seventh Day Adventist Youth Gospel Choir, folks musicians and EcCo choir from the Colne Valley.
The Have A Go Marquee held crafts including jewellery and mask making and silk painting, and a demonstration on how to build toy space rockets by Starchaser form Manchester.
And in front of the main stage drummers tried to get in the Guinness Book of Records by having the greatest number of dhol players performing in the same place at once.
Festival co-ordinator Glenis Burgess said: “A World Together is about profiling different cultures and music and arts of all the different communities in Kirklees and Yorkshire.
“It’s gone brilliantly. The weather has been kind to us and there was a massive multi-cultural and inter-cultural audience.”
