Bristol Asian Mela

This weekend we took a group of  volunteers along to the Bristol Asian Festival in Eastville Park to experience the festivities and to interview the young people who had helped to organise the event. The event was organised by community organisation Awaz Utaoh who provide a range of activities, events and support services for Bristol’s South Asian community.

It was a really special day with dancing from Bollywood Glamour, Bristol’s first Bollywood dance company, a fashion show on the main stage 
and performances from international artist Imran Khan. The main attraction was the talent show in the youth marquee where young people showcased there phenomenal talents from beatboxing to singing, dancing and even modelling.

Over in the heritage marquee elders from Bristol's Asian community and the Lord Mayor gathered for a special book launch lead by Simi Chowdry, director of Awaz Utaoh. ‘More than a Curry’ is a special book that details the contribution that the Asian community has made to Bristol. The launch was accompanied by a special screening of a documentary featuring interviews with community elders. In his speech the Lord Mayor praised the work Awaz Utaoh and their organisation of the event: ‘It is a great example of an event which binds relationships between families and communities and promotes peace and harmony in our city.’

UNITY Volunteers with the Mayor in the Heritage Marquee

Interviewing Talent Show Contestants

All of the photographs, audio and video from the day will be edited together by our volunteers in the next few weeks and will appear on our various sites.

St Paul's Carnival Post Production Workshops

After interviewing members of the public, local young people, community leaders and even our local MP, the UNITY volunteers then attended a series of workshops (supported by BBC Blast) to edit together all of their recordings and photographs into two multimedia presentations to be shown at the Harbourside Festival.

Young people came into the Bread offices and worked with Matt Olden from I am the Mighty Junglator (a local band and experimental media collective) to produce the pieces. Volunteers learnt about different audio and video editing software and were able to have a real hands on experience, choosing which interviews to include and altering audio levels to improve sound quality.

The finished pieces were shown at the festival  on the 2nd of August 2009 and have been uploaded onto all UNITY's sites to promote the project.

You can watch both films on youtube or by clicking on the icons in our video bar on the left-hand side of this page.

St Paul's Carnival Documentation Project

On Saturday 4th July 2009 UNITY took a group of volunteers to the St Paul's carnival to document this colourful celebration of diverse local culture. Young people photographed the parade and interviewed community leaders and members of the general public to gain an impression of what makes this such a special event.

Recording local musicians by the main stage

Meeting the Mayor 

Interviewing Stephen Williams MP

Meeting some of the performers 

In the afternoon the photographs taken by volunteers were displayed on the BBC big screen in Portland Square which was achieved with assistance from BBC Blast.

To see all of the photographs taken by young people on the day please go to our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/breadunityproject/