This week we’re hearing from Munji and all things Beelong Festival!
Beelong Festival is an annual event at Chorlton High School, which PIE have been helping to run for the last few years. This year I have had the absolute privilege of working with a small group of students (the organising committee) to plan and execute the festival!
Each session we focused on different aspects of the organisation process. Beginning with branding and brainstorming, we then refined our ideas, created ordering lists and planning assemblies to recruit volunteers.
Every member of the group was really invested in making sure the festival was a success, as it is such a highly anticipated event in the school calendar!
Leading up to the event there was a never-ending list of things to do – dance rehearsals, fashion show rehearsals, setting up stalls, briefing volunteers, creating marketing materials. As well as sort out all of the orders, my Amazon delivery driver definitely thought there was a festival happening in my back garden!
On the day, the Manchester weather really pulled through and our Plan B (for typical wet Mancunian weather) wasn’t needed – yay! Sunshine and clear skies were the perfect setting for our ice-cream van which we hired for the event. The 200 tokens for free ice-creams went so quickly – thankyou to Steve who had a queue for the whole 2 hours of the event!
Near the entrance of the school, we had steel pans playing as a welcome for queuing ticket holders - the event was sold out!!
Going into the canteen, there was a hive of activity in the central hub of the festival! But more about that later...
Fantastic cultural stalls in the canteen were a hit (as always!), there were hair braiding tutorials, a cultural quiz, bracelet making, henna art and a chance for attendees to share a bit of their culture. As you can see from the pictures, they were busy throughout the festival! We couldn't have run these without the student volunteers - the Chorlton High community is so talented!
Even the canteen staff had put together a delicious spread of food, providing cultural food for all to enjoy!
So as if there wasn't enough going on in the canteen...we also had a photo booth, a beautiful work exhibition and a stunning Bollywood dance. 517 photos were taken in the photo booth, which works out on average about 4 per minute!!! The beautiful work exhibition was accompanied by some singing and musical instruments, again from the talent pool of Chorlton High. Lastly, the Bollywood dance performance by year 7 students was SO good, I had already watched it 5 times in rehearsal but still could not believe how good they were in the final performance!
The Fashion show was a personal highlight of mine – where students took part in a catwalk in their cultural clothes to cultural music. It was so heartwarming to see the young people so proud and having the whole community cheering them on. Some had 3 generations of family members supporting them and there were plenty of happy tears in the audience!
Involving the whole community (teachers, students and families) made this event extra special and there was such a sense of unity.
Value being placed on where the young people come from and allowing them to celebrate this, really made it clear that all students 'bee-long' at Chorlton High!
As events go, this may be my favourite PIE event of this academic year!
Last but not least I would like to say a massive thank you to all the staff at Chorlton High for their support in making the festival such a huge success, especially Ms Haygarth who was there every step of the way!
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