United Colours Festival to celebrate Cultural Diversity

Birmingham 2022 has united with the Sikh community for the first United Colours of UK Festival.

The festival has been organised by Sikh charity Global Sikh Union in association with Birmingham 2022 and will take place at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium on May 28 and 29, 2022.

The festival has the core purpose of celebrating cultural diversity and community cohesion.

It will bring together a culmination of South Asian music, food, culture and sports.

It is a free two-day event with up to 30,000 people expected to attend the festival, making it the largest South Asian culture festival of 2022.

United Colours is run by Global Sikh Union and is officially joined by Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

All funds raised at the festival will be donated to the British Heart Foundation.

British Heart Foundation fundraising manager Ashleigh Mills said:

“We’re delighted to be selected as the charity for this upcoming event.

“Heart and circulation disease is prevalent in South Asian communities so we really want to do as much as we can to help raise awareness and support attendees.

“We’d love to do more and this is the first event in quite a few years that we’ve been asked to be included.

“It’s something we’re really keen to do more of to help educate the community.

“There’s so much to do here. I feel this is just the beginning.”

Teaming up with other partners, brand ambassadors and key artists from the arts and music sector/industry, United Colours will showcase an incredible curated live show ‘Teg Bahadur Rhapsody’, bringing together 400 South Asian and ethnic minority musicians to perform at the same time!

This is after the world record-breaking Nanak Rhapsody which was highlighted by BBC Children in Need in 2019 and watched by 5 million viewers globally.

Alongside this, May 28 will feature a Tedx panel talk on empowerment.

Special guests include Rishi Rich, I am Kiranee, Ameet Chana, Commonwealth Gold Medalist Karenjeet Bains and many more.

Across the weekend, there will be over 20 events.

This includes mendhi, turban tying, friendly football games on Walsall’s official training pitch, a food village with cuisines from across South Asia, coin exhibition from the Great Sikh Empire, South Asian art gallery, Bharatanatyam and Bhangra dance, table tennis, and much more.

The festival will also feature wrestling coach Ranjit Singh, who will give a talk on the Sikh community’s links to wrestling.

Commonwealth Games mascot Perry the Bill will also be in attendance.

Kohli Ravinder Pal Singh, CEO, Global Sikh Vision and Founder of United Colours, said:

“United Colours is a synonym of our multicultural society consisting of all faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds, avidly participating to promote the spirit of cooperation, and helping one another.

“Unity in diversity is a sensation that cannot be replicated.”