About Sangam Festival
Sangam Festival: A Celebration of South Asian Heritage is run by West Yorkshire social enterprise Communities Together.
We were inspired to create the Festival to ensure that communities across Kirklees could enjoy a range of activities and events on their doorstep during South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM), which runs annually from 18 July to 17 August.
The Festival will also provide vital new commissions for freelance artists and arts organisers and boost the local economy.
Festival Director Qaisar Mahmood is the CEO of Communities Together and sister company Radio Sangam, the most followed South Asian community radio station in the UK, broadcasting 24/7, 365 days a year in Urdu, Punjabi, Sylheti, Arabic, Gujarati and English.
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“The word ‘Sangam’ means to come together – and our aim for Sangam Festival is to bring people of diverse backgrounds together and promote community cohesion, while celebrating the rich and varied history of South Asian people, our language, arts, culture and heritage.”
Qaisar Mahmood
Sangam Festival Director
About South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM)
South Asian Heritage Month “seeks to raise the profile of British South Asian heritage and history in the UK through education, arts, culture and commemoration with the goal of helping people to better understand the diversity of present-day Briatin and improve social cohesion across the country”.
Sangam Festival shares the SAHM goals of reclaiming the history and identity of British South Asian people and allowing them to tell their own stories, as well as looking back in history to see how Britain became the diverse country it is today.
Why these dates?
18 July – the indian independence Act 1947 was given royal assent from King George VI
14 August – Independence Day Pakistan
15 August – Independence Day India
17 August – publication of the Radcliffe Line setting out the border between India. West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
Our Supporters
Sangam Festival is run by social enterprise Communities Together and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants.
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