Social cohesion: The power of diverse-led outdoor festivals 

Cohesion Plus are a community arts festival and event organisers predominantly serving North and West Kent and surrounding areas. The whole ethos of our work is to use the arts to bring communities together, to celebrate what unites us, rather than divides, and our shared British values, by creating shared experiences.  

We present culturally diverse events incorporating music, dance and the visual arts. We maximise their unifying power by creating a multi-racial, multi-faith environment bonded by art and we promote good community relations and mutual understanding.

These events run year-round, with everything from Diwali celebrations to Eid, Pride and St George’s Day parades, aiming to bring together the whole community. We have been doing this since 2008 and in 2018 became an Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation.

Volatile and challenging atmosphere

At the peak of last year’s racially-motivate riots, Cohesion Plus was delivering the Crawley Fusion Mela. Although the atmosphere was volatile and challenging, the Mela proved hugely successful and celebratory, creating a sanctuary from what was going on nationally. Returning home to watch the news felt like we’d been in a parallel universe. It also underlined for me the power of outdoor arts in bringing communities together.

While hate and aggression were quickly spreading around the country, it felt important to bring together our diverse community in Kent and get vocal about the alternative truth. We created this video, in which leaders of different faith and racial communities came together to demonstrate our unity and promote social cohesion.

I am a trustee of OutdoorArtsUK, an ACE Investment Principles Support Organisation (IPSO) for artists and festivals working in outdoor spaces. As a board member, I spoke at their annual conference in Stoke-on-Trent about my experience of that summer.

Jake Puddle from British Future was a fellow speaker, who presented their Creating Connections Report which argues that the arts have real potential to promote social cohesion. But, it also says that festivals and practitioners need to work more purposefully to sustain the human connections our work can build. The challenge lies in the patchiness of funding and resources available.

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Cohesion Plus, in partnership with Same Sky, Kent Equality Cohesion Council, supported by Arts Council England, brought the communities of Gravesham together for a celebration of Saint George’s Day in April.

Gaining trust from communities

Small organisations like Cohesion Plus can sometimes feel on our own. We have had to be persistent and resolute in the last 20 years to build our network and gain trust from communities. To enable companies like ours to make an impact, we need more consistent help from local and national government, arts councils, and other arts, voluntary and statutory sectors.

To change places and communities for the better, we all need to come together and create a comprehensive, year-round programme of activities, bound by strategic and focused collaboration. We also need a co-created framework to monitor any change we make. 

As a performing artist with Four by Four Bhangra, which I co-founded in 1994, I observe the patchiness of social cohesion work in different parts of the country. Often, we are the only diverse-led artists on the bill – it can feel very exposed performing in less visibly diverse place. Already this summer, we have been shouted and sworn at during an outdoor festival performance. It took audience members to summon security for us as none were present.

Many positive strides

As someone celebrating 40 years’ performing, it was a stark reminder that, although we have made many positive strides as a society, there is still more to be done.

The ongoing division in our society was reaffirmed in The State of Us Report, co-published by British Future and Belong Network this month, and OutdoorArtsUK has written a blog recently to remind colleagues about the support that diverse artists and audiences need in outdoor events. 

The power of the outdoor arts sector is a bit of a double-edged sword. We make impact by taking creativity to open, outdoor spaces but making it immediately available to the full cross section of the community creates a vulnerability. There’s nowhere to hide for diverse artists and audiences if problems do occur.

This vulnerability makes it necessary for event organisers to implement proportional countermeasures. For example, it would be good to have one or two stewards allocated to a diverse-led show to remove problem-makers swiftly, even just as backup.

Eliminating discrimination and prejudice is a key motivator for Cohesion Plus along with celebrating what unites us and our shared British values. Our work becomes more needed as social tensions heighten. We’re committed to continue working with local partners despite the tough economic climate. We hope that colleagues across the country will continue too and that they get the recognition they deserve and need from bigger regional and national institutions.