Ballroom climax for refugee culture festival

Organiser Mussarat Rahman said the festival aimed to be a "reflection of the societies we work with"

The French Ballroom at the Midland Hotel in Bradford will be the setting for the grand finale of this year's Intercultured Festival.

The festival, now in its fifth year, runs from Wednesday until 2 November at various venues, celebrating the city's migrant and refugee communities.

Founder Mussarat Rahman said the programme for 2025 included films, poetry, food and music.

She said: "It's a reflection of the societies we work with and how we were brought up and how we engage with society today as well."

Ms Rahman said: "The reason why we set up the festival was that we didn't feel like people from different nationalities were given a voice or a place or were recognised in society.

"We wanted to highlight the qualifications, arts and skills that these people brought into different cultures and communities here in Bradford."

People enjoy the Commoners' Ball held at the end of last year's festival

Ms Rahman said festival highlights would include a Pahari Poetry Mushaira evening exploring the language of many British Pakistanis, Poetry in the Wild with the Otley Poets in Shipley, and a Peace in the Middle East sit-down dinner.

The Commoners' Ball will be held at the Midland Hotel on Saturday 1 November.

Ms Rahman, who is from Halifax but moved to Bradford when she was 18, said she had worked with asylum seekers and refugees for almost two decades as well as other communities from a wide spectrum of backgrounds.

She said: "The whole festival is designed so that anybody from any community or any member of society can join in. "

She said the Arts Council England-funded event also aimed to "unite" people in light of Bradford's status as a City of Sanctuary, which it has held since 2010.

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