Holy Cow! We Got Tweeted!

Check out this tweet below from Nigel Pearson at Active Bradford Community Centre. I wanted to try and get a message out about the Holy Cow festival, hear what people had to say about my prospective plans and try and get as many people involved within the community. By doing this not only are you advertising the event but you are bring people together and getting them to work as a community. By listening to the Bradford community and understanding what they want, I can alter and shape my festival to their wants and needs, hoping that it will help achieve the greatest outcome possible.

Holy Cow! What logo should I use?

I want to create a logo which is punchy, unique and fun, to be used to grab the attention of a younger audience. Although I like the loud logos directly below, they may be too busy for the main central branding image and could be used for more promotional poster work. Whereas the neater cleaner cows at the bottoms may be more apt for a logo which can be used continuously throughout the branding of the festival. Let me know which of these logos you think is best?

Space Hunting

I just got back from Bradford after spending the day looking around the city finding suitable areas for my festival to take place. As India is a country known for its diversity, I want to work on the idea of feeling as though you are traveling around India as you move around the festival. After learning about the vast variety of cultures in india, all giving birth to different foods, music, dance and beliefs, I wanted to find an to erect my festival which could be described and mapped out like a compass. A cross roads leading the festival goers to the north, south, east and west, allowing them to discover the various cultures and what each of them hold.

Below are some of the photographs I took from Bradford, let me know what you think!

The Indian Cohesion Festival

The Indian Cohesion Festival

Community cohesion can be defined as promoting knowledge, respect and contact between various sections of the community and establishing a greater sense of citizenship. This is my aim for the city of Bradford and I am not naive in thinking that I alone can eradicate the invisible segregation in a blink of an eye. I am trying to tackle an issue, which has been dominating the city for years, in a unique contemporary way. I want to use a fresh approach to focus on the positive, look at celebrating a subculture within the city rather than continually pin pointing the negative racial tension that continues to exists.

The goal of my project is to organise an Indian community cohesion festival, to promote a better understanding of the Indian Culture, where family and friends are the essence of life and communities work together and value each other. I want to bring this ethos to Bradford; let people explore the Indian culture and learn from their morals and values.

My target market is the youths of Bradford, as I believe that if we can start changing the views of this younger generation, then it will hopefully have a knock on affect for future generations, helping to distill the segregation within the community. My aim is to try and relate to these youths, being one myself, and take the focus off the negative connotations that some youths associate with words like “religion” or “culture”. I want to engage them in the parts of the culture which they can relate to, like music, dance, clothes and film, exploring the diversity of the country and its culture.

I am aware that some people feel the Indian community is not as segregated as some of the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, but the Indian culture is what I have been attracted to. The Ethos of the culture is so powerful and it is this element that I want to bring to my festival. I am also aware of the annual Mela that takes place within the city, however, although this is open to the public, it is a festival which has been generated for the Indian community. The cohesion festival is all about getting people to mix, allowing them to explore and discover an affiliation to the country. Creating multicultural atmosphere, within the Indian style festival, will help encourage people to relax and enjoy themselves. For now I am only looking to generate public interest, support and feedback. I want to know what people think of my proposed ideas, see how they react to them and try and understand what they, as a community, would want this festival to achieve.

Holy Cow! I need your help!

1. How long have you lived in the U.K?

........................................................................................................................

2. Have you ever lived in India? If Yes, when and for how long?

......................................................................................................................

3. Why did you come over to the U.K?

....................................................................................................................

4. What aspect of the indian culture do you miss?

........................................................................................................................

5. What aspects of the British culture do you enjoy, which india does not have?

...................................................................................................................

6. Are you religious? If Yes, what religion do you follow?

.................................................................................................................

7. What was your favourite Indian festival and why?

.....................................................................................................................

8. What is the biggest differences between India and the U.K?

..................................................................................................................

9. What, do you feel, are the biggest issues and problems in India?

...............................................................................................................

10. What would you change about your country, in term of sicknesses and problematic issues and why?

....................................................................................................................

11. Do you know of any issues and problems within India, which are not well known and do not receive much help and support?

....................................................................................................................