Sheffield arts festival reveals international lineup

The Migration Matters Festival is the biggest UK festival of its kind - with 12,000 people taking part in 2022 - and runs this year between June 16 and 24.

Headliners confirmed include Kenyan afro pop band Sauti Sol, who have a huge worldwide fanbase and will visit Sheffield as their only tour date in the north of England.

Trailblazing Honey Thalijeh, who was captain of the first all-female Palestinian football team and now works at FIFA, will share her inspirational journey through prejudice to promoting equality through sport.

For the first time at the festival there will also be a dedicated strand for children.

A series of events will be dedicated to climate change, while three diverse guest curators are to introduce new international influences.

Sam Holland, director of the festival now in its eighth year, said: “Programme wise we have ramped it up this year and are being incredibly ambitious.

“Our lineup truly spans the globe. Given the rhetoric coming from Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the protests against the Illegal Migration Bill, there’s a certain bleakness right now about the country’s migration and refugee situation.

“It feels more essential than ever to have the festival to bring all communities together and so people who don’t feel safe have a cultural sanctuary.”

The Migration Matters Festival was launched in 2016, the year of the Brexit referendum and Syrian refugee crisis.

It celebrates the positive impact migration and refugees have in Sheffield, which is the country’s first City of Sanctuary, and gives unrepresented communities a voice.

This June the festival will include more than 60 events spanning the themes of film, art, theatre, dance, walking, cabaret and food. All will operate on a pay-as-you-feel basis.

Performances will be held at Sheffield venues ranging from The Crucible and Yellow Arch Studios to the festival’s new home, Soft Ground on The Moor.

Other programme highlights include a show by emerging theatre maker Rinkoo Barpaga, who is deaf and will sign Made in India/Britain before it is translated into speech.

In music, there is Sheffield-based artist UDAGAN, which combines traditional North Siberian folk with experimental technology for a truly unique sound.

Award-winning Maya Youssef, a Syrian musician known as the ‘Queen of the quanan’ for her mastery of the 78-stringed Middle Eastern instrument, will also star in this year’s festival.

Several events will tell stories from the intimate perspective of migrants or asylum seekers.

They include Birmingham Passage, a performance examining the lives of the Windrush generation who travelled from the Caribbean to help rebuild post-war Britain.

An art exhibition will also showcase photography by young sanctuary seekers in Doncaster.

Elsewhere The Chileans of the North film event will also explore the 50 year anniversary of the military coup against the country in 1973.

Sam added: “This year we are focusing on communities we feel we haven’t fully represented in the past.

"One of the main aims is to get young people involved in the migration conversation and sharing their own experiences.

“It’s also crucial for us to talk more about climate as this is going to be the biggest cause of migration in the next century.”

The three festival guest curators are Taiwanese artist Howl Yuan, Polish artist development coordinator Marta Marsicka and Singaporean Muslim-Malay creative producer Nur Khairiyah Binte Ramli - known as Khai.

Migration Matters Festival is part of Refugee Week, which this year has the theme of compassion.

It is funded by Arts Council England, the University of Sheffield and the Evan Cornish Foundation as well as Sheffield Council.

Tickets will be available to book at migrationmattersfestival.co.uk shortly.