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Sikh community in London celebrates Vaisakhi

Thomas Magill
BBC News
BBC A woman dances in the front row of a group of performers with colourful cloths in their hands. She is wearing traditional clothing in pink and yellow, embellished with mirrored sequins, and she is wearing dangling silver earrings and a jewelled bhindi on her foreheadBBC
Some of London's Sikhs celebrated Vaisakhi at an event in Ilford with music, performaces, food and stalls

Hundreds of thousands of people from the Sikh community will be marking Vaisakhi across London this weekend.

Vaisakhi, also called Baisakhi, is the festival which celebrates the founding of the Sikh community, the Khalsa, in 1699. 

It was originally a harvest festival in the Punjab region of India until it became Sikh's most important festival.

In east London, where it is thought there are 90,000 Sikhs, many enjoyed celebrating at an event in Newbury Park in Ilford on Saturday - where there was music, performers, food, and stalls selling traditional jewellery and clothing.

A man wearing sunglasses, a black T-shirt and black turban stands in front of a crowd outside, with a tasselled horizontal two-sided drum hung around his neck and wooden sticks in each hand. To the left of the photo, two other male drummers stand ready to perform
There were a number of performances at the event

Event organiser Joydeep Das said Vaisakhi "is a beautiful spring festival" and the event was open to everybody "to come together and have a blast".

"Back in the day people used to welcome spring, they used to cut the grass, they used to cut the crops and feast.

"This is what we are having today - it's a feast of the senses, there's food, there's entertainment, there's shopping," he added.

Joydeep Das, a man with short dark hair wearing sunglasses and a white hoodie, standing in a field
Event organiser Joydeep Das said the event was a chance to bring the community together to "celebrate"

The event is also a chance for the community to come together.

Mr Das said: "It's not just for the Sikh community but predominantly it is ... and the Sikh community love celebrating.

"They need an occasion like this to come and celebrate."

A woman with dark hair dressed in green sits at a table with her arm outstretched while a woman pipes henna art onto it
A man who came with his partner said it is an excuse for the community to enjoy themselves

One woman who attended said: "It's really lovely.

"All the community have got together, there are nice stalls. We're meeting new people."

A row of women line up in front of a food stall, which has various fried snacks in boxes, as a woman serves them onto paper plates
Crowds enjoyed music, shopping, food and more at the event in Ilford

Another said: "It's not very often that communities come together with events like this.

"It's an excuse for the community to gather, enjoy themselves."

Two women on the right of the photo browse a rail containing traditional clothing, while the stall owner rearranges colourful clothes and fabric on a table and rails to the left of the photo
One woman who attended said: "It's really lovely... all the community have got together, there are nice stalls"

"Here, the religion, the farmers, the kind of harvest, the spiritual element, the fun element for the community, the colours - everything comes together," another man said.

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