Preparations are underway for the Fusion Festival which will be taking place in Gravesend Town Centre on Saturday June 17 between 10.30am and 2.30pm. The festivities have been organised by Cohesion Plus working in partnership with Kent Equality Cohesion Council supported by Gravesham Borough Council and Arts Council England. The aim of the festival is to bring together the communities of the borough through music, dance and visual arts and celebrate all that binds us together.

The weekend of the festival also marks the first anniversary of the murder of Jo Cox MP and this is being marked up and down the Country with a series of events under the umbrella of “The Great Get Together”. This will be taking place in the Gravesend Market as part of the Fusion Festival between 12pm and 2pm where members of the local community will be encouraged to try different foods meet new people and celebrate the Gravesham community.

The street festival will see a range of performances taking place around the Town Centre, including on the High Street, King Street, New Road, the iconic Clock Tower as well as in Gravesend Borough Market and Windmill Street. Artists taking part include the Bollywood Brass Band, Jazz Swingtett, Phase 5 Steel Band, Reel Eire Dance and Gravesend’s very own Four by Four Bhangra Group. In addition there will be stilt walkers, mime artists and free arts workshops for children.

Gurvinder Sandher the Artistic Director of Cohesion Plus commented “Events like the Fusion Festival are more important than ever, they provide opportunities for communities to come together and celebrate our shared values and what makes us the community we are in Gravesham. This year for the first time we are doing the event purely as a street festival with performances taking place all over the town centre. This is a new departure for us as I was keen to organise an event where we were taking different art forms directly to the communities who often have low levels of engagement with the arts. We have an exciting line up and hope that the people of Gravesham will come out and support us and our work.”