Holywood Called to Younite Behind New Community Festival ...

In support of Race Equality Month, North Down Borough Council is delighted to announce details of the first Holywood Younite Festival 2010 that will run from 19th to 27th November..

Council's Holywood based Community Development Team, working with the Good Relations Section, has partnered with Beyond Skin, Homely Planet, the PSNI, Redburn Loughview Community Forum and Unite Against Hate, to deliver the week of activities.

The Festival will address the hard issues of Good Relations in raising awareness of sectarianism and racism and how they affect our community. The purpose of the week is to promote the concept of Holywood as a shared community, which has a zero tolerance approach to hate crime and its many manifestations. The week will promote equality and a culture of mutual respect and tolerance where diversity is embraced and celebrated.

The programme of activities includes a sporting event for young people and a number of workshops on different topics including sectarianism in sport; flags and emblems; and conflict and music. There will be two debating sessions, entitled Everybody Comes to Holywood and Holywood Talks Back, focused on how to build a shared and inclusive society in Holywood.

Everybody Comes to Holywood is a special youth radio and music session that will take place on Saturday 20 November from 3-5pm in the Sports Hall of the Christian Fellowship Church in Holywood. Holywood Talks Back is an adult open questions and answers forum on Diversity and Equality and will take place on Wednesday 24 November in Redburn Community Centre on Jackson's Road in Holywood from 7-9 pm. Tuesday 23 November hosts the Taste of Holywood Multicultural Food Fest, also in Redburn Community Centre.

The week will conclude on Saturday 27 November with musicians playing in a number of locations on High Street and with the Toast of Holywood awards and music ceremony in Redburn Community Centre. In addition, a number of radio programmes will be recorded throughout the week by Homely Planet and will be available for download from their website at www.homelyplanet.org.

The festival is being coordinated and part-funded through the Holywood Shared Spaces and Services Programme and Holywood in Harmony, which are two Peace III funded projects in the Holywood area. The festival is also part-funded by North Down Borough Council's Good Relations Programme and the Community Relations Unit of OFMDFM NI.

For more information please contact Patricia O'Toole, Coordinator of Holywood Shared Spaces and Services Programme, Queen's Leisure Complex, Sullivan Close, Holywood, email: patricia.o'toole@northdown.gov.uk, tel. 028 9042 1420.