Kidane Eyob

Introduction
In the summer of 2008, we were very excited to have been able to hold the UK Festival in the beautiful grounds of Lee Valley Leisure Complex Centre in Edmonton North London where thousands of people had the opportunity to celebrate and participate in this fabulous annual event. There was such a buzz and excitement in the air especially amongst the children and their families. In 2008, the UK Festival made vast improvements in the initial preparation, venue, resources and involvement of the children and their families in the process, content and quality of the programme planned and delivered. I sincerely hope that the 2009 Festival will be better and greater with hundreds of people camping on site. Yes we can camp on site.

The Opening Ceremony
In 2008, the UK festival was officially opened by the Guest of Honour President of NUEW Mrs Lu'ul Ghebreab.

Main Conference and Live Music Tent
This was by far the biggest tent where seminars were presented by The Ambassador
H.E Tesfamichael Gerahtu and the guest of honour President of NUEW Mrs Lu’ul
Ghebreab. Live music, fashion show, graduation ceremony and the children’s shows
also took place in this massive tent. People of all ages had a great time watching the
various shows and dancing to the live music presented by several talented musicians.

Children's activities

In 2008, the festival was unique due to the fact that children took active part in the presentation of various shows including traditional music and dances, contemporary music and dances, rap music and very impressive presentation about the nine nationalities their cultures and way of life by the children for the children and their families. Another presentation that attracted so much attention was the artistic and model presentation of Nakfa and the surrounding chains of mountains that was designed and made by our heroic Freedom fighters living in the UK.

These Freedom Fighter spent hours of their time in teaching the children who participated in the orientation and training sessions at Hyde Park about the history of the Eritrean armed struggle in general and that of the challenges of liberating and defending the historic city of Nakfa in particular.

The children were able to relate and appropriate the lessons learnt from Nakfa into their personal lives i.e. determination, endurance, confidence, self reliance, assertiveness and challenges. They were so touched by all that they had learnt that they composed an email to thank the coordinator for imparting such relevant lessons and experience in a fun and exciting way.
Furthermore the children went on to compose contemporary rap lyric and dance to express their understanding of all that they had learnt during the orientation and training session within two weekends prior to the festival.
Here is a taste of one of the contemporary rap music composed by one of the children….enjoy!

ERITREA ERITREA

Eritrea, Eritrea I am conscious for you,
Eritrea, Eritrea I am competent to,
Eritrea, Eritrea I am capable to do,
Whatever you ask me I will never desert you X 2
This shovel is my symbol and hope is on my side,
Eritrea, Eritrea you always on my mind X2
The journey might be long and hard,
But there's victory at the end end end …

Composed by Nathan Carty from the Nakfa Generation Group

ERI-TV
The coordinators and volunteers with their state of the art communications gear were amazing. They worked tirelessly to cover every inch and every minute of this fabulous event.

Eritrean Embassy in the UK desk
The Embassy Staff also had a designated tent where people sought enquiries and advice.

Support for Martyrs families
People were pleased to note that the families of our martyrs had a dedicated tent where people went to seek enquiries and offer their financial support.

Eritrean community in Scotland
A dedicated tent for the Eritrean community in Scotland. Most people didn't even know we have a well organised community in Scotland.

Young PFDJ (YPFDJ)
The YFDJ tent was located on the left hand side corner not far from where the live music was been played. The YPFDJ played a pivotal role in making this festival a success and a special event to be remembered for many years to come.

Sports Activity
This was by far the most exciting activity for the children of all age groups.
There were the under 10 and under 15 year's old groups as well as young adults.
Activities included football and athletics. Their performance was fantastic and would not be an exaggeration to state that we have some promising Eritrean footballers and athletes. At the end of the 2 day sport session, medals were presented to all the winners in the various activities.

Food and drinks tent
Perhaps the second biggest tent of all was the one where food and drinks was been served. Though there were occasionally long queues, the volunteers did an amazing job in ensuring that people of all ages had variety of food and drinks available at reasonable prices.

Traditional Household goods Shop
In this tent all sorts of traditional household goods including an electric coffee oven (Farniyelo) and other artefact goods were been sold to the festival visitors.

Security
The coordinators and volunteers who were responsible for security were located at a very strategic location and were very efficient when carrying out their tasks.

Although, initially the families were apprehensive and concerned about the security and health and safety issues at the camp site, about 12 families eventually agreed to camp and soon purchased their tents and other materials like sleeping bags and lamps that were required for camping. Once the idea had sunk in, however, these families got really excited and did not quite know what to expect as most of them had never camped before. Thereafter, Meadna did a great job of announcing the opportunity to camp but sadly the majority of the people I spoke to failed to notice the announcement.

All families arrived on Friday afternoon and evening and soon helped each other erect their tents within the camping facility designated for Eritreans.

The aim of the camping was to continue the bonding process that began during the orientation and training sessions at Hyde Park and I was blown away by the sense of community spirit that made the camping atmosphere a place to be envied by those who missed the opportunity to camp. Children spent hours on end in their tents chatting and getting to know one another whilst their parents roasted coffee, popcorn and prepared food and drinks including barbeque.