Rich cultures of Carlisle were celebrated in a showcase of the city’s diversity.

Organised by Multicultural Carlisle, the 2020 Culture Bazaar returned for the 10th year at Richard Rose Central Academy for a two-day extravaganza at the weekend.

Attendees had the chance to take part in a range of workshops and watch a variety of performances, which shine a light on plethora of nationalities and heritages who live and work in the city.

There was also a chance to see some food demonstrations, play games, hear music, watch different dances from different cultures and learn to play many different instruments.

Founder and chief officer of Multicultural Carlisle, Saj Ghafoor, told the News & Star: “It’s about bringing the city together, showing the similarities of the different cultures and closing the gap on the differences.

“It’s good that people get to see how diverse Cumbria is.

“I started this back in 2007, and even though we’ve lived here for many years, we didn’t know how diverse Carlisle was.

“We have 70 different languages spoken here in Carlisle and you don’t see all the cultures together so it’s nice to see them all together at this event.”

The Culture Bazaar is about empowering the different communities, giving them a sense of belonging and a sense of appreciation in the wider community.

Richard O’Neill, a Romani Storyteller is pleased the event is still running.

He explained: “I’m so pleased Saj is still running it.

“Cumbria is about people from different places.

“When you walk down the street and see places with names like Fat Gadgie and people using works like deek they’re all Romani words brought into this culture.

“Our culture is intermingled and I’m bringing back the Roamni culture through the story telling.”

Sarah Rocker from the Carlisle World Shop was happy to be back at the Culture Bazaar for another year showcasing their fairtrade goods.

She said: “We are here representing fair trade.

“We’ve been here for the last two years now and we always jump at the opportunity to come back when asked.

“It’s brilliant. The ethos is exactly what we are, fairtrade, and it’s a great opportunity to represent us and what we do.

“The people love it and we love to be here.”