Mystery donation gives boost to Bloomsbury cultural festival

Published: 16 September, 2010
by JOSH LOEB

A MAJOR festival is being revived thanks to the generosity of a mystery benefactor.

More than 60,000 people flocked to The Bloomsbury Festival – an annual three-day event featuring free concerts, street performances and guided tours – when it was last staged in 2007.

Back then the celebration was sponsored by Allied London, the developers of The Brunswick shopping complex. But when new owners acquired the centre they decided not to continue the funding, meaning organisers Hidden Cities had to search for a new source of cash. 

Now help has arrived in the form of an anonymous donor who has contributed  “a substantial amount”, and after a three-year gap, the festival is set to return to the streets of Bloomsbury next month.

Organisers Roma Backhouse and Maddy Jones said the event would be bigger and better than ever this time around, adding that they hoped it would bring benefits to local residents.

Ms Backhouse said: “Bloomsbury doesn’t have an obvious identity like Shoreditch and Clerkenwell but there is the most amazing stuff going on here.”

The festival will celebrate the food and music of South Asia, an acknowledgement of Bloomsbury’s large Bengali community. 

Other highlights will include a Renoir cinema screening of a film made by residents of the Brunswick Centre estate and a streetdance competition for children from local schools.

The total cost of the festival is expected to reach between £200,000 and £300,000. Funds for the festival’s development have been contributed by the Wellcome Trust, UCL, the School of Advanced Study, Camden Council, Bloomsbury Colleges, Arts Council England and The British Museum.

• The Bloomsbury Festival runs from Friday October 22 until Sunday October 24.