A huge thank you to our artists, traders, partners, funders, volunteers and to everyone who attended Bristol Refugee Festival 2026. Together, we had:
- 30+ partner organisations put on events for our festival partner programme in venues across the city.
- 26 agencies who work with refugees and asylum seekers involved at Celebrating Sanctuary, our festival finale, on College Green.
- Lord Mayor, Yassin Mohamud, deliver an address at our opening and closing events.
- So many talented refugee craft and food traders across the festival!
Our programme partners delivered some amazing events this year. From works-in-progress with The Paper Cinema at Arnolfini to a roundtable on cooking and connection with Migrateful, to film screenings, poetry workshops and sporty days out, it was great to see everyone take on the theme of Courage in unique ways.
Bristol Refugee Festival 2026 in Pictures
Relive the festival through our curated album here. Highlights include the History of Sanctuary Walk, the Children’s Community Football Festival, Home from Home with Özcan Ateş and of course, Celebrating Sanctuary in College Green.
This was the first year Celebrating Sanctuary took place in College Green and it was a fantastic day featuring live music and dance from around the world, with performances from The Bristol Griot, Servo Mputu and Friends, a Kurdish Govend by Tara Miran and Friends, Tamboré Colombian Folklore Dancing Group, Özcan Ateş and Friends, DJ Steph and Zimbabwean mbira group Bulawayo Band.
See you again next year!
Showcasing Kurdish culture and dance finally! The Kurdish community in Bristol has been waiting a long time to feel included in such a way. We had a fab time!
— 2026 Festival Participant
