A COMMUNITY festival showcasing more than 35 nationalities returns to Boscombe this weekend with a new format and their biggest line-up yet.

Having held its pilot event and its first official festival in 2019, last year’s World of Love Festival was called off due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The free community festival is to be held at Kings Park on Saturday, August 28 and Sunday, August 29 from 11am to 5pm.

To help support communities within Dorset who have battled through the past 17 months, organisers have changed their approach to this year’s event.

Founder Bea Sieradzka said: “For this year’s event, everything is going to be different. Before the pandemic, we at the World of Love Festival were inviting different and diverse community to join us.

“Right now, because of everything that has happened, I thought that I would like to help and support these diverse communities in Dorset which have struggled during the pandemic.

“Starting from this year, World of Love Festival will be more of an umbrella organisation and a few of the community groups will be hosting their own events.

“There are five diverse communities, and they are all organising their own events as part of the World of Love Festival. In addition, there will also be artists from other countries performing too.”

Brazilian Educational and Cultural Centre, Igbo Community in Dorset, Fil-Brits Community Dorset, Dorset Polish Centre and the Nigerian Community in Dorset will all be taking part in musical performances and demonstrations, alongside other Dorset artists and guest performers.

Visitors can also take part in a range of workshops, language games and creative projects, as well as international food and children’s crafts and workshop stalls.

The event will be kicked off with a performance from the Coda Fiddle Orchestra, a multinational group of 30 children aged between five and 18 all playing violin tunes from China, Austria and Iran, among others, all accompanied by piano.

Bea added: “This year there will be even more performances, displays and workshops for people to watch and get involved in, from Zumba classes and yoga to African drumming workshops. There are also language activities for adults and children who are interested in learning a new language.

“The mixture is going to be quite special. We have a Brazilian DJ, Irish folk music, Turkish belly dancing and even Danish folk dancing from a nine-year-old girl called Jessica.

“We have some many artists here in Dorset, so many incredible talented and passionate people performing at the festival.

“I am incredibly excited and honoured for them to be part of World of Love Festival and can’t wait to welcome people to the festival.”

To find out more, visit https://worldoflovefestival.co.uk.