Update on the Festival of Communities and Next Steps for Local Community Engagement
Since its inception in 2016, the Festival of Communities has been a flagship event, celebrating the relationship between Queen Mary University of London and the communities of Tower Hamlets. Over the years, we have welcomed thousands of residents to the Festival and collaborated with many Queen Mary staff, students and local groups to organise this incredible event. Hundreds of colleagues and organisations have engaged with local people and showcased their work at the Festival. We are thankful to all who have been involved. Each event has been a joyful celebration that has connected staff, students, and the local Tower Hamlets community. However, delivering the Festival year after year has been a much greater undertaking than we had anticipated and the resource required has limited our capacity to deliver other vital public engagement work throughout the rest of the year.
Across the UK, universities are facing financial challenges and needing to re-evaluate budgets and expenditure. After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Festival for the foreseeable future. Instead, we will focus our available resources, time and energy on defining and delivering alternative year-round public engagement activities with and for our communities in Tower Hamlets, and across East London and beyond.
This decision has not been easy to make, but it in no way diminishes our commitment to community engagement within Tower Hamlets and across East London. We are determined to continue to strengthen our collaboration with local people, communities and partners around our London campuses through a range of initiatives designed to foster meaningful partnerships and maximise our collective impact.
Queen Mary prioritises community engagement as a core part of its mission. Inspired by its founding ethos, the University fosters collaboration and delivers meaningful impact locally and globally, ensuring its research, teaching, and activities benefit East London communities and beyond. Central to this is a commitment to two-way, inclusive relationships that amplify diverse voices and perspectives. As an anchor institution, Queen Mary works through the Civic University Agreement to address regional challenges alongside local people, communities and partners. Initiatives like the Legal Advice Centre, Centre of the Cell, BLOC Cinema, and Music at Queen Mary reflect this dedication to inclusivity.
To shape our future approach to working with communities in East London, we are launching a survey alongside this announcement, inviting feedback and ideas from our community stakeholders. The responses will inform a series of community consultation workshops in the spring, where we will co-create a refreshed public engagement strategy that reflects the aspirations of our community and the University.
We thank everyone who has supported and participated in the Festival of Communities over the years. Together, we look forward to building new and innovative ways to connect, collaborate, and create lasting positive change in East London and beyond.
For more information about Public Engagement at Queen Mary and ways to get involved:
Read more on our webpages
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Contact us at publicengagement@qmul.ac.uk
Take part in our survey: Shaping Our Future Public Engagement in East London