NKYCF 2022 — Youth Action Alliance

ABOUT

We host an annual festival which was set up in 2017 following the tragic loss of two of our young members in the Grenfell Tower fire. Our vision is to support the children, young people, and their families living in North Kensington to create an alternative narrative. No longer defined by Grenfell but defined instead by our history of community resilience, our diversity, and our creativity. This event serves to unite and bring everyone together under “One Community” and includes everything from food, refreshments to a range of sports, health and wellbeing, arts and fun activities for all ages to foster community cohesion and improve coping and resilience skills.

Every year, we deliver the festival, to uplift and unite the community, however, we were unable to do so in 2021 due to the Covid restrictions. To make up for it, we are hosting a series of smaller community programmes and events between 2021 and June 2022 including the Nightlife Football Tournament.

North Kensington Youth and Community Festival 2022

This year we brought the North Kensington Youth and Community Festival to the community yet again on 25th June for the Grenfell fifth year anniversary. This served to unite and bring everyone together under “One Community”.

This festival is important to us as an organisation as it provides a free, fun and positive event to the community. After a difficult number of years after the Grenfell Tower Fire, the Covid pandemic and the Black Lives Matter we wanted to remind the community that they are supported. We also wanted to give young people the opportunity to connect with local services and each other to build new skills, increase their social development and promote their future ambitions.

We were able to provide a platform for young people to showcase their talents with special guest judges, music, sports tournaments and even an exotic farm. There were many activities for children and young people such as a bouncy castle, assault course and an immersive storytelling adventure as well as a media and gaming hub and stem zone.

This year we also had brand new zones which included a Animal zone (Camel rides), Over 60’s (Bingo and High Tea) and a Sensory Zone (LLDD). You can watch the video here. See publicity here.