Inspire Festival: 11 -18th October 2014

As well as our Harvest Festival, I attended two other events in the Inspire Festival Week: the opening event at the Rivers of Joy centre off the Budaiya Highway, not the easiest place to find in the dark and the Choral Evening at Al Raja School. It was good to see a painting by Satheesh Paul, one of our members, among the contributors to the art exhibition.

The energy for the week came from Lydia Martin and all credit to her for the energy and imagination that she put into this festival but, in the end, its church support base was very small. Ecumenical events are hard work to organize- when a vicar in the Lake District, I organized the churches’ involvement in the Windermere Festival – Inspire probably needs a broader base of committee or else the dominant culture and style of one group impacts on the whole festival.