I took these photos at the Anglia Square Festival on an October Saturday in 2013. I remember a real buzz in the air with choirs and the Norwich Samba band under the flyover, an accordionist in the King of Hearts and Cuban and west African music in the Blueberry pub. The area thronged with people and the smells of a superb variety of world food emanated from cafés and stalls.

The festival was first launched in 2010 and held annually for six years but by 2017 had become ‘impossible to run’ due to work on the flyover. Then, following the Manchester bombing and the uncertainty over redevelopment, the Anglia Square management company insisted on “a full evacuation plan, a list of items of equipment and names, addresses and car registrations of every steward and performer. When you have choirs of 50 members which change all the time, it is simply impossible to provide that level of information.” Let’s hope that it will be revived.

Photos and thoughts by Paul Harley.

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