Thousands Delight In Afghan Showcase In London's Trafalgar Square, Hosted By Ariana Abawe

On Saturday 29 April '23, thousands flocked to Londons Trafalgar Square to celebrate the Mayor of London's free annual Eid celebrations.

Developed in partnership with the Eid Community Advisory Group and London-based arts, culture and grassroots Muslim organisations - this year's theme was 'Love For Everyone', with a focus on bringing families and communities together. A new addition for this year was the new 'Inspiring Muslim Awards', which celebrated young locally nominated heroes from London's communities.

We were so honoured to be part of an exhilarating lineup of amazing acts on the main stage including MoYah, The Khan Brothers Qawwali Group, Silk Road Collective and much more. In partnership with Cultural Style Week, the Afghan fashion and culture segment hosted by Ariana Abawe, showcased the beauty of Afghanistan and its people.

Nayha

Our main stage segment kicked off with a special guest appearance from Cultural Style Week UK host Nayha, before our host Ariana Abawe, Afghan Cultural Lead, took the main stage and introduced the acts.

Ziba Tabrezi

Dancer Ziba Tabrezi wowed the audience with her traditional Afghan Qataghani dance performance, before the cultural fashion showcase which featured eight stunning models in traditional Afghan clothing provided by Mac Store London. Makeup and Styling were provided by Gheezal Artistry.

The next part of our showcase was an energetic Attan dance performed by Fizullah Zadran, Riaz Dawlatzai and Najeebullah Zadran.

For our finale, Ariana welcomed Cultural Style Week founder Candy-Graham and Uzbek Cultural lead Kamila Erkaboyeya on stage to address the crowd.

"There is an Uzbek saying, 'boylik boylik emas, birlik boylikdir' which translates to wealth is not wealth, unity is wealth. That was displayed here today"

"There is so much beauty in diversity. What I wanted to do here today was show you a visual representation of how beautiful it is when different cultures come together".

Candy-Ellie Graham

The momentous 20 minute segment ended with cheers and applause from the audience shortly before the team were able to meet the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan backstage.

Speaking of the experience, Ariana Abawe stated: "I am so honoured to have hosted and represented Afghanistan’s beauty in front of thousands of people. I wanted to show the beauty Afghanistan because we receive a lot of negative media coverage. I am happy to be able to do this to mark Eid in Trafalgar Square with the Mayor of London."