{"id":368050,"date":"2025-08-23T20:19:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T20:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/368050\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T20:19:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T20:19:26","slug":"swindons-ukrainian-festival-to-shine-a-light-on-ongoing-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/368050\/","title":{"rendered":"Swindon&#8217;s Ukrainian festival to &#8216;shine a light&#8217; on ongoing war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alexandra Bassingham<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, West of England<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/690c0e30-7c24-11f0-83cc-c5da98c419b8.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Anastasiia Moskalenko Ukrainian women dressed in red skirts and white decorated tops at last year's UkraineFest. They are also wearing red head dresses.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Anastasiia Moskalenko<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainians, pictured here at last year&#8217;s UkraineFest, will gather on Saturday for this year&#8217;s event<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">One of Britain&#8217;s biggest Ukrainian festivals is returning this weekend as organisers say the event will &#8220;shine a light&#8221; on the ongoing war. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Now in its third year, UkraineFest 2025 is taking place in Swindon, Wiltshire, on Saturday, the day before Ukrainian Independence Day. Last year more than 3,000 attended. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Kris Talikowski, from Swindon Welcomes Ukraine who are organising the event, said it is not &#8220;just a cultural festival, it&#8217;s a message&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He added: &#8220;We shine a light on a war that has not ended, on families still suffering, on a nation still fighting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/00752fa0-7dc3-11f0-a512-25ed1ee64338.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Anastasiia Moskalenko Three musicians at 2024's UkraineFest sat in a row in traditional dress of red and white preparing to play large stringed instrument.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Anastasiia Moskalenko<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s event is expected to shine a light on the ongoing war in Ukraine<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">More than 500 Ukrainians, who were fleeing Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine, have arrived in Swindon through the Homes for Ukraine scheme since 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Former Ukrainian commander Grinchenko Volodymyr Mykolayovych will speak at the festival about those who have fought and died before leading a minute of silence. The Ukrainian flag will then be raised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Swindon Welcomes Ukraine chairwoman, Anastasiia Banatska, said: &#8220;Many of us fled with nothing, but we built a life here in Swindon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/62c1d410-7dc3-11f0-a512-25ed1ee64338.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Anastasiia Moskalenko Women and girls dressed in white at 2024's UkraineFest\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Anastasiia Moskalenko<\/p>\n<p>Swindon Welcomes Ukraine chairwoman, Anastasiia Banatska, said many Ukrainians fled their homes with nothing<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;This festival shows that Ukrainian culture is not only alive, it is thriving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;We are grateful to Britain and to the people of Swindon for welcoming us, but we are also united in saying Ukraine must remain whole and free,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The free festival will be held at the Town Gardens in Old Town from 12:00 BST until 19:00.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">As well as Ukrainian food, there will be bands, dancers, choirs, folk groups and cultural demonstrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexandra Bassingham BBC News, West of England Anastasiia Moskalenko Ukrainians, pictured here at last year&#8217;s UkraineFest, will gather&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-368050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115079936226243020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}