Kent’s inaugural Turkish Cypriot Festival will be staged this summer at the Duke of Cumberland pub in the Canterbury-adjacent village of Barham, bringing together music, dance, and cuisine. Organized by Turkish Cypriots who live in the county, this marks the first time such an event has been staged in Kent, a departure from the decades-long tradition of larger community festivals held in London.
The committee states the festival has two primary goals: to provide a venue for Turkish Cypriot culture to be experienced locally and to establish cultural understanding throughout Kent.
Food at the Center
Food will form a major part of the festival program. Stalls will offer a range of dishes from Cyprus, with recipes drawing on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences.
One of the most recognizable dishes will be şeftali kebab, a lamb sausage wrapped in caul fat and grilled. The festival will also serve halloumi, known locally as hellim, often cooked on a barbecue or pan-fried. Other dishes include stuffed vine leaves, kolokas root stew, and mousakka, along with a range of sweet pastries and desserts.
Central to the menu is the meze, a group of small dishes meant to be shared communally. The committee reminds us that the meze mirrors the social nature of the Turkish Cypriot food culture and makes people talk and share with their family and friends.
Music and Dance
Live music performances by Turkish Cypriots will accompany the food. Reed instruments like the classic zurna will be accompanied by violin-based ensembles and the goblet-shaped drum called the darbuka.
Traditional folk dances are also planned. These include the karsilamas, performed in a line or circle with synchronized steps, and the zeybek, a slower dance traditionally performed by men. The dances are commonly performed at weddings and family gatherings on the island and are passed down through generations.
The committee says the performances will provide audiences with the opportunity to experience cultural traditions that are not often performed beyond the larger urban areas.
Cultivating a Local Custom
Though Turkish Cypriot festivals in London can generate crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, Kent has previously not seen an event of this magnitude for the community.
Those organizing the Barham festival claim they wanted to provide something a bit nearer to home for Southeast families. Selecting the Duke of Cumberland pub as the venue was meant to combine Cypriot traditions with a familiarly British environment.
In addition to food and music, the festival will include craft stalls. Local craft workers will sell embroidery, ceramics, and other work by hand in the Cypriot style.
The committee aspires for the first event to become an annual gathering and later a routine meeting point for the Turkish Cypriot community along with the locals.
Community Voices
Festival committee member Hasan Mehmet said: “In London there are long-standing Turkish Cypriot festivals, but in Kent we have never had one before. We wanted to create a space where people can experience our culture without having to travel far.”
Another organizer, Ayşe Ali, explained the event was equally about inclusion and celebration. “We are proud of who we are, but we also want the neighbours to join in. The festivals are a way to exchange food, music and tales. They unite people.”
Locals have also been demonstrating enthusiasm for the festival. As one resident in Barham said, the prospect of live music and food stalls has already caused “a buzz in the community”.
Future Directions
The Barham festival mirrors broader work across the UK to preserve and transmit Cypriot culture, including to the younger generations who were born outside the country. The committee says that for most families, festivals are one of the few moments for young ones to see the folk dances, to hear the music of the old-style instruments and to taste the foods prepared the way their grandparents did.
The committee would like the Barham gathering to serve as a foundation for subsequent gatherings and to encourage younger generations to take up cultural activities.
A Broader Context
The Turkish Cypriot community in Britain has a history going back a long way, but migration accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s. London is still the hub of the population, but the community has settled in towns throughout Southeast England.
Of late, community organizations beyond London have been trying to stage cultural festivals at the local community level, both to bolster the sense of identity and to introduce their traditions to their neighbors. The Kent festival proceeds in the same direction and will presumably bring spectators from the entire county.
The first Kent Turkish Cypriot Festival will combine food, music and dance in a setting designed to welcome both community members and visitors. Organizers hope the event will become an annual tradition, bringing people together once a year. The Barham festival could then become a fixed item on the calendar for the people of Kent, giving citizens the opportunity to experience the culture of a community that has been a part of multicultural Britain for so long.