Exeter Respect Festival returns to Belmont Park on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 June for its annual celebration of Exeter diversity.
The event hosts live music and arts performances on main and marquee stages alongside local community and campaign groups and local food and drink stalls.
There will also be play, art, workshops, dance, stories, crafts and displays.
Headlining on Saturday are reggae outfit Revelation Roots, a ten piece band which has played at Glastonbury, Beautiful Days and Boardmasters festivals.
Batch Gueye and his band are Sunday’s headliners. They will bring the heart of West Africe to Belmont Park through the traditional music of the Senegalese Baye Fall.
Exeter Respect Festival began as a small one day event in Northernhay Gardens before growing into weekenders and themed events at Exeter Phoenix then settling in Belmont Park from 2009 with a two day festival for up to 20,000 attendees.
The event has welcomed many musicians and artists over the past 25 years. Then up-and-coming Teignmouth band Muse played in 1998. Other highlights have included Asian Dub Foundation Soundsystem, Talvin Singh, Wiley and Skepta.
In July 2020 the festival moved online, also holding a vigil in Belmont Park in memory of those lost to COVID-19 and in the Grenfell Tower fire, police murder victim George Floyd and Simeon Francis, who died in police custody in Torquay.
Exeter Respect returned to Exeter Phoenix in 2021 for a one day event but has been back at its regular Belmont Park home since last year.
The festival is open from 11.30am-7pm on Saturday 10 June and 11am-6pm on Sunday 12 June, with an over-16 entry fee of £2 on each day. The event is alcohol-free.
Visit the Exeter Respect Festival website to find out about this year’s event.
Photo of Exeter Respect Festival by Clive Chilvers licensed under Creative Commons.
