Exeter Respect Festival returns to Belmont Park on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June for its annual celebration of Exeter diversity.
There will be live music and arts performances on two stages alongside local community and campaign groups and food and drink stalls.
There will also be play, art, workshops, dance, stories, crafts and displays.
Headlining on Saturday is The South African Cultural Gospel Choir UK, a twenty-strong choir which sings acapella, classical and traditional gospel songs with a seven-piece band as well as performing Zulu dance.
Shumba Tribe, an Exeter-based community arts organisation which delivers workshops and performances using pan-African musical traditions, is headlining on Sunday.
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.
The event, which attracts up to 20,000 attendees, has welcomed many musicians and artists over the past 25 years. Then up-and-coming Teignmouth band Muse played in 1998. Other highlights include 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 Festival returned to Exeter Phoenix in 2021 for a one-day event but has been back at its regular Belmont Park home since 2022.
Exeter Respect Festival opens at 11.30am on Saturday 8 June and 11am on Sunday 9 June 2024, with an over-16s entry fee of £2 on each day. It is an alcohol-free event.
Photo by Clive Chilvers licensed under Creative Commons.
