Cullompton Spring Festival celebrates cultures and community integration

The Cullompton Spring Festival, a unique annual event held on Saturday, April 13, shone a spotlight on community integration, with a special emphasis on the rich and diverse cultures of Eastern Europe.

The festival offered a fusion of cultures, with Bulgarian dancers and Ukrainian singers gracing the Farmers Market and Ukrainian and Romanian chefs tantalising taste buds with culinary delights at the town hall cookery event.

Sue Robinson, chair of the Cullompton Town Team, which is responsible for organising events like the Spring Festival, said, “We’re celebrating our Eastern European friends and neighbours. We’ve had the things they do with their kids at Easter or springtime, such as painting stones, miniature gardens, and all that sort of thing. We’ve got cuisine, including a Ukrainian three-course meal with a slight Devon twist and Romanian with a slight Devon twist from local chefs. Everything’s completely free.”

The festival, a true community effort, featured local Eastern European community members as key advisors. Their insights, including those of the Ukrainian clerk, were instrumental in making the day special.

Yohanna Rogers, a Romanian chef who has been living in the UK for 20 years, was among those cooking meals for visitors.

Yohanna Rogers, a Romanian chef with a 20-year UK residency, seized the opportunity to introduce her country's cuisine to the community. She expressed her hope that the event would foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of different cultures, making the community more wholesome.

The festival also showcased traditional Bulgarian dances performed by 15 dancers. Ani Yurukova, one of the dancers, said, "We have a small group here today in Cullompton due to the Easter holidays, but we have up to 60 dancers from Bulgaria who wear traditional and colourful clothing and show a range of dances from all across the country.”

Natalia Letch, a Mid Devon District Council member who is half Ukrainian and originally from Russia, was part of a group of singers who treated people to traditional Ukrainian songs.

She said, “We have come from Cullompton with some of the Ukrainian people currently staying in Crediton, some of them staying with sponsors while others are living independently here. They are very devoted singers, and they love their country and their culture.”

Letch also expressed her concerns about the situation in Ukraine, saying, "The situation in Ukraine is very worrying. I try not to follow it because it makes me very, very depressed when I read all this news every single day. And I can see that soon, the situation may deteriorate, and we may have more refugees and people trying to escape from the frontline. We call for more sponsors because it feels like everything is settled at the moment, but it’s not.”