Diwali: Thousands celebrate festival of lights in Wolverhampton Park
Thousands of smiling faces descended on a Wolverhampton Park to celebrate an annual Diwali gathering.
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The free festival of lights celebration featured music, entertainment and no end of food at Wolverhampton's Phoenix Park in Blakenhall on Saturday.
Thousands of people attended the annual event to celebrate the joyous occasion, with an estimated 9,000 people turning up to the free event.
The event this year was hosted by Tomato Energy, and featured starred headlines, Pargan Bhandal & Roshni Pink, as well as guest performers Prem Chamkila, Hit The Dhol, Jodie Dancers, Jagdish, Arun Verma and Mr Tejider.
The event was hosted by the Shri Krishan Mandir, and last year around 8,000 people attended the celebrations.
The event featured dozens of acts, ranging from singing to dancing and bhangra music.
The celebration last year was postponed by a week due to heavy rain, however, this year went completely as planned.
Plenty of charities also took the chance to appear at this years event, including the Wolves Foundation, which organised a fantastic game of cornhole.
Talking about this years event, Councillor Chris Burden, cabinet member for city development, jobs, and skills at Wolverhampton Council, said:"This is a fantastic free event for all the family, featuring top quality entertainment and a fantastic firework display and we encourage everyone to plan early and come along to celebrate this important event in the city’s calendar."
Thousands of people turned out throughout the day to experience the event, with many turning up for the luminous light show at 8pm, where a firework show helped light up sky.
The event celebrates the victory of light over darkness and is one of the most important religious celebrations for the people of Hingu, Sikh and Jain faiths.
All who attended, young and old, enjoyed the event, with many taking the chance to events funfair, which featured popular rides like a merry-go-round, teacups and the waltzers.
Soni Grewal, community manager at Tomato Energy, said: “As a Wolverhampton-based business with a community-first ethos, we're delighted to be sponsoring the Wolverhampton Diwali Mela 2024.
“At Tomato, we're working with local people to bring locally generated renewable energy to serve our community for generations to come.
"Nothing fills us with more joy than to see communities coming together to celebrate at these special events and bring us positive hope for the future."
