The Hindu festival of colours marks the end of winter and beginning of spring.
Celebrating with traditional food, coloured powders and Bollywood and South Asian music, people from a range of cultures attended the event in the gardens of Le Pommier to welcome in spring.
Anne Jacob, one of the organisers, moved to Guernsey from London for work seven years ago with her family.
‘For an island like ours, we’re quite a small community, although it is becoming more and more diverse,’ she said.
‘It’s so important to embrace different cultures and this is our way of sharing the joy and bringing our home to Guernsey, which is our home now.
‘One of the unifying factors of our culture are these beautiful colours and it brings people together to have fun, rather than to think about each person’s background.’
Organised by members of Guernsey’s Indian community, it was not just those of Indian heritage who were able to enjoy the celebration.
Friends and colleagues were invited along to experience a snippet of the culture.
‘My mum’s friend helps to organise this every year,’ said Holly Greenslade, 16.
‘I just love the Indian culture, it’s so fun and so colourful and you get to be yourself.
‘It’s a great event, with lots of colour, and we’ve got some water balloons as well to catch people out. It’s amazing to see so many people of different cultures enjoying themselves.’
The organising group also arranges other celebrations such as Diwali.
They typically have a charitable beneficiary from each event, and this time it was Paws for Support.
‘We were invited along because they wanted to support Paws for support as part of the event. We said we’d bring some of the dogs along to join in the fun,’ said Sara Sarre from Paws for Support.
‘For us, it’s more about awareness, but also just sharing the spirit of the festival which is about colour and light and bringing love and joy, which is the same as what the charity does.’
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