Our Festival of Lights celebration offers a full programme of activities at Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury on Sunday 3rd November 2024.
Aylesbury Festival of Lights Celebrations, held in Kingsbury, Aylesbury 2019
Inspired by Diwali, this festival celebrates the delights of our multi-cultural community and everyone is welcome. We want to delight your senses with a joyous celebration. What better excuse to dust off your dancing shoes, open your mind and meet your Aylesbury neighbours?
DANCE
Bollywood Dance with Jay Kumar – Be enthralled by the rhythm, flow and theatre from this professional Bollywood Choreographer!
Cultural Dance with K’z Dance – A myriad of colours in the beautiful embroidered costumes of Kalpesh’s troop who draw all in to do the Gharba dance of originating from the state of Gujarat
MUSIC
Dhol Movement – Part of every Indian parade and community celebration features the Dhol, a double-headed drum. Are you ready to feel the beat?
ART OF LIVING – YOGA DANCE
Allow every movement to become a meditative dance
The source of all creativity starts from our mind.
Regular Yoga & Meditation practices bring awareness, depth, and inner strength to our life and improve holistic wellbeing. Peace, happiness, focus, alertness, emotional stability and relaxation leads to creativity. Our hidden talents start blossom.
WILLOW LANTERN MAKING
Will be joining us to deliver a very special willow lantern making session, whereby our guests can make a lantern and then be part of the parade as dusk falls at and the lanterns will come to life.
HENNA ART
A very popular activity, intricate designs applied to hands using a henna paste. The colour deepens over a couple of days, and subsequently fades over the following few days.
Community Ramayana Skit
Drum roll!!! many of our young share the retelling of the story of Ramayana – the prequel story of Diwali. We will take you back many years
STREET FOOD
Expect to find delicious street food and warming spiced Chai, no festival is complete without food. Come with space in your tummies, eating with your eyes will not be enough
About Makar Sankranti community kite making workshop – 2025 date to be confirmed
Makar Sankranti : Kite making workshop 2025
Date: TBC
Venue: TBC
Cost: £5 per kite/child
Book your place :
Some activities have limited spaces and must be booked in advance. To secure your place, please visit our booking page.
We are still finalising the event programme, so follow Holy Cow Community on Facebook for the latest updates!
Are you a member of a community group in Aylesbury or the surrounding villages? We still have a few slots to fill, so get in touch via our contact page for your chance to perform.
Volunteers can signup here
Holy Cow Community Events Board
Poonam – Founder and Trustee
Poonam had the idea to organise a community festival to mark Diwali and is the founder of Aylesbury’s Festival of Lights. Her positivity and enthusiasm are at the heart of making this annual event a fantastic success.
Poonam is a business owner, managing Holy Cow Home an ethical online store in Aylesbury and recently launching Holy Cow Tea and winner of 2022 Great Taste award from the Fine Food Guild for her blend of Chic Lady Grey Tea. She sits on several community committees and is also a wife and mother.
As a Hindu, Poonam has relished the annual Diwali celebrations and she would love people of all cultures and faiths to unite and share a joyous experience.
Julia – Trustee
Inspired by the 2012 Paralympics, Julia was keen to play an active role in supporting several community groups including Para Dance UK and Aylesbury’s Festival of lights.
With a love for dance, particularly ballet and contemporary jazz, she was drawn to be involved in a festival where music and performance were central themes. Julia was keen to discover more about Indian culture, colour and dance and is an enthusiastic member of our Trustee team.
Dr Prashanthini Jeyarajan – aka Prasshy Trustee
After hearing about the fantastic work the Holy Cow community does in the local community, Prasshy joined as a volunteer in 2020, and has been involved with the Festival of Lights since.
Prasshy is passionate about South Asian music, dance, and was keen on engaging with the local community and sharing her passion.
Prasshy graduated with a DPhil from the University of Oxford and currently works as a Senior Executive for the faculty of medicine, at Imperial College London.
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Kelvin – Trustee
We welcome Kelvin to the HCCE board as one of two new trustees. Kelvin, originally from Singapore, grew up in Holland and has now settled in as a key member of the Aylesbury community. Kelvin is a true entrepreneur, who has restaurants in and around Aylesbury, namely Miya – Japanese , Jessie – Korean and most recently the refurbished The Grapes pub. Kelvin has always supported the festival with donations of raffle prizes and we are delighted to have him on board as a trustee. Kelvin brings his expertise to help the growing of HCCE and will be key in achieving its vision over the next few years.
Kishor – Trustee
We are so privileged to have our local community champion, Kishor Shah, who moved to Aylesbury from Yorkshire to be closer to his children. With a lifetime of community engagement experience, Kishor has worked as a Chartered Accountant as well as a volunteer, taking a small charity and building it to be self-sustaining organisation focusing on arts and culture in the community. This is not Kishor’s first rodeo, he has been a core volunteer supporting HCCE throughout the years.
Ranjula Takodra MBE – Patron of Holy Cow Community Events
This wonderful lady has been an ambassador for Aylesbury town, an inspiring woman, a friend and mentor to so many. She represented the Indian community as a councillor Aylesbury Town Council, the only person to be Town Mayor twice
