Help City Hall celebrate Black culture in London

Stage: Closed

The Mayor is planning a flagship annual event in Trafalgar Square to celebrate Black culture and creativity in London. Your ideas will help launch it in September 2023.

Closed

215 Londoners have responded | 28/11/2022 - 03/09/2023

A bronze statue of two men wearing hats on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square by Samson Kambalu

The challenge

In his 2021 Manifesto, the Mayor listed ‘celebrating our city’s rich diversity’ as one of his top commitments. He also set out his plans to develop a new event to celebrate Black culture in London. This is in addition to our capital’s diverse calendar of cultural and religious festivals, including:  

  • Christmas  
  • St George’s Day  
  • Diwali  
  • St Patrick’s Day  
  • Lunar New Year  
  • Vaisakhi  
  • Black History Month  
  • Chanukah  
  • Pride and UK Black Pride  

This new event will take place annually in Trafalgar Square from September 2023. The event aims to give a platform to new and established artists, showcase the diversity within London’s Black communities and offer the audience a chance to experience new perspectives.   

City Hall wants to know what Londoners would like to see or do at an annual event celebrating Black culture in the capital.   

Our approach

This new event was announced on 28 November 2022 during “Black Futures” – an evening of conversation and creativity at City Hall. Representatives from London’s Black communities, stakeholders, partner organisations and City Hall colleagues met to kickstart the planning of the Trafalgar Square event in September 2023.  

Watch the video from this opening event

To make sure Londoners’ voices are heard, especially from London’s Black communities, City Hall’s Community Engagement team is organising a range of activities. There will be workshops, focus groups, community conversations and more. City Hall’s Peer Outreach Workers will involve young Londoners and find out their ideas and suggestions for the event.   

You can get involved here on Talk London too. 

Take our quick survey and share your ideas

Community Advisory Group

City Hall has recruited eight volunteers to form a community advisory group to contribute ideas and champion this event. The group met for the first time on 24 April 2023 and is made up of award-winning filmmakers and artists, CEOs, producers and editors.

You can read more about them in this press release.

Policy team

City Hall is organising the event with the support from colleagues in the Events team, the Culture & Creative Industries team, the Social Policy & Integration team and the Community Engagement team.   

The teams will also be working with a community advisory group, as mentioned above.    

We will regularly share your feedback with them.