Day-Mer marks 25th year of festival with music, food and dance
Thousands attended this year’s Day-Mer festival, the 25th since the organisation’s inception
The 25th annual Day-Mer Culture and Arts Festival ended on Sunday with a magnificent ceremony in Clissold Park.
Families brought children and picnics to sit on the grass and enjoy the music at the event, which also saw presentation stands offering food, drink and information from other Turkish associations.
The British Alevi Federation and the Trades Union Congress were among those groups represented.
Kardeş Türküler were among the performing acts on the day
Organisers said they were paying particular attention to children in their festival programme this year, with music recitals and a theatre performance day.
Thousands gathered to hear music from Kardeş Türküler, Yeni Türkü, Mikail Aslan, Grup Awaz and the Day-Mer Folk Dance Group.
ANTI-CUTS MESSAGE
Aslı Gül, the president of Day-Mer, said at the event that the 25th year of the festival was a sign of the extent to which the community had found a voice for itself.
She said public cuts to education and health in particular had had a negative effect on society and called for everyone to support a general strike on 10 July.
Also attending the festival was Levent Tüzel, a Istanbul member of parliament for the People’s Democracy Party. He criticised the leadership of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying the images of one of his aides attacking a heckling protester perfectly encapsulated his government’s attitude to workers.
Mr Tüzel also appealed to the crowd to support his party’s candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, in the upcoming Turkish presidential election.
“In a showy ceremony Erdoğan announced his candidacy by abusing religion. He wants unquestioned, unregulated control of the entire country.
“Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who the opposition has nominated as his opponent, is an individual who bears no remote connection with the left and democracy. When he declared his assets, we saw his bank account was rather large.
“They have turned the presidency into the race of the millionaires. We as the HDP have put forward Selahattin Demirtaş as our candidate.
“He will be in London on 20 July and we will support him with all our strength.”
