Welcome to Migmat 2023

It thrills me to say Migration Matters Festival returns for an 8th consecutive year and what a year it will be!

With countless incredible events happening across the city, there will be something for everyone whether that’s globally recognised Afro-pop superstars Sauti Sol (p34), the empowering first captain of the Palestinian football team, Honey Thaljieh (p18), award-winning dance troupe Amina Khayyam Dance Company (p30), ‘Queen of the Qanun’ Maya Youssef (p28) or a special evening of film and music commemorating 50 years of the military coup in Chile (p31).

This year launches the first ‘Mini MigMat’ (p19) a festival curated by the ‘Youth Theatre of Sanctuary’ run by Stand and Be Counted Theatre and The Montgomery Theatre who have co-programmed a strand of shows and workshops focussed on young people and families.

The festival also welcomes three brilliant guest curators in Nur Khairiyah Ramli, Marta Marsicka and the returning Howl Yuan who each have programmed their own strands of the festival and it’s has been a joy to see their hard work pay off (see p4 for more details).

This years Refugee Week theme is ‘compassion’, which could not be more important in these increasingly troubling times where natural disasters, war and climate are displacing so many of our global family so we hope everyone will offer that compassion to community members who have been

I want to send a big shout out to our incredible team and trustees who work tirelessly every year to put the festival together as well as our wonderful volunteers who make the week so special.

We are also so grateful to our funders Arts Council England, the Evan Cornish Foundation, University of Sheffield, The National Lottery Community Fund and Sheffield City Council who have shown belief in the impact the festival has on the city.

Director Migration