Telford Sikhs celebrate harvest festival holy day
[gallery] More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Telford for a parade to celebrate the annual festival of Vaisakhi.
The huge gathering yesterday saw Sikhs joined by helpers of other faiths to mark what Indians in the Punjab regard as harvest festival.
A full day of celebrations began in the morning with marchers gathering at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Hadley Park Road, Hadley, before setting off, bound for Oakengates, at 9.45am.
Their destination was the Guru Nanak Darbur Gurdwara temple in Church Parade in the town where there was a brief stop for a welcome by members of the congregation.
The parade set off again shortly before noon and arrived at Oakengates Theatre for refreshments.
Marchers also then made a presentation of more than 1,000 food items to the Telford Crisis Network which runs a food bank for the poor and needy in the town.
They also gave the charity a £480 credit with Green Fields Farm Shop in the town to buy food.
Event organiser Jay Thiara said: "We had quite a few VIPs join us in Oakengates, including Telford MP David Wright, the borough mayor and mayoress, Councillor Leon Murray and his wife Barbara, Telford & Wrekin Council leader Councillor Kuldip Singh Sahota and Supt Naz Malik of West Mercia Police.
"It was the second celebration of its kinds in Telford after an inaugural event last year and it just goes from strength to strength.
"One purpose of the event is to foster community cohesion and we were joined by an army of non-Sikh helpers who lined the route and helped with marshalling.
"The weather was lovely and it turned out to be a highly successful day for the whole community."
The marchers left Oakengates at about 1pm after a holy scripture reading and the parade arrived back at the temple in Hadley to round off the celebrations.
