Watford Celebrations 2007
28th May 11am-6pm at the Watford Colosseum
by: Tamara Squizzato

On bank holiday Monday, 28th May, UK WAIT performed at the Watford Celebrations, a local event that began as an interfaith project but has grown to include national projects and performances.  

The event began late, with an Opening Address from Levi Francis followed by an act by Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. Then the Scottish Society performed quite a few different dances sandwiching the Filipino Community act of song and dance. The first quarter of the event was concluded with the Chinese Association which has offered their support for our future events. Then, the Leal School of Dance took the stage, followed by the band ‘Harripaul’. Connie enjoyed their performance so much that she went to their stand to express herself and received their CD free! She was extremely pleased about this.

As the full WAIT team assembled, free international food was being served and everyone was really enjoying the variety available. After the Buddhists and the Bulgarians performed their songs we got to enjoy a wonderful fashion show of all the outfits that were present at the event! We had one more act before the WAIT performance and you could see that most of the members were getting nervous. The hall was at its peak in numbers and the audience wasn’t the most responsive audience in the world. The act prior to WAIT was a drama done by the Palace Young People’s Theatre and due to a lack of microphones almost no one could hear what was happening which was a shame. On the other hand, it created a great contrast for the WAIT team who started their act with the boys’ breakdance which really caught everyone’s attention!

After the breakdance, Connie introduced WAIT and its purpose as well as informing them all about the Uganda trip and our need for donations. Erena sang ‘Respect’ by herself due to a temporary lack of singers. The performance included the younger WAIT members as the background dancers as well as their final performance of ‘Hero’ sung by all the WAIT members present. Stephanie, Inae, In Sun and Keishin performed the ‘Rose’ dance followed by ‘Hero’. WAIT 's presentation got the largest audience and after their performance, the audience began to dwindle. Connie manned the stall and stayed with us till the end as we were supporting the Bridge of Peace, run by the Women’s Federation.

As a whole, the event went rather well, with WAIT receiving inquiries by many people who became interested after their performance, some asking how old their children had to be to participate, others asking for t-shirts and most giving donations for our upcoming trip to Uganda!