Places features

Celebrating Harehills is the annual community festival held every summer in the heart of Harehills. The aim is to share food, faith and fun to bring the community closer together and (hopefully) enjoy the summer sunshine together.

This year, as part of the celebrations, the organisers want to repaint the Bankside Street Mural – a 660ft long painting on the side of the Bangladeshi Community Centre, just off Shepherd Lane.

Festival organisers are looking for a bunch of enthusiastic and talented volunteers to help them design and paint the Mural. They will be meeting on Sunday 18 May 2008 to begin preparing the surfaces and then hope to meet every Sunday from then until the day of the festival itself - Saturday 27 July 2008.

A giant street party is being planned as well as a special event labelled 'A Short Walk to Unity' - whereby all the local religious, business and political leaders walk the length of the Mural together and then to have their picture taken shaking hands. This symbol of community unity is inspired by the fact that the wall is dedicated to Nelson Mandela, whose autobiography is called "A Long Walk to Freedom".

The mural was originally funded by the Millennium Awards and Leeds City Council to honour Nelson Mandela and takes the theme of positive role models for young people.

The street party aims to be a busy affair with music, food and children's activities - and the best part is....it will be free for all!

If you are interested in helping transform the Bankside Street Mural, then please contact the organisers: