Bow were joined by a giant puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian and a chorus of refugees on the Pyramid Stage in Glastonbury, in a moment a Ukrainian asylum seeker said they will “never forget”.
The rock band from Bury, Manchester, sang their hit One Day Like This together with Little Amal – intended to highlight the plight of asylum seekers’ children – and members of the Citizens Of The World Choir, a group of 50 singers from more than 30 countries who was founded in 2015 in response to the Syrian refugee crisis.
After touring England this month, a 3.5m tall Amal walked around the stage before finishing the song hand-in-hand with Elbow frontman Guy Garvey.
Ukrainian Citizens Of The World singer Anna Vryzhan, who is originally from Mariupol, a city that was heavily bombed during the Russian invasion, left her homeland in early March and said she will “never forget” to perform on Worthy Farm’s Pyramid Stage. to be.
“I don’t have the words for it, I just have emotions to cry and scream – thank you so much for this experience, I will remember it forever,” the 28-year-old told the PA news agency.
Aref Hussaini is Afghan but grew up in Pakistan and is part of a community persecuted by the Taliban.
The 23-year-old said after his performance: “I can’t believe what I’ve done and how far I’ve come with this choir.
“Until next year, until I (not) live, I think I’ll show off what I did today.”
After the final round of “throw those curtains wide, on a day like this a year will see me well,” a message was broadcast on the big screens on either side of the stage, informing the Citizens Of The World- choir, which also performed on Sunday mornings on the Avalon stage.
“We’re fizzing… we’re so grateful to Guy Garvey and Elbow and Glastonbury,” the choir’s musical director, Becky Dell, told PA.
“It was amazing to share the stage with Little Amal, she is breathtaking and it is just incredible to think that she walked from Syria to the Glastonbury stage and that we shared that incredibly special moment with her.”
Little Amal traveled from the Turkish-Syrian border to Manchester in July 2021 and this month embarked on her New Steps New Friends tour, visiting 10 cities across England to share the message: “Don’t forget us.”
Festival-goer Gemma Cadman watched the performance with her family and said he hoped the “powerful message” would “raise awareness” of the issue.
“I absolutely loved it…it’s a powerful message to bring to this huge crowd of people,” the 37-year-old told PA.
When asked if the gig would have shared a message with the government about its policy of sending refugees to Rwanda, the insurance broker replied: “I hope so.
“That shared the word with the whole audience and everyone has the same mentality, I hope they will listen.”
Her husband, Jamie Cadman, added: “Will they listen? That’s another story.”