Colour Town Holi Festival 2025 was hosted at shipping container venue in Kelham Island, and welcomed over 1,500 people from all walks of life to celebrate together.
SteelYard Kelham saw performances from stars such as Rameet Sandhu and authentic live music performances with Chenda Melam and Dhols.
Adithyan Santhakumar, the host and MC of the event, said: “Holi is the biggest festival of India, where we have lots of colours, food, music, entertainment, so that’s one of the biggest reasons why I chose to be part of this event.
“For me, celebrating Holi is being together with family and friends, having a memory full of time with them.”
Holi is a major Hindu festival, celebrating colours, love and welcoming in Spring, where friends and family gather together and throw coloured paint and water on each other.
The Colour Town Holi Festivals first started in 2022, with 200 people and since then, the organisers, Yorktribe have been welcoming more and more people to their Holi celebrations each year, this year hosting over 1,500 attendees to the festival.
Vamsi Krishna Galla, the main organiser of the event, said: “I am excited for the event as every year we are growing.
“Getting that culturally and traditionally rich festival to the UK is something that we have been missing over the years.”
He added: “It is not only inclusive to the Indian community, but because it’s one of the craziest festivals over the world being celebrated, it has become a cross cultural community festival for Sheffield.”
The festival had a mix of families and friends, from across the world, reflecting the importance of openly hosting events like Holi in an accessible way which allows more people to share the culture and learn about other traditions.
Riya, a student at the University of Sheffield and attendee of the event said: “I am from India and Holi is one of my favourite festivals. As an international student living in a different country, I really love connecting with communities and people over here.
“It’s fun seeing a mix of everyone living in the city, and loads of people are coming together and I’m meeting people I haven’t seen in a really long time.”
