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PEOPLE were hovering at the gates of Angel’s Culpeper Community Gardens on Saturday hoping for last-minute tickets to a sold out festival celebrating Palestinian culture.

The inaugural event, organised by Islington Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), raised more than £1,500 for Grassroots Gaza, an aid initiative run by and for Palestinian people and operating in Gaza and Egypt.

Islington PSC’s “beautiful and bricolage community” brought together 150 guests, artists, musicians and makers under the garden’s trellises, aiming to platform those who preserve and uplift Palestinian culture in north London.

Organiser Beth Wall said: “Saturday felt a bit like a culmination of all of the work and growth we have seen since Islington PSC was founded about one year ago.

“People in Islington have been really activated after witnessing nearly two years of atrocities being carried out in Gaza, and they are eager to express their solidarity with Palestine.”

Music by Speit, a British-born Palestinian rapper and spoken word artist and quartet the Maydan Ensemble of the North London Jazz Collective, and Les Levidow from Cafe Palestina was the soundtrack of the day.

Archway’s Palestinian-owned Cafe Metro brought homemade chocolates, cakes and falafel wraps, courtesy of chef Faten, while local artist Inga Bystram donated prints and Zeina Al-Khaznachi, whose business Asherah Jewellery is dedicated to preserving traditional Palestinian embroidery, sold her creations and led a jewellery-making workshop.

Educational resources on consumer boycotting, ethical banking and eco-justice were also in situ at Culpeper on Saturday.

Ms Wall added: “Palestinian perspectives are often shunted from mainstream media outlets, particularly in the UK.

“We really strongly believe that in addition to local on-the-ground campaign work, the promotion of culture produced by Palestinian people is a vital instrument in the ongoing fight for justice for Palestine.’’

Guests could also do a screen-printing workshop with Print 4 Palestine and quilt-making with Each Child a Light – a group creating a quilt to name and remember the children killed in the ongoing violence against Palestinians in Gaza.

Sold out two weeks in advance, the festival was a love letter to Palestinian culture and a testament to the many Islington residents in solidarity with its people.