Mansfield Market Place will come alive with the sounds and soul of the Caribbean – from Ska to calypso and grime to reggae – to mark Windrush Day on Wednesday, 22nd June.

Distant Drums (pictured) will entertain and there will be the chance to enjoy the unique and modern Caribbean flavours from Uncle Wayne’s Jerk Station.

Windrush Day takes place on 22 June each year to mark the anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush on 22 June, 1948. According to records, the ship was carrying 1,027 passengers, 802 of whom gave their last country of residence as somewhere in the Caribbean; additional documented countries of residence are India, Pakistan, Kenya and South Africa.

Mansfield District Council is inviting people to join them in the Market Place on Wednesday  to learn about, recognise and thank all those who arrived on Empire Windrush, and their descendants, for the enormous contributions they made to Britain during its recovery from the Second World War and have continued to make ever since.

The event will centre around a music and dance performance from Distant Drums.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has awarded a grant of £17,949 to the council’s Cultural Services Team to support a year-long project of education and exploration surrounding the Windrush generation.

Cultural services manager Sian Booth said: “Through this funding, Mansfield residents will be encouraged to learn more about the area’s black history and celebrate the local and national contribution made by the Windrush generation through a new temporary exhibition at Mansfield Museum called It Runs Through Us.

“The project will collate and give profile to existing research by Black History Ambassadors as well as undertake research to unearth hidden black history locally”.

The celebration on Windrush Day will kick start the project followed by a temporary exhibition. The exhibition will conclude with a celebration event with representatives from a cross section of Mansfield’s diverse communities. This event will acknowledge the vital contribution of immigration to the local economy and public services and the rich diversity of Mansfield’s communities over time.