Bradford lived up to its City of Culture reputation when Sikhs celebrated the festival of Vaisakhi with a huge parade at the weekend.
Photographer Rais Hasan captured the procession honouring the Khalsa, the foundation of the collective Sikh faith in 1699, on Sunday.
The special day saw the community dress in traditional, colourful attire, cars adorned with flowers, and five men known as the Panj Pyare - the most honoured - carrying ornamental, ceremonial swords.
The parade took Sikh followers along the roads to the city’s precious places of worship, starting at Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji on Wakefield Road.
Other stops included Gurdwara Shri Guru Ravidas, Gurdwara Guru Gobind Singh, Gurdawra Singh Sabha, Ramgharia Gurdwara, Gurdwara Amrit Parchar, and Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
People marched between 10am and 4pm.
The procession’s name, Nagar Kirtan, is one of the key parts of celebrating the Vaisakhi festival.
Nagar means ‘town’, and it forms an important part of Sikh culture and religious celebration.
The 2023 procession has also been documented by Dave Marshall for the Bradford Movie Makers.
Drawing on his experiences of photographing 2003’s Vaisakhi procession at Bradford College, the film will be shown to representatives of six Gurdwaras before the final edit.
He told the Telegraph & Argus: “We have a tight deadline to edit, but after it is edited and sent, a Punjabi narration may be be produced as well, for worldwide distribution.
“I feel that Bradford’s Sikh community does not always get the credit they richly deserve.
"The Sikh community was very kind to me in 2003 and has been ever since. I have a close Sikh friend, Paul Chand, who has helped to facilitate this project.
"I could not have done the 2003 project without his input, guidance and friendship. I have filmed his family occasions for 30 years, including family funerals at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara, so I am well used to filming there and respecting Sikh traditions.”
The film crew is comprised of Bob Jordan, Ian Eggleston, Craig Sands, Jeremy Norman, Andrew Cockerill, Phil Wainman, Harry Nicholls, Joe Ogden and Jim Walker, with Judith Simpson and Ed Davies on sound.
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