- Monday, June 05, 2023
We’ve contributed to the country and a lot of us feel it still isn’t being reciprocated enough, says British actor
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
Senior British actor and comedian Sir Lenny Henry has rued the absence of diversity at the famous Glastonbury Festival which pulls large crowds.
Henry said he finds ‘lack of black and brown faces’ at Glastonbury ‘surprising’.
‘It’s interesting to watch Glastonbury and look at the audience and not see any black people there. I’m always surprised by the lack of black and brown faces at festivals. I think, “Wow, that’s still very much a dominant culture thing,” he told BBC presenter Clive Myrie.
Born in Dudley in 1958 to Jamaican parents, Sir Lenny also addressed Myrie recently becoming the first black host of long-running BBC quiz show Mastermind.
Glastonbury, a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts, is scheduled to take place from June 22 at Worthy Farm in the southwestern county of Somerset after two successive fallow years.
Sir Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish and rapper Kendrick Lamar will perform as headliners at the event which marks the 50th anniversary of the festival.
In 2019, rapper Stormzy became the first black solo British headliner in the festival’s history and Glastonbury’s co-organiser Emily Eavis said it came “a little bit late maybe”.
Henry said there is a feeling that black people’s contribution to the country was not well appreciated.
“We still want more representation because we deserve it. We are British citizens, we are colonials,” he said.
The actor, who is bringing out a new documentary said, “We’ve been in this country, we have grown up in this country, we’ve contributed and a lot of us feel it still isn’t being reciprocated enough. That’s also what this documentary is about. It’s about that feeling of “Well, come on, I fitted in. Now what? I’ve integrated, now what happens?”‘.
Henry, who appeared in popular shows like Tiswas and Chef!, had recently urged the BBC to do more on racial diversity.
