A music event aims to build bridges between the residents of Portland and the refugees who were housed on a barge at Portland Port. 

Let Music Unite, which is organised by Portland Global Friendship group, is a free music festival which will be held on Chesil Cove on Sunday, September 1, from 1pm to 8pm.

The event will be part of the Portland Fringe Festival, dedicated to celebrating creativity and the limestone isle.

Heather, from Portland Global Friendship group, said: “We aim to make a free, positive event where our community can come together each year.

"Our community has experienced a lot of divisiveness and negativity, however I'm proud that we have responded positively to the residents on the Bibby Stockholm.

"The residents all talk about what a welcoming and kind community we are and many now volunteer locally and want to give back locally. This event is about celebrating unity, love and friendship.”

This is the second year of the event which aims to bring the community together along with the residents on the Bibby Stockholm barge which is due to close in January 2025.

The Home Office has announced last month that the government will end the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge for housing migrants as part of as part of new plans to clear the backlog of asylum applications. 

This decision was welcomed by campaigners and groups including Portland Global Friendship Group who denounced it as a "financial disaster" and an "inhumane political stunt.

READ MORE: Bringing Bibby Stockholm barge to Dorset ‘a political stunt’

The line-up features a mix of local musical talent and artists who were refugees themselves and are now residents of the UK, including Kurdish singer Mustafa Mamu, and Qanun player Baravan who previously lived on the Bibby Stockholm.

There will also be music from Hip artists The Scribes and Boombox, double bass player Grant Sharkey and ICHI, a Japanese stilt walker who plays instruments that he makes out of trash.

Mustafa Mamu said: “I really look forward to Let Music Unite because I love the team and they are all good people who work from the heart.

"I am a Syrian Kurd from the city of Afrin, which is still occupied by Turkish authorities. My people have  been displaced and killed. The city of Afrin is burning silently and no one talks about it.”

"The event gives me hope, love and loyalty for all the oppressed."