This website uses cookies. Read more about our cookie/privacy policy.

Accept and Close

The Sheffield culture guide written by in-the-know locals

Migration Matters 2024, photo by Smart Banda

In 2007 Sheffield became the UK’s first City of Sanctuary – a place that welcomes asylum-seekers and refugees, that offers a hand to people in need of safety. Held around Refugee Week each June, Migration Matters Festival is a celebration of diversity and the positive impact migration and refugees have in Sheffield.

The festival launched in 2016, the year of the Brexit referendum and Syrian refugee crisis. Each year the Migration Matters programme brings communities together over fantastic, globe-spanning variety of theatre, music, dance, workshops, exhibitions, and more.

Come back soon for dates and details of Migration Matters 2026.

You might also like...

Sarah Villeneau

An artist working with clay to capture organic textures and movements in abstract sculptures and vessels.

Hassun El Zafar

A theatre director driven by a desire to create social change.

In Conversation: George Shaw & David Alston

Thu. 26 March 2026

Yorkshire Artspace: Persistence Works

Join George Shaw and David Alston for a conversation on George’s current exhibition Small Returns. Reflecting on George’s work and his time at Sheffield Polytechnic in the late 1980s.

Mojisola Kareem-Elufowoju

An artistic director and founder of Utopia Theatre. Working with those underrepresented in the arts and inspiring, engaging and empowering people through African theatre.