This year, we were asked to be part of the finale for a new section of the 2026 Royal Norfolk Show called the Carnival of Cultures.  Involving a large procession around the showground as part of the Grand Ring programme, it involved over 700 people, including samba bands, singers, djembe drummers, Cuban dancers, morris dancers, and a huge number of local school children, all parading through the showground to culminate in the Grand Ring at the heart of the event, where we performed a track from Orchestra of Samples.

We worked with musician and singer Anna Mudeka, who headed the project, and who also leads The African Choir of Norfolk; other partners included Norwich Cuban Salsa, Fine City Samba and the Norfolk & Suffolk Music Hub who organised the many hundreds of school pupils!

Our track, re-named Umoja by Anna Mudeka (meaning ‘togetherness‘ in Swahili and ‘celebration’ in her own Zimbabwean Shona language) was adopted as this year’s official theme music for the Royal Norfolk Show, here’s a nice piece on BBC news.  The track features a Japanese taiko drum played by Daniel Salorio, tabla drums from Kuljit Bhamra, djembes and tamalin drums recorded in Senegal with Pape Masse and friends, darbouka in Tunisia from Seifeddine Helal, bagpipe from French piper Erwan Keravec and many others. We performed twice over the two days of June 24th and 25th 2026, playing in front of Princess Anne on the first day.

The Royal Norfolk Show is the largest two-day agricultural show in the UK with roughly 100,000 people attending over the two days.  Organised by the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association, it’s CEO Mark Nicholas had said: “In 2026, our theme of Culture & Collaboration reflects the power of people working together across generations, sectors and communities.“