The Cultural Exchanges festival is an annual cultural festival held at De Montfort University

De Montfort University

De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...

, Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The festival started in the year 2000 and is held over 5 days attracting up to 4,000 people each year.

Many celebrated guests from areas of the arts, media, literature, politics and film have appeared at the festival including Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell

Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...

, Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion

Sir Andrew Motion, FRSL is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.- Life and career :...

, Alan Yentob

Alan Yentob

Alan Yentob is a British television executive and presenter who has worked throughout his career at the BBC.-Early life:...

, Alan Moore

Alan Moore

Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...

, Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

-Adrian Mole series:* The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ , her best selling book, and the best-selling new British fiction book of the 1980s.* The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole * The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole...

, Alan Sillitoe

Alan Sillitoe

Alan Sillitoe was an English writer and one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s.. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied.- Biography :...

, Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

, Matthew Bourne

Matthew Bourne

Matthew Bourne OBE is a British classical and contemporary ballet and dance choreographer.-Biography:Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. He went to William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London...

, Ben Okri

Ben Okri

Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri has become the leading figure of his generation of Nigerian writers who have largely abandoned the social and historical themes of Chinua Achebe, and brought together modernist narrative strategies and Nigerian oral and literary...

, Louis De Bernieres

Louis de Bernières

Louis de Bernières is a British novelist most famous for his fourth novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a promotion in Granta magazine...

, Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg

Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...

, Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies (writer)

Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...

, Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a UK-based dub poet. He became the second living poet, and the only black poet, to be published in the Penguin Classics series. His poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican Patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British...

, Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of...

, Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

, Trevor Nelson

Trevor Nelson

Trevor Nelson MBE is an English DJ and presenter.Born in Hackney to a family of St Lucian heritage, he attended Central Foundation Boys' Grammar School in Cowper St, Islington, London EC2 and Westminster Kingsway College...

  and Lemn Sissay

Lemn Sissay

Lemn Sissay MBE is an award-winning British author and broadcaster of Ethiopian and Eritrean parents.He is known for performances of his poetry and also with jazz fusion groups. He is a playwright, and has worked on radio and television...

. The main programme is often complemented by workshops, day conferences and performance arts events. The festival director, Tony Graves, recently received the Leicestershire First Award for Achievement in Arts and Music.
Cultural Exchanges Festival 2011 took place on the 28 February - 4 March.