Southall Vaisakhi procession 2023
Sun 02 Apr 2023
Worshippers gathered at the Guru Nanak Road (Havelock Road) Gurdwara in the morning, to take part in the Nagar Kirtan (procession) to celebrates the birth of the Khalsa and the harvest festival.
It marked the 554th anniversary of the birth of the founder of Sikh faith - Guru Nanak. Before the procession started, there were short speeches by invited guests inside the gurdwara.
The colourful procession usually set off after 11:30 am and proceeds along the King Street, The Green, South Road, High Street, Green Drive and Park Avenue.
The road procession finishes at the Park Avenue Gurdwara. Thousands of Sikhs attended or paraded through the streets of Southall.
The procession covers a distance of 2 miles and should take around 40 minutes to walk, but due to the slow pace of the procession, it takes almost 6 hours to complete.
Despite earlier forecasts of rain showers for the whole day, the weather turned out to be dry and sunny.
Ealing Police estimated that 20 to 50 thousand members of the Sikh community would attend the celebration.
The front of the procession arrived at Southall Library around 12:35 pm and reached Southall Town Hall at approximately 3:45 pm. The main procession left South Road by 4:30 pm, with the Broadway remaining closed until the procession had moved onto Green Drive.
The Police always advise against driving into Southall due to road closures and heavy congestion.
It is always a trouble free event for all the family. All those attending are calm, considerate and in a happy mood. The procession route is covered with food stalls serving FREE food, fruit and drinks from 10am to everyone. For some food you have to queue up and for others it is handed to you as you walk along.
There are road closures and traffic diversions in place on all roads along the procession route. The road closures commence after 9:00 am and continue until after 5pm. Road closures take place from 9am in Old Southall and around 11am on South Road. Southall Broadway is closed around 3:30 pm.
Even with thousands of people the atmosphere is ALWAYS friendly.
The actual Vaisakhi day will be celebrated on Sunday 14th April 2023.
Happy Vaisakhi
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