BEXLive North West and International Food Festival

A sunny Friday on 9th May saw the launch event for the inaugural BEXLive North West and International Food Festival.

The event will promote businesses in the North West and, along with the International Food Festival, Hair & Beauty competitions and the Search for a Star showcase, it promises to be the event of the summer.

With the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Counsellor Naeem ul Hassan, due for arrival at midday, our Miles Platting site was a hive of activity as we prepared our conference room for the day’s events.

Our Chair, Cleveland McCurdy, welcomed all our guests with the following speech which showed Cariocca’s commitment to ensure the growth and support to local businesses:

“We here at Cariocca Enterprises are also proud of what we have achieved and are continuing to achieve in the City.

…Today our mission statement reads

• Inspire and promote the development of small businesses, particularly within the African Caribbean community.
• Be proactive in developing related social and educational initiatives.

….So why are Cariocca Enterprises teaming up with Black Exposure?

We do not want to just sit back and keep doing what we have always done so when We were approached in January, we agreed that we wanted to be part of this event.

It mirrored the ethos of Cariocca and what we originally set out to achieve in the community – To help grow and support the small businesses in our communities.

We could see how the exposure of local businesses can only benefit from being part of this event.

Although BEX Live has conducted events in other parts of the country they wanted to come to the NW and we saw the benefits as:

• Exposure for businesses to a wider audience
• Opportunities for small businesses and young people
• A multicultural event
• Potential involvement for our Tenants.”

Cleveland then introduced the Lord Mayor, who spoke of the City Council’s support for the event and wished us every success.

The afternoon was filled with other supportive words from local prominent business people, including Tony Mason from Sickle Cell Care Manchester highlighting issues that many of us are unaware of relating to the condition.

Owen Macfarlane from BEXLive ensured things went smoothly, by playing master of ceremonies, with Bill Brown, the founder of BEXLive, ensuring all our guests’ questions and queries were addressed.

We were also very pleased to have with us Geoff Thompson MBE. Geoff was of course five times World Karate Champion in the 80’s. His time is now spent as the founder and Executive Chairman of The Youth Charter, supporting and ‘…developing policies and innovative approaches looking at the role of Sport, Art and Cultural activity…addressing anti-social youth behaviour, child obesity and weapon and gang culture’.

One of the main events at BEXLive will also be a showcase for local young talent with our ‘Search for a Star’ competition, hosted by PeaceFM Radio, so it was only fitting that the fabulous and beautiful voices of Romario Bryan and Reyana Hind kept everyone entertained.

We are now working very hard organising the inaugural BEXLive North West Business Expo and International Food Festival to be held at The Piazza, MediaCity UK, Salford Quays.

To see more of what BEXLive will bring to the North West, why not have a look at their events from last year: www.blackexposurelive.co.uk.

If you would like to enquire about sponsorship opportunities and taking part in this year’s BEXLive North West and International Food Festival, please contact Nadia on 0161 273 6605 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We look forward to seeing you on 30th August!