This episode of Spotlight on Heritage features John Coster and Rob Watson reflecting on the Leicester Saturday Heritage Fair and the wider role of storytelling, participation, and local media in community life. Recorded in the basement gallery of Leicester Adult Education Centre, the discussion explores how informal heritage events foster connection, trust, and collaboration across diverse groups. The conversation also considers the future of community reporting, the need for authentic and independent media, and the importance of sustainable local funding models that strengthen civic and cultural life in Leicester.
In this week’s Spotlight on Heritage, John Coster and Rob Watson meet in the basement gallery at Leicester Adult Education Centre to reflect on the energy and meaning of last Saturday’s Heritage Fair. What began as a conversation about a community event soon turned into a deeper exploration of what heritage, storytelling, and participation really mean in today’s Leicester.
Rob describes the day as “exhausting but full of buzz,” a place where people brought their objects, memories, and curiosities to share. The fair wasn’t about artefacts behind glass but about lived experience—the radios in someone’s bag, the family heirlooms pulled from a cardboard box, the stories that surface when people start talking. As John puts it, the fair worked because of its informality and flow. Every stall was placed with care, allowing visitors to move, pause, and engage without feeling rushed or crowded. That attention to detail, Rob observes, turned the space into something more than an exhibition—it became a meeting point for stories.
The conversation widens into the role of community reporting and the importance of trust in media. Rob distinguishes between journalists and reporters—between those who seek to uncover hidden truths and those who share the life of a community at face value. Community reporters, he says, work by building relationships rather than breaking stories. They give people confidence to speak and a platform to be heard. This, John suggests, fills a gap left by mainstream media’s retreat from local storytelling.
Their discussion touches on how the past connects with the present. Whether it’s a display about the Vikings, a stall about Afghan language and culture, or a conversation about war memorials, all heritage becomes contemporary when it’s part of how people make sense of their lives now. Heritage, they argue, is not nostalgia—it’s a form of shared meaning-making that helps communities talk about who they are and how they live together.
Towards the end of the discussion, the focus shifts to independence and sustainability. Rob calls it “breaking the queue for the begging bowl,” urging a move away from over-professionalised, risk-averse funding systems towards models that circulate value locally. John agrees that events like the Heritage Fair show how much can be achieved when people contribute time, creativity, and trust rather than rely solely on external funding.
The programme closes with a reminder that heritage is alive because it’s lived and shared. The stories told at the Heritage Fair weren’t only about Leicester’s past—they were about the networks of understanding, care, and imagination that keep the city connected today.
Listen to the full conversation in the latest episode of Spotlight on Heritage, available now on Soar Sound Radio.