Invercargill played host to a celebration of Colombian culture yesterday in recognition of World Refugee Day.

The 'Gracias Invercargill' event was hosted by the Red Cross at local events centre The Hub, and featured a variety of Colombian food and dancing to help celebrate Invercargill’s support to former refugees in the last 15 months.

Invercargill Red Cross volunteer coordinator Darren Frazer said there was a large turnout to the event and it was a huge success.

"A highlight was seeing some of the guys who had barista training a couple of weeks ago making coffees and doing really well. A lot of people came as well, from council, businesses (and) those who work with our families. The vibe was very good (with) lots of energy."

Mr Frazer said the key message for the Red Cross was to re-commit their efforts into welcoming refugees into the community and the organisation was always happy to have more people volunteer to help out.