TAKING THE RISE
Love Music Hate Racism condemns the decision of new Tory London mayor Boris Johnson to drop the explicitly anti-racist element of the annual free ‘Rise’ music festival. The entire purpose of the event is to promote unity among Londoners using diverse music and a broad anti-racist message. Abandoning ‘Rise’ sends a signal to every racist in London and beyond that their views are respectable, and will give encouragement to Nazis like the BNP – whose London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook has already said he will now attend this year’s Rise event. Boris Johnson should reinstate the Rise Festival along its original lines.
The LMHR Victoria Park Carnival in April featured drew more than 100,000 people with one of the most diverse audiences ever seen at a music event in the UK – a real reflection of multicultural Britain. The audience included a wide age range and families, but was notable for a very large proportion of young people. Thousands from outside London came on organised coaches and some of the country’s top artists performed. The Carnival received high-profile and almost entirely positive coverage across many national newspapers, radio, and TV - including an hour-long Friday night highlights programme on Channel 4, taking the anti-racist message to millions who didn’t attend the event itself.
London and the UK needs more such events encouraging unity and celebrating multicultural society, not less. Everyone committed to the fight against racism and fascists like the BNP who feed off it should aim to continue and extend the tradition of massive free music events with a clear and unapologetic anti-racist theme.
If Rise isn’t reinstated in its previous form, LMHR would like to see another annual London anti-racist festival and would like to explore with other organisations how we can ensure this happens.
