Yesterday I attended Rise Festival 2008, an eco conscious, sustainable festival aimed at raising awareness of cultural & community diversity.

Rise has been a bit of a hot-topic this year in London. It was first pitched as London united against racism but Boris decided that the focus should be more on cultural diversity than anti-racism, implying that racism in London is the problem it once was (this view is wrong).

Boris has a shocking track record on racism and the promotors of Rise where very much involved in the Stop Borris campaign. I think it was poor show of Boris to change the name in an attempt to remove the political motive behind the festival, after all if you can’t have a political motive at a festival, when can you have one?!

All said and done though I thought the festival was a success, the weather was amazing there was a lot of good attitude (apart from the few bad eggs that make an appearance at every free event) and the music was fantastic. Jimmy Cliff was headlining and despite the fact that the festival was supposed to be non-political he didn’t seem to care, vocally putting down Blair & Bush and spurring on Rise for their sustainable policies.

Here are a few videos from the day event (the Jimmy Cliff one is great!)