Residents plan new anti-race event in place of Rise Festival

Chantelle Thorley, 05 February 2010

Two Finsbury Park residents are organising a one-day anti-racism music festival to 'keep the memory of the Rise Festival alive' following its cancellation last year.

UpRise: London United against Racism will take place later this year and already has the backing of a number of organisations previously involved in Rise Festival, including the Trades Union Congress, who set up the original event in 1996.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson canned the Rise Festival in April 2009 due to an apparent lack of sponsorship.

He was met with barrage of complaints, most notably from former Mayor Ken Livingstone who deemed it "a blow to good community relations in the city."

Speaking at the Progressive London Conference, one of the residents Mike Barnard said: "Boris Johnson made a serious error in judgement when he stripped Rise of its core anti-racism message and proceeded to cancel the event at a time when organisations with racist beliefs and policies were and continue to receive increasing amounts of political and media coverage.

"Rise was a landmark event for Londoners, and it is for this reason that we have been working tirelessly to plan UpRise, a festival with the same purpose as Rise."

Other organisations signed up to support UpRise include the National Assembly Against Racism, the Runnymede Trust, Unison, Unite and Love Music, Hate Racism.

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