Rise: London United Festival Review

No Victoria Line and Lots of Politcal 'Ranting'

As well as music on the main stage there was also:

• African Village
• Crescent Stage
• Urban Music Stage
• Big Cuba Fiesta
• Mela Stage
• DJ Stage
• Comedy Marquee
• Rise Exhibition
• Children's Play Zone

Each area attracted a core following but by having all these different types of music and performances in the same field it gave a chance for everyone to try out something new. I really enjoyed the Kurdish dance performances at the Crescent Stage and the DJ sets at the Mela Stage. The children loved getting close to the Pakistani Larri at the Mela Stage. A Larri is a bus used in the Indian sub-continent. It took about six months to decorate this one!

The Mayor of London organized the Rise: London United festival and also runs Transport for London - the tubes, buses, trains, etc. yet the Victoria Line was closed from Seven Sisters to Highbury & Islington which meant there was no Victoria Line access to Finsbury Park. How ridiculous! With around 80,000 people expected at this event, why did they plan engineering works to cut off access to the park? This caused a lot of bad feeling towards Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, and he was booed quite loudly when he came on stage. Obviously people may have other reasons for disliking our Mayor, but where I was standing we heard a lot of people who were angry about the transport problems. There were 'rail replacement' buses laid on to move passengers between the closed tube stops, but a bus cannot hold as many people as a tube, and a bus gets stuck in traffic. At the end of the festival we had to walk home (about three miles) as we couldn't get on any buses with a pushchair as they were all so packed with people.

I felt there was a bit too much 'preaching to the converted' as the people attending the Rise: United London festival already oppose racism as they had come out for the day to support the cause (or had they just come for the free music?) Between the acts on the main stage the compere seems to have 'verbal diarrhea' as he couldn't/wouldn't shut up! Personally I find having political opinions foisted upon me quite unsavory. He 'named and shamed' a UK political party and constantly told us to join a trade union. I oppose racism but do not want to join a trade union. I'm sure I can't be the only one who feels this way. I found the compere grated on me and my friends very quickly and probably didn't help the cause. After spurting his politics for some time, he then thanked Pepsi for sponsoring the day! Ah, so left-wing political activists still need corporate sponsorship...

I would recommend the Rise: London United festival as a good family day out. Go prepared with a blanket and a picnic as the food prices were a bit high, but worse were the queues! I didn't get to buy any food all day as I didn't want to queue for half an hour at a food stall. Also, try not to drink too much as the queues for the toilets were worse! My tip if you do need to use the loo is to walk a bit further away from the main stage and you'll find more temporary toilets with shorter queues. And don't stay in one place - move around the festival site and enjoy all that it has to offer.