Respect Festival

Festival Location: London, England

Festival Type(s): Multicultural Festivals, World Music Festivals, Varied Music Festivals

Respect

By: © Leanne Wu 2009

It was a beautiful summers day in London and I was on the way to RESPECT - an Anti-racism and Multicultural Festival. This annual event has been held in July, for the past 2 years in various parks around London. This year the festival was held in Victoria Park, Hackney.

We shared the train out to the park with hippies covered in peace buttons, grungers with multitude piercings and the odd normal looking person. This was my first glimpse at what this festival was going to be like and instantly I had images of hackysacks, fire jugglers, bongo drummers and lots of dread locks. When we got there my suspicions were confirmed, but the drummers and the jugglers were mixed in amongst happy families and people from all different social backgrounds. The crowd was certainly colourful - beautiful saris, tie-died t-shirts, caftans and multi coloured hair arrangements. The atmosphere felt fun, relaxed and light hearted.

Despite being a little hard to get to, Victoria Park was a great venue. The big open space allowed room for over 50,000 revelers (not to mention a mechanised 7 ft tin elephant and a Chinese dragon), to sit and soak up the sunshine or wander around the various stages/marquees, stalls and show rides. There were five stages and three marquees in all. The main Respect Stage had the likes of De La Soul and Stereonation strutting their stuff, while the smaller stages included well known DJs, unsigned bands, fashion shows, and traditional dancing and music. There was also lots going on in the marquees, their names speaking for themselves - Big Cuba, London Comedy and ClubAsia.

As is usual for me, one of the first things I do at a festival is check out the food options and work out what I am going to eat throughout the day. This day was no different. There were plenty of Caribbean BBQs, a couple of noodle and vegetarian stalls, a spattering of hamburger/hotdog vans and the odd brownie seller (of the special kind of course). I was a little disappointed with the options as I thought that paella, a curry and even perhaps a burrito might be on my culturally diverse menu for the day.

Most importantly the whole point of the festival is Respect - Respect for everyone and anyone despite their age, nationality, religion, gender or political beliefs. In order to get this message across there were dozens of stalls set up representing the different associations and organisations that believe in this premise. So, not only was it a great day to enjoy the sunshine and entertainment provided but also to learn a bit more about and support the fight against inequality.

by Leanne Wu

Respect Festival Dates and Location

The Respect Festival was started in 1996 but was subsequently stopped after the 1997 festival. When Ken Livingston was elected Mayor of London he vowed to support the Festival for his term in office. And so the Respect Festival was relaunched in 2001 and will hopefully continue to grow in the coming years. More information on the Respect Festival can be found on www.respectfestival.org.uk