People’s festival seeks to cater for working class audiences during Edinburgh International Festival
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR in Edinburgh will play host to raucous spoken word tonight (Friday 5 August), as artists promoting a ‘people’s festival’ speak truth to power.
The show in the city centre, ‘The sound of (No) money’, will hear poetry and hip-hop on radical political themes, performed for free.
Organisers hope the night will provide affordable entertainment for citizens of the capital bracing themselves for the Edinburgh International Festival (5-29 August), which attracts some of the world’s best performance art but often at prohibitively high prices.
Speaking to CommonSpace before the event, host and SSP co-convenor Colin Fox said it was important that working class culture was represented during the festival.
He said: “The Edinburgh People’s Festival [EPF] hip-hop and performance poetry gig at Henry’s Cellar Bar tonight is a first for us. In 14 years we have never presented one before and we are delighted to have such a superb line-up of poets and rappers.”
“The People’s Festival is a charity dedicated to ensuring that the cultural and artistic appetite of working class people is also catered for.” Colin Fox
“The People’s Festival is a charity dedicated to ensuring that the cultural and artistic appetite of working class people is also catered for. We believe hip-hop and performance poetry are an important part of urban working class culture, and we are greatful to Edinburgh’s trade union movement for sponsoring tonight’s show.”
The line-up for the event, which was brought together by EPF organiser Kenneth Venters, includes Liam McCormick, Victoria McNulty, Erin Freil, Molly McLachlan and the hip-hop collective Futurology. Artists will be taking aim at issues from austerity to environmental destruction.
The night comes as part of a range of artistic events with a political edge as part of the people’s festival, which has also organised talks on the Irish socialist James Connolly and a debate on the EU referendum this year besides other events.
Entry to the poetry night is free of charge and doors open at 7:30pm.
Picture courtesy of lincolnblues
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