<http://www.lovemusichateracism.com/> <http://sziget.hu/festival/news/mega-gig_celebrating_diversity.981.html>
Love Music Hate Racism/ZARE show @ Zero Day, Sziget Festival, Hungary
Obudia Island, Budapest, Tuesday 11th August 2009
Europe's biggest music festival has joined up with Love Music Hate Racism for their opening day. Day Zero of Sziget Festival will feature musicians representing successful UK-based anti-racist campaign Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) who will take a unique and important role in launching a new Hungarian campaign based on similar lines to LMHR
Sziget Festival, held on a beautiful island in the middle of the Danube in Budapest, regularly attracts over 350,000 people from all over Europe for the five day event of Music Culture. In past years the Festival has played hosts to acts as large and diverse as Sonic Youth, David Bowie, The Foo Fighters, Green Day, Goldie, Patti Smith, Baaba Maal, Oasis, The Sugababes, Radiohead and many MANY more. This year will see the likes of Lily Allen, The Ting Tings, Bloc Party, Fatboy Slim, Primal Scream, The Prodigy and Faith No More among hundreds of others take to the Sziget stage.
Traditionally Zero Day is a bit different and this year the organisers approached Love Music Hate Racism and asked if we could help program / curate a day dedicated to the anti-racist cause. As the UK faces its ugly demons from the extreme right with the BNP, so Hungary faces a serious threat from the right wing Jobbik Party who have a history of extreme racist violence and intimidation, and it is in response to this that the British Embassy in Hungary approached Sziget with the idea of launching a new Hungarian organisation based along Love Music Hate Racism lines. The new organisation - "Zene a Rasszizmus Ellen" (Music Against Racism) or ZARE for short - is being set up with help from the UK Embassy in Budapest with the aim of bringing together anti-racist musicians, groups and individuals in an active and united campaign to tackle racism in Hungarian society.
Day Zero will feature an entire days worth of Hungary's top acts all playing under ZARE's anti-racist banner, over 20 Hungarian and Roma bands and artists and as a spectacular multinational and multicultural finale to the day Sam Duckworth AKA Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly (who is curating the music for the event) has put together a special one-off supergroup featuring the full Get Cape band complemented by an eclectic group of cutting-edge artists including Drew McConnell from Babyshambles; members of The King Blues and Kid British; Mpho Skeef; Jimmy Pursey from Rock Against Racism heroes Sham 69; rappers Low Key and Eslam Jawaad; Britpop legend Lee Mavers from The La's; and DJ The Last Skeptik. The set will also feature collaborations with leading Hungarian musicians, still to be announced, with one or two surprise guests still in the offing.
Free to Sziget ticket holders; Day tickets: EUR 21 / HUF 5750 (approx £18).
www.szigetfestival.com <http://www.szigetfestival.com>
Sam Duckworth, of Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and LMHR said:
"Unfortunately racism is a problem that still spans the globe. Recently we have seen it take underhanded steps into the world of politics. We have seen the rise of the BNP within the UK and a rise of the far right Jobbik party in Hungary. However, where there is open racism, music has always provided a pro active and effective cultural front to the resistant movement. From rock against racism in the uk in the 70s, through to the current love music hate racism campaign in the uk, there has been a proud tradition of artists standing together, regardless of race, gender and genre to fight the Fascists..
I am thankful to the Szieget festival and the Hungarian artists for taking a stand on the zero day at the festival by launching a new anti racist music campaign in Hungary to deal with the fascist lies of Jobbik and other racist, anti roma groups." .
KRSA, from PASO (Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra) said:
"Our goal with the Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra has always been to advocate cultural diversity. As the pioneers of Hungarian ska we built bonds between the Jamaican and Hungarian musical heritage to show our crowd how the love of music can bring together people of different origins. For this reason we are very happy to participate in the work of RAR and LMHR and to be present at the birth of the Hungarian movement, ZARE - Music Against Racism. We hope our music helps people to spread the message of love and denounce racism and any kind of hatred."
Fruszina Szep of Sziget Festival said:
"Sziget is the biggest multicultural Festival across Europe. We are presenting and welcoming all kinds of cultures, nations. This has been our aim since the start in 1993 and it remaind our main goal till today! We are happy to welcome LMHR at this years Sziget Festival and to dedicade our so called zero day on the 11th of August for this highly appreciated approach and event, mission and vision! It's time to act! NOW!" .
The UK's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said:
"I am delighted that the FCO is partnering the UK music-based campaigns Rock Against Racism and Love Music Hate Racism and the Sziget Festival in order to promote the values of racial harmony, respect and tolerance in Hungary. The ZARE project is important - especially given the problems of anti-Roma racism which appear to be growing in parts of Central and Eastern Europe." .
UK Ambassador to Hungary, Greg Dorsey, said:
"Unfortunately the scourge of racism has not been removed from UK society, nor indeed from Hungarian society. That is why I applaud the efforts and commitment of Love Music Hate Racism - an extremely impressive organisation of committed individuals who are taking up the fight where RAR left off. Each era in history faces its own challenges. Ours faces many. I believe that one of our key challenges is to solve the problems of anti-Semitism and anti-Roma racism which have blighted the continent for centuries. We need to be aware of the risk of racists and populists filling any political space left unfilled by mainstream political parties. The living conditions of many of the Roma in Hungary and other countries of this region are a matter of shame for Europe. The marginal slums on the edge of villages. The segregated schools. These should have no place in a modern democracy. That is why we want to be a catalyst for a new, active and dynamic anti-racist campaign in Hungary - harnessing the power of music in the way that RAR and LMHR have been doing in UK. We want young people to learn from their musical heroes that it is simply uncool to be racist. We want Hungarian music fans to carry the anti-racist banner - by supporting a Hungarian anti-racist campaign based on music "
Lee Billingham from Love Music Hate Racism said:
"Love Music Hate Racism has been successful in helping mobilise many thousands of people against racism and fascism in the UK, bringing together music fans and artists to celebrate our multicultural society and our unity against those trying to divide us. In the wake of the recent elections to the European Parliament anti-racists in every country will be stepping up their efforts. We are therefore proud to have been asked to help with the setting up of a Hungarian organisation based on similar principles to LMHR. While local conditions may differ slightly - culturally and politically - the same threats face us across Europe with institutional and everyday racism on the rise and racist and fascist ideas gaining ground in many countries. To launch the new organisation at such a huge and multicultural festival as Sziget, which drew last year 380,000 visitors, with 50% coming from other parts of Europe, is a great opportunity to show mainstream opposition to the racists, and those in Hungary who scapegoat Roma people and other minorities - just as Muslims and migrant workers are targeted in the UK. It's been very encouraging in the wake of the announcement of ZARE that some of Hungary's top rock and pop acts and jazz musicians have immediately backed the cause."
Please forward this to anyone you know who may be interested.
thanks!
Love Music Hate Racism Team
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