Free Festivals...you'd be mad not to!

FREE FESTIVALS IN LONDON!

Saturday's festivities take place in Burgess Park, just off the Old Kent Road, and go under the banner of 'RISE'. Rise Festival is the new title for what used to be known as Respect, the Mayor of London's annual anti-racism event. Now that George Galloway has hijacked the old name the decision was made to rebrand an event that is the biggest of its kind in Europe. Eight stages of live music and MC's will rock the park all day, with headline slots from such stellar names as Lemar, Goldie Lookin' Chain and Horace Andy. Also on the main stage bill are Mike Skinners new signings, The Mitchell Brothers, as well as Kano, Terri Walker and Eska. Other areas of the festival include the Mela and African stages, a great comedy tent, some alternative acts from Continental Drifts and non-stop beats from the Dub Bus. Look out for behind the scenes coverage from VF as we are providing stage management services for the whole festival!

VF's other top tip for the weekend if you are out and about in Central London on Sunday 17th July is the Tin Pan Alley Festival in Denmark Street - just opposite Tottenham Court Road tube. With headliners The Subways just announced this promises to be an even better event than the inaugural festival that took place last year and featured highly in our Festival Awards nominations for the best small event. Over the space of the afternoon Denmark Street will be host to such rising stars as Art Brut, Do Me Bad Things, Ludes, Metro Riots and many more - including Intervurt, who will be playing their second festival slot in three days after coming out on top of our Discovered! chart last week. It's not often that you get the chance to catch these sorts of quality bands in the same place, and to see them for free is something not to be missed! Pick up a few chilled tinnies and come and sit down in London's most famous musical street to soak up the best in new music!

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