“The fact that a bill in which skinny indie bands such as The Paddingtons, a heaving dance tent and the grime act Roll Deep’s Wiley can co-exist in the East End heartland is perhaps anti-fascist statement enough. The utter impossibility of the BNP raising such a crowd in London is suddenly glaring. “
LMHR Carnival ’08 was a massive success – comfortably more than 100,000 came to the event through the day. The crowd was young and old, diverse, and lapping up the Carnival’s anti-BNP message, surely giving a huge boost to turnout in this Thursday’s GLA and local elections. Musical highlights were too many to mention in a brief review, but all the acts performing were superb – a blow-by-blow account will follow. For now, thanks and congratulations should go to all those of you who came, the acts, the trade unions/Morrissey/all those who donated, Metropolis/AP/Nine Yards and all the excellent production contractors, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, St Johns Ambulance, the volunteers collecting/selling/grafting all day, and above all the LMHR team who have worked tirelessly and selflessly for months to make this event happen: Alison, Anita, Bunny, Christine, Donna, Drew, Dave, Fay, Jamie, Jon, Josh, Kaleigh, Lee, Martin, Olivia, Princess, Sadia, Tony, Val,Weyman, and Xanthe.
Lots more Carnival reviews, photos and footage to come, but a taster for now below… the awesome crowd, and youtube video of the glorious Poly Styrene and all-round top man Drew McConnell’s Helsinki doing X-Ray Spex classic ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’