The World Is My Block

Yesterday we took on a mammoth task, and despite all the challenges we faced, we managed to put on the wickedest music event happening on Bank Holiday Monday. We had lots of brilliant bands - and while we didn't quite reach capacity lots of people came down and had fun. Below is the review in the EVENING STANDARD today:

No Passport Necessary for ska, salsa and soul

By Jane Cornwell, Evening Standard 05.05.09

Now Boris has scrapped Rise, London’s popular annual multicultural music event, other festivals are filling the one-world, anti-racism gap.

Borders were down at this all-dayer, where a United Nations’ worth of flags hung over balconies and Jamie Reid-style portraits of the Queen — working a bandanna that declared “No ID” — decorated the main space. Run by producers from City University’s creative industries foundation degree, this was a journey of sound and vision.

The rapid-fire delivery of UK dancehall legend Tippa Irie drew people away from the café’s art exhibition, where an installation of paper planes represented the confusion of the Home Office.
In the Studio new acts such as raucous ska-fusionists Size Nine and Something Simple, a Jamiroquai-like eight-piece, impressed a small but up‑for-it crowd. The audience wasn’t much bigger in the cavernous main space. But UK-based Latin jazz pianist Alex Wilson and his sprawling Salsa con Soul Orchestra were undaunted.

“Who can dance salsa?” wondered Colombian singer Elipidio, one of Wilson’s three powerhouse vocalists, before teaching us some basic steps in time for a cracking Mi Buenaventura.

Nathan Lee had jaws dropping with his trademark live fluteboxing, a remarkably dextrous technique in which flute and vocal beatbox are deployed at the same time. Blending elements of Indian classical, hip hop and ragga, Lee dipped into multicultural London. And just like this event, delivered a metaphorical mixtape from the capital.

See? The CFID team rock...I'm super-proud of my guys!