UpRise festival has grown out of the legacy of the Rise – Anti-racism festival, last held in 2009.

UpRise is now a FREE festival for the community put on by the community, quite literally.

So what’s the big idea?

UpRise aims to confront some uncomfortable truths that remain in our society. The world – through constant developments in mass communications – is getting smaller and smaller, with online communities on every subject known to man. However we still face challenges of prejudice, ignorance and fear in today’s society due to differences in race or culture.

As an organisation we aim to;

• Celebrate the diversity, difference and the commonalities of our community
• Combat ignorance with education; communicating through the universal language of music and the arts
• Translate our ethos through formal and informal education by taking our UpRise educational workshop programme into schools, fields and anywhere where we’re welcome and not so welcome. We are conscious that we are tackling a real and serious issue that cannot be dealt with by a one-day festival.
• Provide both grass roots and mediated representation – Racism is an issue that cannot merely be swept under the carpet for the sake of a politically correct version of society that sounds good on TV programmes and News articles. Racism exists – maybe not in the overt ways of the past but the means and methods can never mask the purpose and affect. UpRise will keep the issue on the agenda; openly addressing the challenges we face while looking for solutions and educating to combat prejudice.