The Age of LUNA, Babeheaven and Big Zuu to perform at inaugural Portobello Rising Festival

The Age of LUNA, Babeheav­en and Big Zuu are some of the new artists who will per­form at a the first ever Por­to­bel­lo Ris­ing Fes­ti­val next month.

Por­to­bel­lo Ris­ing is a free fes­ti­val of music, film, the­atre, spo­ken word and art, tak­ing place on Sat­ur­day, July 15, where London’s West­way fly­over cross­es Por­to­bel­lo Road – a short dis­tance from Latimer Road Tube station.

Por­to­bel­lo Road, and the sur­round­ing area, is a his­toric part of Lon­don, and a hotbed of cul­tur­al exchange – the world-famous Not­ting Hill Car­ni­val began there, artists such as The Clash and Bob Mar­ley have record­ed there, and it’s home to sto­ried record shops, includ­ing Rough Trade and Hon­est Jon’s.

Last week, a trag­ic fire at Gren­fell Tow­er, right in the heart of the Por­to­bel­lo neigh­bour­hood, changed every­thing for the local community.

In the wake of this, the fes­ti­val organ­is­ers said: “Fol­low­ing the trag­ic events at Gren­fell Tow­er, we recog­nise the need to bring peo­ple togeth­er in sol­i­dar­i­ty and recog­ni­tion of the resilient Por­to­bel­lo spir­it. We have there­fore decid­ed to go ahead with the event and to use it as a way of gal­vanis­ing more sup­port and fundrais­ing for every­one affect­ed by the tragedy at Gren­fell Tower.”

Portobello Rising Festival line-up

The fes­ti­val, which has been six month in the plan­ning, is being curat­ed and pro­duced by a group of young peo­ple who are pas­sion­ate about the local area, and sup­port­ing young tal­ent. They are being aid­ed by West­way Trust.

The line-up includes new and ris­ing tal­ent, start­ing with fes­ti­val head­lin­ers grime MC Big Zuu, soul­ful hip hop group The Age of LUNA (pic­tured above), trip-hop group Babeheav­en, as well as ris­ing stars from the Hip Hop Shake­speare Company.

In addi­tion to live music, the fes­ti­val will offer skate­board­ing demos and free skat­ing lessons in BaySixty6 skate park. A per­for­mance from Ebony steel band. Spo­ken word poet­ry from Poet­ic Uni­ty. And thought-pro­vok­ing short films and ani­ma­tions from young filmmakers.

It will also host VJs, DJs, street food, dance work­shops and street art exhi­bi­tion, and oth­er events.

“At a time when life is real­ly hard for young peo­ple and we’re strug­gling with the basics, it’s all the more impor­tant to have events like Por­to­bel­lo Ris­ing, where our voic­es can be heard and our tal­ents allowed to shine,” said Jai Poon Tip, one of the Por­to­bel­lo Ris­ing Young Pro­duc­ers and founder of the West Lon­don Social Club.

“West Lon­don has an amaz­ing his­to­ry of world-famous cul­tur­al move­ments and sub­cul­tures start­ing here, and for me is the most excit­ing area in Lon­don for all kinds of cul­ture and cre­ativ­i­ty. Por­to­bel­lo Ris­ing Fes­ti­val is our way of sup­port­ing and show­cas­ing young tal­ent from all scenes and enabling bril­liant young voic­es to rise up loud and clear.”

Vis­it the offi­cial event web­site for all the infor­ma­tion.

See our events list­ings for more Lon­don fes­ti­vals.

Image: cour­tesy of Por­to­bel­lo Rising/Westway Trust (main); cour­tesy of The Age of LUNA

Tags: Babeheaven, Big Zuu, Fundraising, Grenfell Tower, London festivals, Music festivals, Portobello Rising Festival, Portobello Road, The Age of LUNA, Westway Trust, Young people