Guy Garvey’s Meltdown festival was an overwhelming success this year (10-19 June) with nine packed concerts, seven standing ovations and the site filled to over 80% across the ten days. Boat parties made up part of the festival for the first time this year and concerts featured Garvey, Femi Kuti, Laura Marling, Richard Hawley, I Am Kloot and Lift To Experience who played their first concert in 15 years. The festival closed with a day dedicated to the refugee crisis, culminating in a concert where Garvey spoke out against government policy on refugees.
Garvey said ‘When we’re talking about the government doing our bidding, it isn’t asking, or hoping. We have to demand that the policies are changed. If we decide that they’re wrong, just the people in this auditorium could stop it. I’m a songwriter, so I wrote a song – it didn’t take long as my views are so clear to me. My opinion on this is not something I’ve had to sit and think about, it’s something that happens in the heart when you look into the face of another human being that’s suffering.’
Clearly touched by the experience, Garvey went on to sing his song Blanket of Night, written about two refugees braving the Mediterranean Ocean in a bid for freedom - arranged for Southbank Sinfonia and a 50 strong refugee choir. The concert came at the end of Refugees Welcome, a day of workshops, art and debate, hosted by Counterpoint Arts, on the refugee crisis. The day closed Garvey’s Meltdown and launched Refugee Week 2016 at Southbank Centre.
Artistic Director of Southbank Centre Jude Kelly also said ‘We decided with Guy that Meltdown should climax with a statement of welcome and respect for all those who have experienced the toil and hardship of being a refugee. We also wanted to build an understanding amongst us of what that refugee experience feels like and why we have the current crisis. For our nation to consider, even for a minute, that it is inappropriate to welcome refugees is appalling.’
Southbank Centre’s Meltdown festival is famed for bringing to life the world of its curator and alongside music concerts in the Royal Festival Hall, this year’s festival featured boat parties sailing up and down the Thames, spoken word, Big Band Karaoke, a northern soul club night, and free live music from emerging and established artists on the Bryan Glancy Stage, dedicated to the hugely influential late Mancunian singer/songwriter. A concert from psyche-pop pioneer Connan Mockasin was a particular hit with fans as, whipped into a frenzy, they instigated a stage invasion visibly excited by the opportunity to dance vigorously to the silk-pyjama-clad star’s guitar grooves.Garvey is also proud of the legacy that his Meltdown will leave, stating ’One of the best things to come out of my Meltdown is that I Am Kloot are going to do another album and if I was a little tiny part of that – with Southbank Centre’s help – that makes me a proud man.’
