The Rise Festival is a 1-day Free Festival held in Finsbury Park "celebrating London's diversity and opposing racism". I'd heard that as many as 80,000 people had attended in the past and although I feel this is an extremely optimistic number I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were close to 50,000 there and this will therefore probably be the biggest music event I attend in 2006.

The main stage was headlined by the Wailers and I'm afraid I never got close enough for any decent photos of them this time around. Indeed the ones I did manage to get of the supporting Buzzcocks & Graham Coxon were taken from a considerable distance so please excuse the fuzziness of these. There were large screens to either side of the main stage so it was possible to see the bands from well back & the sound was OK without being outstanding, although there were a few technical difficulties on some of the other stages.

In addition to the main "Rise Stage" there were a further 7 stages. I'm afraid I didn't get to see any of the acts on the Urban Music, Big Cuba Fiesta, or DJ stages or in the Comedy Marquee. The inflatable Crescent Stage had a good mix of acts performing music from around the World & the Mela Stage naturally had a predominantly Asian influenced theme. But my favourite was the African Village which almost felt like a separate little festival all of its own.

As far as facilities were concerned there was plenty of diversity in the catering although the queues for food reached gigantic proportions as the crowds decended. Thankfully I made the wise decision to eat early. There were also lengthy queues for the ladies loos although there was a much quicker turnaround at the gents urinals. The choice of drinks at the bars was frankly shocking (Carlsberg / Magners / Smirnoff Ice) although there was at least one wine bar and Burrow Hill had a cider stall albeit unfortunately they were only permitted to sell their rather sweet spiced variety.

But all in all not bad day out for a freebie and hopefully the message of unity will be a little stronger in the minds of those that attended.