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Bristol's Forwards festival to tackle city-wide issues

Antonia Cross Antonia CrossAntonia Cross
Ms Cross said the conversations would be a "central part" of the festival rather than an "afterthought"

A new festival in Bristol will tackle the city's "important" issues alongside its music offering.

Acts including Charli XCX, The Chemical Brothers and Jamie XX are set to perform at Forwards festival on the Downs this weekend.

But the event will also feature talks on topics such as the housing crisis, sex positivity and drug support.

Curator Antonia Cross said it was about "making these conversations accessible to a wider audience".

Ms Cross, who works for homeless charity Caring in Bristol, added: "We really wanted the opinions and the ideas and the conversations that are currently happening in Bristol to really be at the forefront."

Festival organiser Tom Paine said the talks and panel discussions, which will also cover food poverty, climate change, racism and "breaking the music class ceiling", were "issues that we thought the city needed to tackle".

Plaster Communications Little Simz and Self EsteemPlaster Communications
Little Simz and Self Esteem are among the artists performing at the two-day festival

Mr Paine, founder of Team Love, which also runs music festival Love Save the Day, said: "With the explosion of the festival industry, there's a lot of purely commercial events out there.

"They're built and designed to be profit-making events. That's never really sat that easy with us.

"That's not why we do what we do."

He said following their Breaking Bread event on the Downs "we got real insight into the issues with food poverty in the city".

"We really need to push that because a lot of people still don't know about it," he added.

Ms Cross said she curated speakers such as Bristol Black Excellence because "we know racism is bad. It's time to move the conversation forward".

Downs Festival Downs FestivalDowns Festival
Ms Cross said events within cities should be "enabling and platforming" important conversations

Following a vote against banning sexual entertainment venues in Bristol Ms Cross said there was still more to discuss.

"Currently in Bristol we like to think we're quite forward thinking but... I think sometimes cities can kind of rest on their laurels, thinking that they're metropolitan and liberal and actually we're not sure if that's always the case," she said.

The event will also features speakers such as food critic Jay Rayner interviewing British food writer, journalist and activist Jack Monroe about food poverty and former footballer John Barnes MBE speaking with Bristol poet Lawrence Hoo about racism.

Tom Paine
Mr Paine said his team took time during the pandemic to "step back and have a think about what we were trying to do and why"

Ms Cross said the talks were about creating "less of a passive experience and more of an active experience".

She added: "Anything that's going to help people become proactive and pragmatic about how they can change the world is going to be fantastic for us."

Forwards takes place on The Downs in Bristol on 3 and 4 September.

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