Less than 48 hours ago, this part of the city centre was held to ransom by the visiting English Defence League (EDL). Less than 24 hours ago, Billy Bragg and friends played a free gig on this spot to a crowd variously estimated at anything between 2,000 and 10,000 as citizens gathered for the We Are One Leicester Festival. At 1100 on this chilly Monday morning, we launch Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week) in Humberstone Gate.
At the start of proceedings, John Coster (Editor of Citizens' Eye Community News Agency) and I, as Joint Chairs of Leicester Speaks, open the event on stage in front of the giant TV screen (which is, thankfully, inactive this morning). John delivers a typically fine opening spiel, hands me the microphone, tells me I'm doing a great job, slaps me on the back and steps off the stage.
I'm MC for the next hour, in which we encourage people to come up off the street, take the microphone and speak for 60 seconds on any subject of importance to them. We have a few ringers in the crowd, just in case we don't get enough people come up to fill the hour, but we needn't have worried about that. In the end, we have more than enough contributors. Some of these folk have probably never had the opportunity to speak in public like this before. Their contributions were recorded on video and posted online, so they're available to a huge potential audience. In the photo at the top of this blog post, I welcome Lord Mayor of Leicester Cllr Colin Hall on stage, to launch officially our week of activities across the city.
Cllr Manjula Sood, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, speaks on the stage this morning - while I do a not particularly good job of hiding behind a pole (photo above).
Leicester Speaks has its own blog, where you can read about today's event and watch a short video about it. Recordings of all contributions from the stage at our launch event in Humberstone Gate are available on the Leicester Speaks channel on YouTube. I'm sorry to say that my amusing improvised links from the stage haven't survived the editing process. I'm holding out for the extended version, with deleted scenes.
The day after the demonstration by the English Defence League and counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism, several thousand people gather in Humberstone Gate for the We Are One Leicester Festival. This major event in the life of our city has been organised by Leicester City Council and Hope Not Hate.
Undoubted highlight of today is a free gig by Billy Bragg, who includes a rousing rendition of "We Shall Overcome". Indie rockers Reverend and the Makers perform at the end of the day. In between these two sets, various entertainers and local worthies appear on stage to reinforce our pride in the city's diversity and our commitment to its unity. Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, Cllr Manjula Sood, takes to the stage to speak on behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths:
Good afternoon One Leicester! It’s so beautiful to stand
here and see all of you.
On behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths, I would like
to say a big thank you to all of you. Yesterday we showed that we stood united
and today is a remarkable day: Ten! Ten! Ten! Tenth of October 2010 when the whole
city has come together.
On behalf of all the Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu,
Jains, Bahá'ís and Buddhist communities and Jews, I would like to pass on their
gratitude.
EDL is defeated yesterday, with a very strong message: you are not welcome
here. There’s no room for them, even to stand there among us.
Our long and
proud history of Leicester – of love respect, understanding, respect, our heritage;
many cultures, beliefs, neighbourhoods – have proved nobody can come and divide us. Our
community cohesion cannot be challenged.
You can see her full speech (four minutes long) on YouTube along with a variety of other videos on a playlist there, offering extensive coverage of contributions from the stage and among the crowd.
Humberstone Gate is rammed this afternoon. There are many displays and activities put on by local community groups, local authorities and service providers from the city and county. Artists and performers are out in force too including some of my personal favourites, the stilt-walkers (photo above). There's a lovely touch of autumn sunshine and a palpable sense of relief that yesterday's events are behind us and togetherness about going forward.
Leicester Council of Faiths has space in the marquee, where we set up one of our banners and hand out loads of leaflets. You can get a good look at it in a short video posted by pappukadri on YouTube (listen for Grace's distinctive shoot-out for her brother at 0:38). We have a good spot, near the front and next to the fellow blowing up the helium balloons - but the folk on our stall spend more time tying and tethering balloons than anything else!
I also get out and about with fliers for Leicester Speaks. We're kicking off that week of activities across the city with our launch event on this same spot tomorrow morning.
BBC Radio Leicester covered the event on its website. Links to several examples of media coverage of today can be found on the web page, Uniquely Leicester.
As far as our small contribution to this big event went today, thanks to Barbara, Celia, Lucy (and Harry and Gracie) for helping.
