Liberty 08

Liberty 08

Liberty brings a sense of freedom

The prevailing mood of the sixth annual Liberty Festival was one of celebration. In Trafalgar Square there was a sense of a disabled community taking pride in disability culture and showing off to the tourists.

As a returning fan said: “The best thing about staging Liberty in Trafalgar Square is that people who don’t know about disability arts can discover it.”

The bright and sunny ambience owed a lot to the perfect weather conditions, allowing the street artists to shine. The Rhinestone Rollers, a cowgirl troupe from Graeae, were wagonloads of camp fun. The dancers were having a laugh and encouraging the crowd to join in their moves, making line-dancing seem as alluring as when Ian Paisley denounced it as the work of the devil.

In contrast, Nocturne was a chance for wheelchair-user Marc Brewer to explore shared moments of tenderness with a dance partner. The bed with rumpled duvet in the centre of the square wasn’t a tribute to Tracey Emin, or an access facility for depressives: it was a stage for the dancer to explore after ditching his chair. The intimate and precise choreography captivated large crowds.

Billed as the highlight of Liberty 08, The Medal Ceremony didn’t disappoint. Six Deaf and disabled artists dressed as athletes as imagined by Marvel comics, drew and delighted the biggest crowds of the day, as they swayed and soared precariously before the backdrop of the National Gallery.

The Medal Ceremony had the added educational bonus of teaching an international audience how to clap in BSL. The vast hoard of jazz hands, as the tourists showed their appreciation, was something to behold.

Another stand-out performance came from Ellie Young in the Club Zone, With a voice to shake the pigeons off Nelson’s tricorn hat, the singer/songwriter belted out her “kinda punkish indy type thing” from the Heart n Soul stage. Trying to be hard and thrashy but sounding sweet and melodious, Ellie had Trafalgar Square in her thrall. This singer from Portsmouth is a talent to look out for.

The fine weather wasn’t good news for everyone: the sparsely attended comedy and film tents would have fared better in the rain, but one indoor attraction was packed, despite the heat.

Better known as a senior advisor to the Mayor of London, David Morris was busy at Liberty in his capacity as a poet and a chef. He was launching his accessible restaurant, Blue Madonna. The concept includes not just making a restaurant space accessible, but removing barriers to working in catering and having an accessible menu, ie more pate and chutney than steaks or spaghetti.

Morris hopes to run regular Blue Madonna nights at a variety of accessible venues. Of Liberty 08, he said: “This is the best one we’ve had. There’re some great set-pieces and there’s a new feeling of optimism.”

He didn’t seem to think the closure of the London Disability Arts Forum (LDAF) was a portent of doom for Liberty, and said: “It’s very sad that LDAF had to close; I fought hard to try to keep it open and I’m working to retain the film festival and the magazine.”

Not all visitors to Liberty 08 expressed such unqualified enthusiasm. John from Greenwich said: “ I quite like it, I’ve been coming for a long time but it was better when they had one big stage. Now everything’s scattered around. There’s so much happening that you have to pick what you want to see and miss the rest.”

An area needing improvement is disability awareness training for staff. A clipboard-wielding woman in a Liberty tee-shirt asked me to answer some market research questions but didn’t wait for a response to the question: “Do you see yourself as disabled?”  She blithely ticked “No” and when I asked to change the answer to “Yes” she took a step back to give me a slow, up-and-down, appraising look. I would have expected Liberty staff to be aware of hidden disabilities.

Access provision met with audience approval. Theresa, also from Greenwich, said: “With so much ground to cover, I’m glad I brought my wheelchair battery charger. There’s a facility for recharging batteries, which is great.’

Another visitor praising the facilities said that it was very helpful to have larger changing room-sized toilets.

Julie Newman, chair of the United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council, said: “Look how much easier things are when everything is accessible; there’s even an area for assistance dogs to get water. It’s wonderful to take part fully.

“Disability arts are so important because it’s our culture and we can take part on an even playing field. Usually, disabled people are excluded from gaining performance skills but disability arts fire people up to share skills.”

Newman agreed that it was impossible to see all the acts but her solution was that Liberty should be extended over three days. After such a resounding success, surely the Liberty Festival’s future is secure.