The new festival aims to bring people together as part of  Hope Not Hate’s Weekend of Action through the performing arts. 

Taking place on the 17th June at theHuman Rights Action Centre and marking the anniversary of the murder of MP Jo Cox, the festival was created by a group of theatre practitioners and artists came together through Hope Not Hate and decided to create an event to honour Jo and her work.

The line up for the festival includes performances from Bridget Christie who will be performing a comedy set at the beginning of the evening. There will also be a dance piece from John Livingston Dance, a dancer with Downs Syndrome, whose incredible improvisational work challenges pre-conceptions about disability and difference. Dr. Sidrah Muntaha will perform Collective Cries a beautiful piece of Bangladeshi music, written by Rabindranath Tagore, and the Scandinavian Singing Club will be singing close harmony folk tunes in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian with a jazz twist.

Meanwhile, amateur north London acting group Park Players, are a group of older performers who will be creating both music & monologues for the festival. Playwright Tobias Wright has devised Plainsong for Change Of Art, inspired by William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and Kate Willoughby will be performing #EmilyMatters, where Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison addresses future generations in an inspiring one-woman piece about why your vote matters.

This event is a variety show that is linked together by the compère: stand-up comedian Sindhu Vee a British New Comedy Award 2016 finalist.

Change of Art Festival is aiming to offer a platform for artists and communities to speak for themselves and to tell their own stories.

While the event is free, it is ticketed and those attending will be able to buy food and drink – with all of the profits going towards Hope Not Hate.

Change of Art Festival will take place on the 17th June. For more information visit: http://www.changeofart.org.uk/.