Restless Natives…coming soon…
Next week Restless Natives kick off seven days of brilliant events in a multi-venue cultural festival, which champions independent purveyors of music, film, food, drink and business across Glasgow’s East End. We’re really chuffed to be participating and will run a Restless Natives tour on May 13.
We managed to have a quick chat with the very busy people pulling it all together, and wish them Good Luck... Tickets for the festival are available here
GMCT: Looking at the programme we’re hugely struck and impressed by the ambition and range, so we’d be interested in knowing if the idea began as a multi-disciplinary event or if that’s something that evolved as you went along?
RN: This was always the plan. No one art form is isolated anyway with music accompanying film regularly, and vice versa. It has become a lot bigger than we expected particularly with the film programme thanks to funding from the Film Hub Scotland. That enabled us to be more ambitious and we have a really exciting and eclectic timetable over the week.
GMCT: The programme is so diverse and we get the feeling that the local arts community on board have readily embraced the idea. Would you attribute that to Glasgow’s DIY ethic?
RN:The Restless Natives team has previously worked with a number of the promoters curating line-ups for the festival and it was a conscious decision to help showcase them as much as the artists. All of them have an incredible knowledge of the Scottish DIY music/arts scene and they are vital in what we are trying to do. The sense of community in Glasgow when it comes to DIY shows is overwhelming, there is a circle of ever expanding and changing circles that includes musicians, labels, venues and promoters. Everyone genuinely wants to help and be part of something bigger.
GMCT: Would you like to highlight anything about the programme or any events in particular?
RN: One of the most visible things is the number of women on the music line-up, the Specialist Subject Tour, Hotgem with Nightwave and HQFU, Tuff Love, law Holt supporting Ghostface Killah and more help highlight this. The festival is not-for-profit and all events have been individually priced as affordably as possible as we wanted to ensure accessibility for people from all economic backgrounds. A portion of gate receipts will go towards specially nominated East End charities to try and make some lasting difference to the community that has welcomed us.
GMCT: Are there hopes/plans for this to be a regular festival?
Yes, most definitely. This was always the aim as in order to fulfil support of the arts then something like Restless Natives has to be done on a regular basis. We hope this evolves into a great new addition for the East End and ultimately something very special.