Gilberto Gil, Roots Manuva: Back to Black Festival 29/6 – 1/7
Gilberto Gil – everyone's favourite ex Minister for Culture comes to the UK for the London 2012 Festival. Exploring 'the cultural and historical relationship between Brazil and Africa', all we have to do now is figure out how to fit in the Stockwell-born, second-generation Jamaican, Roots Manuva.
A major three-day music festival exploring the cultural and historical relationship between Brazil and Africa comes to London this summer as part of London 2012 Festival.
First staged in Rio de Janeiro in 2009, Back2Black will be held for the first time outside Brazil at Old Billingsgate in the heart of East London, with 3 different stages and an eclectic line-up of more than 20 Brazilian, UK and international groups, including host Gilberto Gil, plus debates & discussions and a large-scale visual arts exhibition by artist and director Bia Lessa as a backdrop to the festival.
For this London edition, the festival focuses on the strong UK African links and communities and brings together a heady mix of different traditions and musical genres including: Samba, Jazz, Funk, R'n'B, Blues, Rock, Reggae and Dub and Hip Hop.
Featuring Gilberto Gil, Toumani Diabaté + Arnaldo Antunes + Edgard Scandurra, Roots Manuva, Criolo, Fatoumata Diawara, Marcelo D2, Mart'nalia and Luiz Melodia, with many more to be announced. At the Barbican, Old Billingsgate, London EC3R 6DX
Gilberto Gil Image: Marcello Casal Jr/ABr
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
