We spoke to Grand Junction’s Creative and Community Director Lucy Foster about their upcoming Elixir Festival, a programme of work celebrating Arabic artworks culturally resonant for local communities and wider London audiences.
Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the Elixir Festival and why it focuses on Arabic artworks?
When we began our music programme at Grand Junction in 2021, it felt like the natural thing to look to programme Arab artists and work influenced by the region, given we are in a neighbourhood with the biggest Arabic speaking population in the UK. Since then, we have grown relationships with Arab artists and organisations, and are starting to feel like a ‘home’ for their work. A festival seemed like the organic next step and a way to celebrate the diversity of the Arab artists we’ve worked with, bringing in theatre, music, and a community celebration.
The timing of the festival coincides with Eid al-Fitr, as we wanted to invite audiences to a cultural celebration for the end of Ramadan. Eid is a time that comes with huge feelings of community and celebrating with friends and neighbours. We wanted the festival to mark this, welcoming both those who celebrate and those who don’t. Like that Christmassy feeling everyone gets, whether they are religious or not.
We had been working on the idea of a festival for a while last year, but after the events following 7 October, and the destruction taking place in Gaza, it felt like the focus also needed to be creating a space for healing and reflection. It felt more important than ever to come together to give space to Palestinian and other voices from the region, platforming the humanity and valuable cultural contribution of Arab artists and communities.
Tell us about the name, ‘Elixir Festival’. Where did this come from and what does it mean to you?
In the current context we wanted the focus of the festival to be on restoring strength and healing, so we called the festival Elixir. The word is one of the few English words with roots in Arabic – it derives from the Arabic al-‘iksīr. The word is a symbol of healing in both languages and is meant as in invitation to audiences, rather than a literal description of the themes and content of all of the festival artworks.
What are some of the key objectives you aim to achieve through the Elixir Festival, particularly in terms of cultural resonance within the local communities of West London and wider London audiences?
We aim with putting on the Elixir Festival to have cultural resonance with our local Arabic speaking communities. We know this doesn’t necessarily mean you put something on and everyone rushes through the door. In some ways that doesn’t matter. It is about putting on a programme that says, ‘we see you’re there, and we want to connect when you’re ready’.
The festival model helps because it gives the opportunity to programme different kinds of work alongside each other, while welcoming everyone to Elixir Festival. For example, we have the award-winning Ayoub Sisters who have a big pull for wider London audiences, alongside a free community concert and meal. We want everyone to feel like they are part of the festival, whichever event they attend. We also hope that for our local community who might not have attended our concerts before, after coming along to share food at the free concert, they might feel this is the right time to try out a concert in a place where they feel welcomed and feel ownership.
The special Eid celebration edition of To The Table sounds like a fantastic community event. Could you elaborate on how food, music, comedy, storytelling, and creative activities come together to create a sense of cultural unity and celebration?
We have been running To The Table events for eighteen months now. They have become very popular and are usually fully booked. This one will be part of the festival and will also be an Eid celebration. As such, we wanted it to be bigger and offer more than previous events. People have loved sharing a meal while also trying an art activity or hearing a story. This April we will extend this to a chance to hear some brilliant music from Yaz Fentazi trio. We’ll also have a film exploring the things local people love about Eid. When comedy is at its best it has a unifying effect; making some people laugh because they recognise something about themselves and saying ‘it’s okay to laugh at this in a nice way’ for people who are learning about a new culture or community through the jokes. And the food brings everyone together; it is from a local Lebanese place and it is delicious!
How do you see the Elixir Festival contributing to the broader cultural landscape of London and the UK, particularly in terms of promoting diversity and inclusivity?
Elixir Festival is providing an important platform for Palestinian and Arab voices at a moment when creating this space is much needed, and as such it has an important part to play in the broader cultural landscape of the UK. Our collaborators on the festival, Arts Canteen and Shubbak, have already done so much to raise the profile and awareness of Arab artists and artworks, which for a long time have been underrepresented in the UK. That is certainly changing, and we are proud to be a part of that change.
We also hope Elixir Festival is contributing to the broader cultural picture in another way. We are part of a wider movement to build more diverse and inclusive audiences, which takes the approach of bringing great art into communities, rather than always expecting people to come to the big institutions.
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of the Elixir Festival? Are there any new initiatives or collaborations you hope to explore in upcoming editions?
This is our first Elixir Festival, but we hope it won’t be the last. If we do it again, it would be wonderful to be ambitious and explore some international collaborations, brining artists who you can not often see in the UK, but also keeping it rooted in engaging our community; more local people onstage alongside brilliant, established artists.
What event in the programme are you most looking forward to?
That’s a hard one because they will all be brilliant. Of course, I have a huge soft spot for the return of Olive Jar. It is a special thing, capturing a group of people from the local community at a moment in time, paired with the work of some brilliant theatre artists. It is a snapshot of a place and its people right now in 2024 and, as such, is not to be missed. I’m also really curious to see what the Young Shubbak group of producers will bring to the Grand Junction stage when they take over the venue on 2 May.
Elixir Festival takes place at Grand Junction 12th April – 2nd May, more information and how to book tickets here: https://grandjunction.org.uk/
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