Cam River Rights Festival

On Midsummer's Eve, Saturday 21st June, Friends of the Cam held its 5th River Rights Festival at which we rededicated the rights of the river. This is needed now more than ever, as threats to our rivers, biodiversity, and communities multiply. We had campaign talks from Ian Ralls from Cherry Hinton Against Reuse of Landfill in Spite of Evidence (Charlie); Anna Gazeley on her fight to protect Coton Orchard and opposing the C2C busway scheme; Liz Cotton on the fight Save Honey Hill won (the Planning Inquiry ruled that there was no case to build a new sewage work on Green Belt land at Horningsea), but was overuled by the Secretary of State for Environment; and a talk from Rob Larter on how the seas are rising fast around East Anglia, making large-scale development in Cambridge even more ludricrous. LeftyMenSing reprised their River Shanty sung in previous years, along with other songs; the Cambridge Climate Choir made its debut appearance; and Voices of Anatolia returned this year with their new leader, the amazing singer Gulseven Medar. Lila Shaw Mitchell sung beautiful Bengali and Gaelic songs; Monkey Shanti a Bollywood inspired set; Kelly Woolley their radical folk; Ki Luna and Mousey B their radical rap; the Kipu Orchestra a wonderful collection of musicians from the age of 6 upwards associated with the Frida Violeta Band, who, as is now tradition, closed a wonderful evening with their unique interpretation of Latin American music inspired by musicians such as Victor Jara and Violeta Parra.