Christopher BarrettOperators of some of the UK’s largest festivals have signed up to support the Just Vote campaign, designed to get 18-34 year olds to the polls.
Taking place just days before the UK general election on 4 July , Glastonbury Festival will host an interactive ‘Crash the Party’ on site installation, reminding festivalgoers to turn out to vote the week after the festival.
Glastonbury and ‘Crash the Party’ are running a competition to win two tickets to this year’s festival, where entrants who are registered to vote and sign up for reminders about key election moments could be in with a chance of heading to Worthy Farm.
Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn is among the industry leaders throwing their support behind Just Vote. He said, “Reading & Leeds are among the country’s biggest gatherings of young people and sit at the very heart of our youth culture. In bringing these festivals to life I have the privilege of witnessing the next generation’s energy and passion first-hand and it is vital that their voices be heard at the general election. The music industry has always been an important force for positive change and working with Just Vote is a great way to empower our audiences to channel their energy into exercising their democratic right at this historic moment.”
Festival Republic is providing tickets as competition prizes, only available for entry to those who are registered to vote.
Crash the Party is part of Just Vote, created by green entrepreneur Dale Vince OBE, who founded Ecotricity in 1996. The campaign features eye-catching visuals created by Saatchi & Saatchi.
Among the festivals and live events organisations to support the campaign are LIVE, A Greener Future, Association of Independent Festivals, Music Venues Trust, UK Music, Superstruct, MMF, FAC, Proper Productions, Music Declares Emergency, Earth Percent, Anjuna Deep festival, Forward festival, Love Saves The Day festival and Sound City.
Vince has called on artists playing the festivals to endorse the campaign, “We’re grateful to Festival Republic, Glastonbury and all the participating festivals for throwing their weight behind Just Vote. This is the most important general election of our lifetime, and the UK music scene has immense cultural influence which can mobilise young people to make their voice heard on 4 July.
“We’re also calling on the UK’s musicians to use your platforms to rally young people to register and then get out and vote. Artists playing these festivals – if you see this please get involved and help spread the word about the Just Vote campaign: the future of our country depends on young people having a say.
“Last year, a single post by Taylor Swift got 35,000 Americans registering to vote. We in the UK have such a long history of mobilising people through music, so there’s no reason our home grown talent shouldn’t be doing the same.”