The sheer scale of it was boggling. A total of 69 artists, speakers and activists were to appear at Ovo Arena Wembley.
There were stars of music: Damon Albarn, Bastille, PinkPantheress, Hot Chip and a festival’s worth of others. There were stars of stage and screen: Benedict Cumberbatch, Florence Pugh, Guy Pearce, Ramy Youssef and a huge supporting cast. There were the firebrands, the podcasters, the people you’re sure are important but you have no idea why. And there were the people who, well, you don’t really know what they’re bringing: the former footballer Eric Cantona, the Love Island host Laura Whitmore, the Chicken Shop Dates YouTuber Amelia Dimoldenberg.
To one of the evening’s artists, Paul Weller, it might have all seemed very familiar: the combination of righteousness and music was reminiscent of the big events of the Thatcher years – the GLC Jobs for a Change festival in Battersea Park in July 1985, or the Artists Against Apartheid’s Festival for Freedom on Clapham Common the following summer. (Weller played with the Style Council at the latter, which offered a similarly eclectic experience: Archbishop Trevor Huddleston reminiscing about giving Gary Kemp his first guitar, before Spandau Ballet premiered Through the Barricades.)
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