Review: JustFest 2016

Organised by the Student Development and Community Engagement Division (SDCE) and its programme Ethical Grand Challenges (EGC), JustFest 2016 is the university’s annual social justice festival. Despite it only being its second year running, this year’s JustFest’s comprised a main stage, stalls and exhibitions, a film ‘igloo’, a talks tent, and a number of local food stands. Associate Vice-President For Social Responsibility, James Thompson, informed The Mancunion on how the idea of JustFest was first established:

“The university, as part of a social responsibility goal, is trying to create a series of programmes that all students can access, which complement people’s curriculum but also extend the learning and interests they might have. We’re piloting this over the next few years.

“We’re looking for a way to attract students to come to debates and be confronted with issues of social justice, so JustFest is an attempt to think about a different form of engaging students, rather than putting on a series of lectures.”

Its outdoor main stage boasted a range of cutting-edge artists engaged with social justice issues, including the legendary Don Letts, spoken word artist and rapper George the Poet and Akala’s Hip Hop Shakespeare Company. Thompson said that the SDCE and the Students’ Union worked closely together “and there’s a whole series of staff involved with aspects of the music industry working to get a number of [the] artists. A lot of people have given their time for free, [while] we’ve paid some artists to come.”

In the talks tents, speakers had just five minutes to talk about their chosen social justice topic. The short but sweet approach worked well—each speaker got straight to the heart of the issue. Inside, the stalls and exhibitions held in Academy 1 were full of of interested crowds all afternoon.

Prior to the festival, a short film competition was opened up for students to submit a film on an issue they are passionate about. A shortlist of nine was announced about a week ago, with the winner announced on the main stage at the end of the festival. The judges chose two winners: Spot The Difference by Ben Capener, and Social Justice, Mental Health by Vay Whittaker. The People’s Choice winner was To Refuge by Hanna Krabchi. The Grand Prize was given to Ollie Thomson for his film When I Say I—a look at sexual abuse. All shortlisted films can be watched here.

The festival aims to make social justice accessible and relevant to all, instead of just the interest of a minority as it is often portrayed. “There seems to be a big call for students now,” Thompson told The Mancunion, “and people generally, to be both real experts in what they know—their core discipline, and to have wider areas of interest and be engaged with other issues. So that you can be a pharmacist, say, who’s got a great understanding of sustainability and social justice. So what we’re trying to do here in Manchester is give students that opportunity.”

The festival has seen support from a range of people and groups. “The Students’ Union have been brilliant in supporting this. In the long term, we see it as a really important partnership between the Students’ Union to engage students with a range of issues. We’ve got loads of local campaigning groups, the student groups and staff research representatives—it’s a really good combination of all those things.”

Regarding the future of JustFest and similar events, Thompson stated, “we’re going to evaluate this year’s festival. The idea eventually is to make it a much bigger event and think about where on campus it might happen.

Already this year, almost organically, a number of fringe events started appearing, such as the Debating Union’s Fossil Fuel debate. So eventually I’d like to see, you might have a festival day, but perhaps a week on social justice issues.”

You can follow updates from the Ethical Grand Challenges here and on their Facebook and Twitter pages.