Festival of indie culture (From The Oxford Times)

Festival of indie culture

8:25am Friday 4th December 2009 in

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A NATIONWIDE one-day festival of free music, art, and literature sharing was launched this week.

Free e-day, a celebration of indie culture, was the brainchild of writer Dan Holloway, from Chipping Norton.

Mr Holloway, 37, came up with the concept of encouraging independent musicians, artists, and poets to give something away for free via a website in May of this year. The website launch was celebrated at Cafe Tarifa, in Cowley Road, Oxford, on Tuesday.

Mr Holloway, who is part of a collective called Year Zero Writers, was joined by singer-songwriter Nikki Loy, who organised the music line-up on the launch night.

He said: “Free e-day is a celebration on independent culture. It’s about bringing together creative people from across the globe, and giving them a louder voice and wider audience than they would ever have alone. It was an extraordinary day. When I was reading, there were about 80 people listening, but I think we had about 200 people altogether.”

The one-day festival will be repeated each year, but the website is available all year round. Mr Holloway stressed the site was not just another free file-sharing outlet.

He added: “I haven’t just trawled the web for stuff that’s free. Everyone who’s here is here because they believe passionately in independent culture. They’ve made an active commitment to the event, and helped to make it a marvellous celebratory carnival.”

To visit the website, go to freeeday.wordpress.com