Raise It Up – concert action – Florence The Machine at Orange Warsaw Festival 2018

We raise it up for justice. We raise it up for freedom. We raise it up for equality. We raise it up for love. We raise it up for WOMEN.

Dołączmy do szeregu #TimesUp oraz #MeToo! Oficjalnymi hashtagami akcji są #RaiseItUpPoland oraz #RaiseItUpForWomen!

ZBIÓRKA PIENIĘDZY NA KWIATY

Dane do przelewu:

tytuł: Raise It Up

Numer konta: 51 1020 4724 0000 3302 0076 2211

Adrianna Polcyn, ul. Jarzębinowa 12, 19-300 Straduny

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Dear Flows,

On the occasion of Florence + The Machine concert at Orange Warsaw Festival 2018 in Poland (2nd of June 2018) we are running a special concert action. Each year our aim is to create something that not only is fun and creative but also has some additional, deeper meaning. This year we decided that our project will be closely connected to the idea of Women Power – we’re gathering together at the gig to show that we stand together side by side. There is so many powerful women amongst Florence’s inspirations – Stevie Nicks, Frida Kahlo, Vali Myers, Patti Smith, Virginia Woolf – those are just some of the female artists that play a great role in Florence’s creative process. Flo mentioned about the importance of strength of women in her life on multiple occasions.

‘I definitely consider myself a feminist and it matters. The idea of what a feminist is is changing. I have so many strong women in my life. Throughout making this record I was really supported, consoled and held by the women in my life. My mother is a professor of renaissance history so I spent a lot of time in France as a child. Going to the Duomo and seeing St. Agatha with her breasts cut off was particularly shocking and made a mark. When you have a history of women behind you, you are constantly being floored by something powerful. It’s like waves of truth. It is humbling to listen to strong women and it makes me realize my capacity. I had to go through this as I was making the record. Through advice from other women, I felt like I [gained] more strength.’

Just like for Florence, similarly in our lives, the women have a very significant meaning. Recent social campaigns and movements such as #TimesUp or #MeToo inspired us to run this year’s action – we would like to show our support for women empowerment, justice, equality but also keep a joyful, positive and optimistic feel to the project.

This time, as a theme song we’ve chosen Rabbit Heart, however we’d like to reinterpret the meaning of the lyrics. We’re looking at the song from the perspective of a female warrior – Rabbit Heart is the hymn of a decisive, determined woman who wants to break free from the often misleading social norms and stereotypes, things that cause her discomfort, fear, desire to run away. The song is the armour, which our hero builds around her to give herself more bravery for confronting the world. We see Rabbit Heart as a song about finding your own power to be independent, to be brave, to be a woman who takes her ‘rabbit heart’, fills in it in with wisdom, confidence, courage and love and becomes the one with a ‘lion heart’, ready to show her strength to the whole world.

Girl Power! We would like to invite everyone who’s planning to attend Florence + The Machine concert at Orange Warsaw Festival to join our action. What are we planning to do? We are going to raise up thousands of  flowers in the air during the song. Why flowers? Flowers are believed to be a feminine symbol, the representation of beauty and respect. We have also chosen pink colour – a shade that is commonly associated with delicacy and femininity, nonetheless it also symbolises power and self-confidence, as it is a mix of white (grandeur) and red (love, bravery, fervency and devotion). Pink colour also highlights the need of space to be out there, ready to face the problems and to show capabilities to tackle them.

To make the whole thing even more exciting, the flowers that we’re preparing for the project are going to be illuminated by a small LED light. During the song, the pink meadow of beautiful flowers will spread in front of the band’s eyes.

Raise It Up,  which is a title of our concert action is going to be our anthem celebrating the inner beauty and the strength of the women that surround us. Those who are the inspiration to us, those who we look up to, those who we love and most importantly those who we are ourselves. 

Similarly to Spread The Love, concert action which we performed 2 years ago at Open’er Festival 2016, this time we would like to enrich the meaning of our project by bringing the banners with words and captions related to the topic of ‘Girl Power!’ We’d also like to encourage you to relate to our concert action title and start with the words: ‘We raise it up for/to…’ ‘Freedom, Equality, Love, Power, Devotion, Justice, Diversity, Pride, Unity, Women Power, Empower the Women, He For She, Make Our Voice Heard, Make Equal Mean Equal, The Future Is Female, Girl Squad, Girl Gang…’ We’re giving you a lot of artistic freedom and count on your creativity!

What is more, along with ‘Raise It Up’, we are running side projects which are a part of the charity action:

Poster competition – read more HERE

Raise It Up T-shirts – all the profit from the sales goes to Wonder Foundation – a charity that is dedicated to empowering vulnerable girls and women through education. They work with locally-led partners around the world to help women, girls and their families access the education and support they need to exit poverty, for good. You can purchase the T-shirt HERE. (5£ from each purchase go to the charity)

If you can’t / don’t want to purchase the T-shirt but would like to still support our project, you can send a donation (even a small one – we are grateful for everything) through this website: www.florenceandthemachine.pl/raiseitup/donate

We raise it up for justice. We raise it up for freedom. We raise it up for equality. We raise it up for love. We raise it up for WOMEN.

Let’s join #TimesUp and #MeToo! The action’s official hashtags are #RaiseItUpPoland and #RaiseItUpForWomen!