The Left Field is a travelling

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

and

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

which forms part of several British festivals. The event is organised by Geoff Martin, organiser of the

Battersea and Wandsworth TUC Battersea and Wandsworth TUC is a Trades Union Council (also known as a Trades Council) covering the London Borough of Wandsworth in South West London. It is one of the best organised and resourced TUCs in the UK thanks to its trading arm BWTUC (T ...

, and sponsored by Cooperative Insurance, the

GMB union The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...

, the Amicus union, Clause IV, Ethical Threads and the

Workers Beer Company The Workers Beer Company (WBC) is a trading arm of the Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council (BWTUC) and is a British-Irish business that provides mass catering to bars at music festivals in the UK and Ireland. The WBC was set up by and i ...

. The Left Field was first designed to tackle apathy and promote

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political%20ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically in ...

and

trade unionism A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

in young festival goers at the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

in 2000. It was a regular fixture at Guilfest and

Homelands Homelands may refer to: * Homeland, native lands * Homelands (festival), British dance music festival. * Homelands (Fables), mythical lands in the comic book series Fables. * Homelands (Magic: The Gathering), MTG expansion set. * Bantustan, part ...

. It has and Glastonbury festivals, and in 2005 at the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. The Left Field has featured left-wing musicians, such as

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is ...

and Asian Dub Foundation, political comedians such as

Mark Thomas Mark Clifford Thomas (born 11 April 1963) is an English comedian, presenter, political satirist, and journalist. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' in the late 1980s. He is ...

and commentators including

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

, with a number of speeches and debates taking place at each festival. The Left Field also runs many films, for example exposing the violence in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. The Left Field also promotes campaigns and charities, such as No Sweat and War on Want.

References

External links

Left Field , Glastonbury Festival
* https://web.archive.org/web/20040404080501/http://leftfield.coop/ * https://twitter.com/theleftfield (Live blogging from The Left Field) * https://www.flickr.com/photos/glastonburyleftfield (Photos of the Left Field) * http://www.myspace.com/leftfieldglastonbury (Myspace) {{DEFAULTSORT:Left Field, The Glastonbury Festival Left-wing politics in the United Kingdom 2000 establishments in the United Kingdom