Cambel McLaughlin - Jam for Freedom: Standing for Mental Health, Peace and Choice

Show Notes and Transcript

Founder, Cambel McLaughlin joins Hearts of Oak to discuss the upcoming, and second Jam for Freedom Festival and he shares his journey as a musician and English teacher. 
We examine the roots of the movement that was created in response to COVID tyranny and lockdowns and despite challenges and arrests, Cambel remains dedicated to spreading positivity through music and has received high praise and help from the legends Eric Clapton and Van Morrison.
We explore the festival's organisation and artists, featuring the likes of our good friends Right Said Fred and the awesome Five Times August and the many workshops and talks highlighting community spirit and underlining music's role in promoting freedom and unity.

In the midst of lockdowns in June 2020, Cambel McLaughlin took his portable drum kit and speaker out to local parks to bring cheer and smiles to Londoners. 
This then developed into weekly outdoor free gigs named 'The Outside Jam' until the winter cold stopped them. In December of that year further COVID tyranny and draconian measures increased against musicians and the general population with another lockdown. 
Cambel then changed the name of his project to 'Jam for Freedom', his aim being to bring the world’s musicians together in a day of solidarity, called the ‘Jam for Freedom Day’. 
It was the first of many.
After several months of tireless touring around the UK and Ireland with pro-freedom musicians, the project received international recognition from rock and roll great Eric Clapton. 
Van Morrison’s Rhythm and Blues Foundation also supported their cause, giving funds to upgrade their modest busking rig, but what propelled the project to international awareness was Eric Clapton featuring JFF in his music video for ‘This Has Gotta Stop’. 
Cambel instantly received emails from across the world from people wanting to join in, going from having two chapters in Ireland and the UK, to having 15 and growing.

Jam for Freedom Festival 2024
August 8th- 11th | St Albans, Hertfordshire

See Right Said Fred, Joseph Arthur, Five Times August, Sons of Cream and enjoy 4 days and nights of 150+ liberating performances, workshops, panels, comedy and pantomime plus all-day children's entertainment and activities!

TICKETS   jamforfreedom.com/festival

Connect with Cambel and Jam for Freedom...
WEBSITE            jamforfreedom.com
X                         x.com/jamforfreedom

Interview recorded  22.5.24

Connect with Hearts of Oak...
X/TWITTER        x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on X/Twitter twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin 

TRANSCRIPT

(Hearts of Oak)

Hello, Hearts of Oak.

I am delighted to have a brand new guest with us today of a musical flavour, which we'll get into that, and that's Cambel McLaughlin.

Cambel, thanks so much for your time today.

Thank you so much for having me, Peter.

Great to have you on, and I've seen, obviously, the second Jam for Freedom Festival is coming up, and obviously people can find it there, jamforfreedom.com, and @JamForFreedom is the Twitter or X handle and that is from the 8th to the 11th of August in St Albans.

We'll get into all of that, but I just wanted to make sure the viewers and listeners were aware that all the links are in the description.

But if you are around and want to have a great time at three, four days with a great lineup, musical lineup, then go check out the website, have a look and be part of, It looks like an amazing three, four days.

And it was Fred Fairbrass actually messaged me and said, hey, you need to have Cambel on.

I said, oh, yes, Cambel.

I've seen the event last year, Jam for Freedom.

So, it's great to have you on, Cambel.

But before we get into that, before we get into your arrest in 2021, which is a mark that quite a number of people now carry of standing up against the authoritarian regime.

Before that do you want to just give us a little bit of your background introduce yourself before we get on to Jam for Freedom.

Yeah, thank you I'm 29 years old I was 25 years old when I started, what then became the Jam for Freedom in 2020.

I traveled for a few years playing as a musician working as an English teacher in Australia Japan and on a cruise ship; lived in London.

You know, I've kind of been around, really proud of my country, really proud of, you know, what this country means and the freedoms we have and our heritage and just traveling abroad really cemented that as a young man, and so coming back and moving to London in 2018, I think I was about maybe 23, 24, at that time.

You know, as I said really, really, proud to be from here and just was like right I'm going to work really hard.

I'm going to start focusing on music as well on the side and so I started busking in London and I was doing really well.

I was, you know, making a really good bit of change and, you know, it's really rewarding, you know, when you're jumping on the streets busking; it's kind of like the harder you work the better you work, the more money you make, and the crowds were were getting big in Leicester Square in Trafalgar Square which is where I was performing around Christmas time and other times.

So, it's really fun, and I saved all my money, and then I put all my savings savings into starting like a weddings band.

We filmed everything, you know.

I auditioned everybody, we had a really good lineup, you know, loads of different singers and sax players and, you know, it was like a nine-piece band or something like that.

And then it was march 2020 and it was just, you know, I was just about to launch it all and then all of a sudden there's this this flu apparently and everything must stop and so that that kind of confused me because I thought this is just a flu right.

It's just going to be a couple months, okay, I'll just, you know, work from home or whatever for a bit.

Can I throw in, exactly where...exactly t he same issue, we started 20th of February 2020, exactly the same.

All these great plans that get burned and you have to start over, so I understand exactly your feeling at that time

Yeah, and I just still kept that hunger, you know, I was still like I'm not gonna let this stop me, and so, I started this project called the Outside Jam around June time and it was just basically me going around with all my busking gear in a park in in East London where I lived, and just bringing a party and people would come from from the area and just just party in the park and just, you know, families;it's family friendly.

We were just trying to just raise people's spirits we weren't really...

I just believed it was just going to be a few months of, you know, people just getting over this little flu and then you know obviously the governments were planning to do a lot more than on that.

But then it evolved and we kept doing that every week, and I got musicians from all over London would come in and perform and jam and, you know, people would share the microphones and no one was really getting sick, which was funny.

And then as the lockdowns intensified in December 2020, then I changed the name of it to Outside Jam to Jam for Freedom.

And then on the day of the so-called lockdowns on December 20th, which was when the whole of the UK was locked down.

I was like, no, we're going to, we're going to do jam for freedom.

And then I did the first one in a park, same concept, you know, busking musicians coming out, although less musicians wanted to join in at that point, it was just a handful, it was really just one other drummer.

So, then I had to learn how to kind of sing a bit.

So, it was just me.

I was, you know, I was normally the drummer.

I was forced into all these different roles that I had never done before.

And then I thought, you know what, let's, let's take this a step further.

Let's travel across our beautiful country and go wherever we want on the streets in the parks and let's Jam for Freedom there and let's get musicians from all over and let's try and make it international, let's try and make all the countries of the world go out on the streets and Jam for Freedom; let's do it all together on the same day, the same week, let's make a movement.

And I just kept pushing for that idea and eventually we did go on a UK tour.

We fundraised a little bit of money to get a motor home that a few of us could could sleep in and shower in, because at that point there was no...

You couldn't even go to a hotel, right, to even, you know, you couldn't book in hotels anywhere.

So, we did that and from December, then it's the tour kicked off in January, and then it's just been going on for like three years or three and a half years I suppose and then we have got international chapters now and people are Jamming for Freedom on in different countries and 15 international chapters.

And it's just kind of developed into this festival where we really want to celebrate musicians that are free-thinking individuals and creatives and positive change makers and thinkers and workshop hosts and comedians.

And that's what we have at our festival this year so it's a massive lineup.

Sounds a world away from busking. Do you ever miss the simplicity of just going out busking and just doing that yourself?

Yeah, it was funny.

I mean, when I was always busking, I did feel a bit like, because, you know, you're playing the popular songs, you're playing, you know, the Hollywood trendy stuff.

It always felt a bit like, I don't want to play this forever.

I want to write my own music.

I want to make, you know, make something different. And so...

I couldn't really go back to it now, because it doesn't feel right to me.

But I mean, yesterday, no, it wasn't yesterday, two days ago, we did a gig in support of Press Freedoms and Julian Assange.

So, we played outside the courtroom there and we kind of just freestyle.

So, we might play like another Brick on the Wall by Roger Waters and then we might just adjust the lyrics, you know, about certain things.

So yeah, I mean we kind of, we might, use old songs and then freestyle it, so we kind of have that element of what busking was and the simplicity, but we just kind of bring it and adjust it, I suppose.

mean it it sounds like a very natural thing for a musician to want to share their music but obviously uh 2021I've I followed it and you got arrested.

What was your crime?

Yeah, so that was part of the UK tour um and that was in February 2021, that was our first UK tour with the motor home, and I got arrested and accused.

I mean there was there was a few hundred people of us in a park having a good time and I think it was it was organized.

It wasn't organized by me, but it was organized, I don't know, maybe a few days before: everyone let's go to this park in East London and West London.

And so I turned up there with some amps and my drum kit and an Irish guitarist called Alan and some other musicians jumped on, and it was just me and a few other people that I had personally invited, but I got arrested and accused of organizing the whole thing, which I didn't, and then I went to court and I was like: "I didn't do it all I just, I just posted about it the night before, hey, let's jam for freedom here."

And then it got stamped on me.

So yeah, that was really sad because, well it was a bit eye opening because, you know, the reason, one of the reasons I started Jam for Freedom is because of my scepticism of, you know, governments and their, corruption and what they're doing to Europe and what they've done to the world and what what they're still doing.

It was kind of like: oh, yeah, I was right, you know, because the judge was interrupting me.

He wouldn't let me finish.

He was saying, oh did you write your speech?

Did you write your, I can't remember what it's called, your testimonial, you know, my defence or something.

Yeah, your statement your defence.

My statement, you know, did you write that?

Oh, because I was quoting as well, previous, like law suits or litigation which proved that it wasn't a crime which was all valid and he was interrupting me and telling me: oh that's not relevant.

And even even quoting like the English constitution and talking about the right to petition which is in the commonwealth countries.

You know, you have a right to protest and that supersedes, you know, all the other laws to a degree, right?

As long as you're not disturbing peace, which I wasn't, you know, we, I just, I didn't organize it.

At the end of the day, whatever they were accusing me of, it wasn't true, but they just slapped cut on me and I got fined.

They tried to fine me for 10 grand, but we got it reduced down to about 700 odd quid.

You know, I still got a criminal conviction for jamming in a park with like five other people for about half an hour.

You know, and but, you know, it just just happened that a few hundred people had already organized and planned to go there before even the the music was was on the schedule.

It's bonkers, that court appearance it's bonkers, because uh it's what we've seen certainly over the last four years, it's the establishment looking down.

And I mean, how dare you, or able to put something together in your defence?

You're just a pleb and you're speaking to someone in the system, in the criminal system, who is of a higher echelon in society.

I think we've seen that attitude across the board in the last four years.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's just kind of ingrained in...

You know, that kind of culture and, you know, the imperialist ideas.

You know, you have to, squash the rebellions, but I don't really, you know, I don't really care about what they think and how they view me and what their views are because, you know, I believe that what we do is, is far more powerful, far more beautiful, you know, and, and it's a celebration, and you know you can't you can't stop it.

You can't stop us celebrating and having a good time and connecting and spreading the truth.

Yeah.

It's just it's never going to stop me and you know they can be whatever they want to be.

It doesn't matter.

We're going to keep going.

Well, let me bring up, this is the, there we go.

That is the poster with a lot happening, and you've packed a heck of a lot in.

And you can just see that, obviously, August 8th to the 11th.

Let me repeat that, in St Albans.

And all the, if you go onto your Twitter page or the website, everything is there.

But I mean tell us about the event, tell us about what you want to happen, maybe your experiences from the first event, what you've learned.

Tell us about the the first one, what was that like and what were your takeaways from it

I mean our schedule this year is incredible.

You can jump on our website and we've got the whole schedules there, four pages of four different days, you know, there's over 150 different artists and performances and pantomime, comedians, panellists, workshops, every morning and much more, so jump on there and you can see that poster in detail.

Yeah, it was all, I mean I did festivals in my garden growing up.

I don't have a big garden, it's just like the council house garden, but my mum was really, really kind and let us all get together.

So, I've always done festivals since I was a teenager, and I just love that energy of just people getting together that maybe wouldn't have like hung out before.

But they're just kind of like, you know, meshing and they're kind of just getting on sharing a beer.

I just I like seeing unity and peace in the world.

I think we all do, really.

And so yeah, it's been on my mind to to put on a festival for years and then with Jam for Freedom happening it was part of my my plan; okay I'm going to put on festival as soon as I can to celebrate what we're doing.

And last year we did it for the first time.

It sold out, it was it was amazing.

It was very challenging, we worked for many months to kind of get everything sorted in time and, you know, fly in a guests and organize their travel and organize accommodation and organize, you know, there's so many things that are going on.

It could have been a lot better.

We did hire...

We hired a production team and they put a main stage together, which didn't work essentially.

And we were like, you know, you're going to come and fix this.

And they were like: yeah, and then they were like, oh, actually we're going to refund you.

And then I took them to court, because they didn't give me a refund.

I mean, they had really good testimonials and clients.

I don't know what the hell happened.

Took him to court twice and I won on both hearings and they were then, they were then hit with two county court judgments, but they didn't pay me any refund or any compensation and it was a lot of money that they owed me.

So, I had to kind of shoulder all of that responsibility and that difficulty.

But we had an amazing volunteer team an amazing team that we kind of put together like in the moment like right okay we're going to make a new stage in this in this marquee and we you know we basically adapted to the whole situation but obviously when stuff like that happens we had delays but uh this year we've got Right Said Fred's chosen production team who they've worked with on tours, and they've worked with massive artists like number one chart and topping artists.

And they're called Absolute Audio Hire.

So, they're managing the whole production this year of the main stage, which is where all the big stuff happens.

And then we've got an amazing production team that's going to help run the second stage.

So, that was really challenging, but, you know, what could I do?

You know, I hired a company, paid them a lot of money, and they scanned me and I took them to court.

Then they folded their company and went into administration.

So, you know, it's just all these things.

The site we used as well, they didn't, take care of the site.

We tried to take them to court, but they had already closed their company and they were scamming people.

And it was just, yeah, it was just a shame.

But our new site has, it's got, it's got tons of space, it's, it's got enough for 5000 people, but we're keeping it nice and intimate about 500 people.

And it's gorgeous.

It's got like a river running through it.

It's a stone's throw from London and like Luton and Heathrow Airport.

So, it's super accessible for guests from all over.

So, yeah, but it was an amazing time.

Overall, it was, you know, I've got so many emails like this was amazing.

Best festival ever.

I can't wait to come back.

You know, most people have come back from last year and we're just getting through our last tickets now.

But test that organizational side, because I've been an events coordinator back donkeys ago and organized fairly sizable events, but when you look at the number of individuals you have participated; it's one thing to organize a conference with maybe six or eight speakers during the day.

You've got a whole page full and and that's a world away from simply doing the music,now you've got all the organizational side you have to arrange, and I think that most people when they come to that they have no idea really of the work that goes on behind the scenes.

So, I'm sure whenever it was finished you were; it's happened, it's done, I can put my feet up now.

Yeah, I was proud of it, you know, you have that stress, but you have the the pride that you've done it I mean.

I guess from playing on, it kind of what, I'm a bit seasoned for the pressures and the stress from from playing on.

The streets and having police follow you and trying to arrest you, and you know, to stay calm and deal with that pressure.

I mean we had gigs when there was like 24, 27, riot police vans just encircling us, and you know, it becomes a bit of a military operation, because you have to kind of work out; right okay how long can we play for before we think they're going to come and come at us.

"Okay, let's keep let's do one more song, and you know, okay, you've got that drum, you've got that speaker, you know, you're ready to go if we need to beeline out of here, and we've we've done that stuff, so it becomes like, you know, it became kind of like second nature to deal with that pressure.

Also, these these musicians that we work with.

I mean, I know most of them, like I've played with them.

I toured with them, you know, I know them all like and I have an amazing volunteer team and, like amazing stuff that have worked with me and talk with me and toured with these artists.

So, there's loads of cross-pollination with all these musicians from across the world, Of course, England and the UK that we all kind of know each other.

And we all kind of  have got used to that pressure of of the Jam for Freedom gigs, and kind of everything goes on with it, but but yeah; as well as well with the speakers.

You know, I mean, we've done like almost 500 well over 500 shows across the world and that's led to all these different people that I've met and slept at their houses and on their sofas and their spare rooms and, and they're all part of the festival.

Like amazing staff who worked with me, tour with me,

So, it's a real massive community of people from America, Ireland, Europe, etc.

I we've got some Australians coming that are just happening to be in England this year that have done Jam for Freedom shows.

Yeah, it's intense, but at the end of the day it's a beautiful experience and it's a beautiful community, and yeah, I just hope that hope you guys can all come.

We've got really limited tickets now, so jump on, and get the last shoe.

Yeah, 100 percent, we're doing this just a day before it goes out, but certainly I'll repeat: everyone one go and and get tickets and make sure you're you're part of that.

Tells about the people you've met, I mean I've, to me, actually the last four years learning experience for me, media, you're obviously doing these massive events, and it's all about the people you meet, and they're phenomenal people who maybe wouldn't have crossed before, because you're doing one area and they're moving a different area, traditionally, you may not have crossed paths, but because of what we've faced the last four years, it's kind of standing shoulder to shoulder people who you may not agree with everything, but actually there's a lot you can work together on.

And that issue of freedom, free speech, freedom to assembly, all of that.

I mean, yeah, let us know some of those some people like I, you've obviously got the Fred’s there, and I remember thinking this is surreal on the phone chatting to Fred or Richard; on and on.

I think this is just the strangest experience.

But this is what I think the last four years have opened up.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I was busking on the streets in central London.

So, you know, I was getting a lot of people following me on social media and I think I had like Pixie Lott, who's an English singer.

She like been tweeting my video or something, but yeah, it wasn't any, you know, I'm just I'm a lad from a council house, and I don't have any famous family or anything, so I mean, having tea with Eric Clapton at his house, that was pretty, that was pretty wild, because I'm kind of nervous, you know mean; like I'm just like this is just; his wife and in meeting his family, and because he, put us...

So, Eric Clapton if people don't know, he used to we well we used to do loads of live streams, so our shows we'd live stream across the world in the lockdowns and people would tune in and, you know, give them a bit of hope and something to enjoy and sometimes they'd pop down, and you you know, be part of the live stream.

Eric was following our live streams and when he saw what happened to us in Hyde park one time when the police ambushed us and damaged some of our equipment and pushed people over and it was I think it was in march maybe it was April 2021, so he was watching that, he donated to help us repair some equipment and then we had a car that was donated; a little people carrier a little cheap cheapo vehicle.

There was a problem with that, it got written off, then I said: Eric can we borrow a van or something and yeah he lent us a tour bus basically um so I went and met him got the tour bus um you know he was just he's just a big fan of us and he was writing music whilst watching our live streams he wrote like the guitar solo to wherever all the rebels gone which he did with van Morrison.

Yeah, I mean that was that was pretty cool to have like Clapton be a fan of what we do and you know.

Hang out with him and go to a studio.

Completely unexpected, you know, because I'm a drummer, and his drummers, and the drummers that he played with are like people I based all my playing on.

So yeah, I mean there's others as well I mean just when we when we go when we go on tour and and i remember state when we went into Edinburgh and we do our gig and then we go halfway through: by the way we don't have any work to stay tonight could someone put us up, you know.

And it just always worked, and so I just never thought, I know, I don't need to plan, where I know I know someone's got a spare room or sofa, and this couple put us up and the woman; beautiful house, they, you know, so we got the proper like Scott's hospitality, it was just, we were so blessed.

You know, the wife was a an ex-head teacher still teaching and then the husband was like an oil rig engineer kind of supervisor type role, you know, he would I don't know, you know, they were smart, really, you know really smart people, and that was the thing is, we'd meet all kinds of people, you know, from all walks of life that, you know.

Perhaps I wouldn't have really kind of got on with or maybe had much common ground with, but all of a sudden we had this common ground because we were all in it together to spread that message out there on the streets and in the parks and have a good time when the police would come up to me and go: excuse, you know, in my ear, when I'm playing in Edinburgh, there's a video of it.

And the police policeman comes up and he goes: can you, I need you to ask people to social distance.

And I go, that's not my job, mate.

Freedom!

Just keep going.

You know, we're all in it together.

We're all just, just having a good time.

So yeah, it's been fascinating and you know, you do meet tons of people on the road and and you know the Assange show a couple days ago, you know, I saw people I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

It's a really nice community, so yeah, good on us all for for getting out there and meeting people when we were supposed to just stay in and as one of my friends, well I was not a friend anymore, he said: I should just sit inside and just eat some biscuits.

I'm like no, I'm going outside, I'm gonna go on a tour mate.

Yeah screw that idea.

I think we've seen a lot of information coming out about the totalitarian regime that we all live under and so you watch individuals giving giving speeches, I mean, I know you've got Tess Lawrie coming in.

I've watched her many times and had her on, but then it's kind of a departure into then looking at comedians and how comedy is used to engage and then looking at how music is used to engage and maybe, I'm kind of thinking more information, so this is about a speech or a presentation that's kind of my background in politics and all of that, but this is something very different.

Give us an insight of how music then, I guess, captures people in a in a completely different way than standing up and maybe doing a presentation which we think well, that's where you get a message across.

Yeah, yeah.

I think it can all be part of the same, you know, it's all part of the same like kind of sphere I suppose.

I mean, I guess when I've, you know, being really proud of my country and being a patriot and, you know, and spending time listening to videos and history and hours and hours of reading, you know, that kind of gives me that foundation of going, you know what, Jam for Freedom is a good idea and I'm going to do it, you know, back in 2020.

So, having that foundation of of that kind of knowledge, and you know, I'm always learning you know, you never know enough do you, but I think that the festival itself is it's kind of a celebration of what how, you know, that that is how Jam for Freedom started.

It started from knowing what; knowing good knowledge, wanting to know more, wanting to do the right thing, wanting to stay healthy, through watching speeches and reading panels and reading books and presentations and stuff.

And then the music is really that kind of icing on the cake, just, you know, so to speak, the cherry on top ,and so yeah we need the whole thing.

The really good thing about our festival program is it's curated in a way so that in the mornings you have the workshops; which is yoga, Falun gong, which you might know about is censored in in communist china.

So, we have all these kind of like...

We're trying to bring like indigenous ideas and and kind of really will help people relax and get healthy so you've got that in the morning um and then it goes into the panels, and then kind of in between the panels there's a break and then some of the music start so you can see all the panels you can do all the workshops and then you can still have like six seven eight eight, nine hours of live music and partying, you know, approximately, it might be a little bit, you know, around that timeframe. So you can have all of it, you know, and if you don't want to watch maybe one of the panels, well, there's an act on, there's an opera singer on, or there's, you know, you don't want to watch one of the live acts, you know, that's a different flavour. You can just watch some comedy.

You know, we've kind of curated it in a way so that you can fit in as much as possible, that you could basically see 90% of it.

And not miss not miss any of it.

Yeah so, that's my view on it and that's what we're bringing this year.

I want to finish off on on the issue of finance, because we live in a world where people are used to getting things for free whether it's media, news, interviews music, people now expect everything free and it's interesting in having that conversation with people to point out that actually everything has a cost.

And obviously putting on a festival like this, it doesn't come free unless someone owns a huge castle and wants to put it on on their ground to pay for it, that there are a lot of costs to put it on.

Just finish on that, because I think it's important that we, who believe, in actually freedom buy into it.

And that does mean buying into it with the money we have available, as well as our time and publicizing these events.

Yeah absolutely.

Yeah, know, where you put your money is where you put your vote in in effect, to the society that you want to build, and you know, in your children's future.

So yeah, support Hearts of Oak and support you know all the great causes that that that are close to your heart because it helps build a better world, and yeah, it is expensive to do what we do you know and to do what you do Peter, you know, with your studio and, you know um you know all the costs attached to it same with the festival it's a huge expense.

But you know we keep costs as low as possible and, you know, the food and drinks affordable, and whatever you know, the ticket the tickets support the musicians: pay for their pay for their travel, pay for their costs, pay for the, you know, comedians pay for the panellists, pay for the workshops, and in the morning and and everything, you know.

So you know you're you're in effect supporting people that support you that support a better world, um and we need to strengthen that and we need we need to be unafraid of creating an alternative economy that um can can rival the mainstream economy um and I've always championed that I've never been afraid to think that and you know even before I was doing jam for freedom

One Christmas, I think it was 20 the Christmas 2019, I challenged myself and I said: right, every gift I buy for my family members is going to be made in the UK and I don't know how much spent, 300, 400 pounds or something, you know, on all these gifts for my family, and I found it all.

The sheepskin shoes made in Devon, you know, the soaps made in in England, the socks made in Yorkshire etc etc.

So I've always been a champion of like. kind of, that you know that we can build our own economies that we can put our money where our mouth is.

With Jam for Freedom, this is a British institution I suppose, it's a British idea, it started here, support it, it's grown across the world, and you know, we're in talks to-do other festivals in in other countries, but yeah, support it, help us grow, and yeah, put your money where your mouth is guys.

It will come back to bless us all and bless the future.

Yeah, I'm sorry one more question, but last one about; so people are thinking of turning up, they're thinking actually, I have kids, I don't know if they can come, I don't know if I can just come for the day, or if I can stay there, camp there, kind of what's the deal with some of those practical questions that people may have?

Yeah, we have day tickets.

We have camping tickets.

We have tickets for people that live local and want to just pop in each day. We have spaces for camper vans, motorhomes.

There's a massive campsite for tents.

We have glamping options.

So, if you just want to come and have a tent all built for you with a proper bed and, you know, it's kind of like a hotel.

It's like a hotel, they're beautiful, that's all there.

We do free tickets for children under 12, um and if you're a carer um of someone that's disabled then you can come for free you just need to send us an email and then we'll just confirm it all so we do loads of free discounted tickets and we have a discount code as well for the last 100 tickets which are on sale now and that code is FINAL100, I believe. FINAL100, yeah.

You can find that on our social media.

And join our mailing list as well, because we do loads of shows.

And we did a really fun show a couple of days ago for Assange in London.

And we do a lot of fun, free shows as well.

Although, I've got a baby now, and I don't live in London anymore.

So, it's kind of like I live up north.

So, it's kind of logistically not as easy to put on all the free shows that we used to, the last couple of years, but yeah, we're trying to do more.

We do other stuff, look we're sponsoring The Better Way fair which is run by world council for health, and we're putting on some bands there we're running a stage, and we've got another gig in Ipswich as well at an organic pub.

So, get on our mailing list and you can see more, but yeah please do support the festival, come along, come and get the final tickets, support Peter and Hearts of Oak. and if you've got any questions just drop us an email drop us a message, because we'd love to have you part of the festival.

Wonderful.

I hope to see people there.

Make sure the viewers and listeners go jamfreedom.com.

Put your details down there so you can be kept up to date with what is happening, not just the festival, but everything else.

And do come and be a part of that in St. Albans, just north of London.

Easy to get to, as Cambel said.

And it's the 8th to the 11th. 8th to 12th or 8th to 11th?

What is it?

8th to the 11th?

Yeah,

8th to the 11th.

Yeah, 8 to 11.

Wonderful, Cambel thank you so much for coming on and sharing love what you're doing.

It's exciting bringing people together, like-minded people, and being able to I guess connect together which is what we've been told is bad and you cannot do over the last four years and it's great to see something so against what we were told to do and something so natural and normal for all of us.

Cambel, thanks so much for your time today.

Thank you Peter

Yeah, jamforfreedom.com, check out all the artists, you can listen to their music as well and see the full schedule, so we'll see you soon.

Thank you so much Peter.