HISTORY
Freedom of the City is the UK's premier festival of new and improvised music, and one of the most important festivals of its kind in the world.
Founded in 2001 by percussionist Eddie Prévost, saxophonist Evan Parker, and Emanem label boss Martin Davidson, Freedom of the City showcases the often overlooked excellence and diversity of new and improvised music in London. It has established itself as an annual event (with an unexpected and unwanted absence in 2008) which brings together the best of London's improvising community, with welcome guests from elsewhere. Their support is always at their own expense and is a remarkable show of solidarity.
Freedom of the City is one of the few artist run music festivals, and the fact that it is organised by and for musicians means that music is its sole consideration, and it is not dressed up in flashy but ill fitting marketing conceits and fashionable concepts, as it is in some other festivals. What you hear at Freedom of the City is what the musicians want you to hear and nothing else. No special demands are made of them, no templates imposed, no rhetoric or theories foisted upon them - they are simply given a space in which they can be free as musicians and you, the audience, are invited to share that freedom with them.