A Scottish independence festival planned in Glasgow for the day before the Queen's funeral is to go ahead despite being postponed to next month over public order concerns.
The Yestival, which included music and speeches had been planned for the eighth anniversary of the independence referendum which falls on Sunday.
Former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan and Hope over Fear are among the organisers of the Yestival, which was due to be held in George Square.
But the organisers have been forced to reschedule the event after discussion with Glasgow City Council.
The Yestival organising committee said that "police concerns over public order and staffing levels" resulted in the council's permission to use George Square on Sunday being withdrawn and now the five-hour event is due to take place on October 8.
Now it has emerged a scaled down alternative Yestival is being planned for Sunday in defiance of the ban.
People have decided to gather, and fliers have been circulate to promote the new scaled down event on Sunday.
Campaigner Alan Smart,a former head of current affairs at STV and who has also run broadcasting at the Scottish Parliament, said: "Our alternative Yesty will be more spontaneous and open than the Tommy Sheridan controlled events of the recent years.
"For a start, there will be no speeches. Just music, some poetry, some spontaneity and some dancing.
"Ours will be in the 'spirit of 2014'. Just turn up and play. Fill Freedom Square with saltires, joy , and determination. No council or police permissions sought. None required "Just like Buckingham Palace. Only purposeful.
But, people of Glasgow. People of Scotland. Reclaim Freedom Square on Freedom Day. Don't let spooks working overtime for the House of Windsor take our day away.
"Let Westminster Tories know Scotland's no longer their slave."
The Crossgate Centre Scottish independence community hub said there were still some going to George Square "to make the point that we will not be told in our own country that we cannot rally for independence".
Blogger and pro-independence campaigner Craig Murray the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, has supported the move to carry on regardless.
"We are not going to be banned by Police Scotland for campaigning for independence - or against the monarchy," he said.
The Scottish Resistance is also going to be in George Square to "champion Scottish independence".
"We in the Scottish Resistance and other Scottish patriots will be in Freedom Square to show we will champion Scottish independence and our civic inclusive nationalism and will not be intimidated by anybody," said a spokesman.
The Proclaimers were among the acts backing the original event, with brothers Craig and Charlie Reid recording a video clip urging people to in Glasgow on Saturday October 8th, let’s hear the whole square singing this Independence anthem loud and proud, this is the lyric video"get along" to the gig "and encourage and move us forward in our fight for independence".
The city council has said that permission had not yet been granted, so it was not technically withdrawn and was not aware of any dialogue with the police regarding public order.
Police Scotland said it had not been approached about the festival and referred inquiries to the council.
The block on Yestival came a matter of days after two people were charged after being arrested for a breach of the peace during a proclamation ceremony publicly announcing King Charles III as the new monarch.
Ahead of the ceremony, republican campaigners urged those attending the event to object to Charles being made monarch without "public ascent or mandate".
Police have said that people “absolutely have a right to protest” against the monarchy following the death of the Queen.
The Metropolitan Police issued the statement following a viral video from Parliament Square in central London, when a barrister who was holding up a blank piece of paper was asked for his details by an officer.
The Yestival committee said in a circular to supporters: "Like many independence campaigners we are disappointed that we cannot assemble on the historically significant date of 18th September, eight years exactly since our first referendum, but we are going to assemble on the 8th of October only three days before the Supreme Court in London meets to deliberate over the Scottish Government request for legal permission to hold IndyRef2 on 19th October next year.
"It is an ideal opportunity for the independence movement all across Scotland to come together with one voice and declare loud and clear that no unelected judges or unrepresentative Tories in Westminster have the right to deny Scotland her basic human right to vote on her constitutional future after the principal party of independence in Scotland has won convincingly five consecutive general elections, three UK General Elections and two Scottish General Elections, since our first referendum in 2014."
Included among the acts due to take part in the festival was singer Sandi Thom and Port Glasgow rockers The Ronains.
An online fund-raiser for the event by the organising team only raised £430 through the gofundme portal.
The fundraiser stated that the costs for the even amount to nearly £4,000.
The fundraiser details stated: "Cost include, but are not limited to, a 6m x 5m mobile truss stage – 5m roof height, 16Kva silent diesel generator, NOVA Elite + line array PA system and full back line. £2472.00. Safety barriers - £339.40 + vat = £406.40. Section 89 - £295.00. PL insurance - £300,00. Possible van hire, fuel, and other consequential costs - £400.00. TOTAL - £3873.80"
The committee's circular continued: "In a parliamentary democracy such electoral triumphs constitute a cast iron mandate to hold IndyRef2 at a time of our choosing. The democratically elected Scottish Government has named 19th October 2023 as the date for IndyRef2 and published the required Bill in Parliament to facilitate that referendum. We must assemble in our thousands to demand our right to vote. We cannot accept rulings and dismissals from appointed judges and a Prime Minister with absolutely no democratic mandate in Scotland.
"So let's turn a negative into a positive. We are not assembling on Sunday, but we will assemble on Saturday 8th October to declare for Scotland’s freedom to choose her own destiny. Gather on that day and be entertained by the galaxy of talented independence musicians and inspired by speeches from across the independence movement.
"We have our date with destiny. It is 19th October 2023. Demand the right to vote on that day for a new, fairer, more democratic, and nuclear weapon free Scotland no longer held back by the corrupt and rotten Westminster chains of exploitation and domination."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel