Oxjam, the month-long, UK-wide music festival held in aid of Oxfam, celebrates its 10th anniversary this October, and Scotland, as ever, is playing its part, with volunteers across the country putting on scores of gigs to raise money to fight poverty around the world. Things kicked off on Thursday night in Ayr with an Oxjam Battle of the Bands at Harley’s, but the bulk of events are happening this weekend.
In Edinburgh, Oxjam will be taking over the Old Town on Sat 15 Oct. Five venues will be hosting an eclectic range of bands and spoken word performers, with a mix of genres from psychedelia to reggae to hip-hop. BrewDog and a pop-up stage on Grassmarket will be home to singer-songwriters and acoustic acts, while Stramash will be welcoming larger bands like Numbers Are Futile.
Things are even more varied at Paradise Palms, where classic harpist Esther Swift and avant-garde solo vocalist and percussionist Kapil Seshasayee will be performing, and spoken word gets its spotlight at the Grassmarket Community Project with sets from brand-new Edinburgh performance prose night Interrobang, Made In Scotland recipient Amy Duncan, and The Wee Review spoken word favourites The Loud Poets.
A wristband (£8 in adv, £10 on the door) will get you into the lot.
Over in Glasgow, the CCA will be the hub and the place to get your wristbands for a line-up that sprawls across ten venues and a line-up that includes Sea Bass Kid, SUPA & Da Kryptonites, The Twistettes and Jackal Trades. Dundee’s Oxjam is more chilled with some jazz in their Oxfam shop on Sun 16 Oct, and Aberdeen’s Oxjam takeover takes place at The Bobbin on Tue 25 Oct.
An opportunity to catch new music and raise some money to combat global poverty – you can’t say fairer than that.