Activism and protesting can be emotionally draining sometimes. But Young Musicians For Palestine – a Nottingham-based organisation – offers events where people can enjoy themselves, while also raising money for an important cause. Amina Ali speaks to some young people who are using their platform for good.
Nottingham’s modern history of activism is stitched into the fabric of the city. From the miners’ strike in the 80s, the poll tax protestors in the 90s and the anti-EDL marches in the 2000s, there’s no denying that it should be a sense of pride for Nottingham residents.
For one group of young people, it was this sense of gathering that encouraged them to raise money in a unique way.
Young Musicians for Palestine (YMFP) is a Nottingham-based community organisation that hosts events to raise money for various charities. The events – which take place in Nottingham and Leeds – include music acts, drag acts, bake sales and craft stalls, all accessed for an affordable price.
Hamza, who makes items for the craft stall explains: “This time last year, we had a community meeting (in Nottingham) to see what people wanted to do on a local level. This was one of the outcomes.
“Getting the first event done took quite a while. Getting us all together, contacting all the venues, none of us knew what we were doing, and I was really worried about it.
“So, when it actually happened, I was like ‘oh, this is crazy.’”
Luca, who organises the events, remembers the first drag event they held for Halloween, cleverly named ‘Drag-o-Ween 4 Palestine.’
“We didn’t have unlimited time to organise something, so we had to think about who we’d be able to pull from our communities. And we had a lot of friends who already did drag,” they say.
“It went so well. So many people turned up, people bought tickets really quickly, even from communities that we hadn’t hit quite as well before. It was a really fun thing to organise.”
Since its inception in July 2024, YMFP has raised more than £6,500 for charities such as PalMed, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund and The Sameer Project, all of which raise money for displaced Palestinians.
Eleanor McGregor – who performs and organises the events – says: “There’s an incredibly supportive and vibrant music scene in Nottingham and it’s been great to utilise that for such an important cause.”
No matter the charity, Nottingham and Leeds residents from all walks of life show up to events to have fun while supporting a good cause.
Luca says: “One thing people sometimes forget is that it’s so easy to get burnt out from constantly putting all of your energy into protests and those emotional, stressful environments.”
Hamza agrees, saying: “A lot of the time when I’m with my community, it’s at demonstrations. So, it’s usually high adrenaline with lots of anger, sadness and grieving.
“It’s nice to be able to have a community event where I get to be around all my friends and have a celebration while knowing it counts towards helping the Palestinian movement.”
The organisation can always rely on its community whenever an emergency fundraiser is needed. Luca recalls organising an emergency event after Israel broke the ceasefire deal in Gaza.
“That was a quick emergency gig in Nottingham we put together to raise money really quickly,” they say.
“It was on Easter Sunday and the buses were weird. But loads of people turned up. We didn’t think that many people would turn up in that time and we ended up raising more than we thought we would.”
They raised £1,002 which was donated to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led aid initiative that supplies emergency shelter and aid to displaced families in Gaza.
“We wanted to start donating to smaller causes that were doing work on the ground and led by Palestinians,” Luca explains.
Hamza added: “We felt it was important to put the money directly into the Palestinian people’s hands rather than it trickling down.”
By donating directly to Palestinians, it can often contribute to their self-determination and autonomy. It means they get to decide where the money goes in their communities, rather than someone else doing it for them.
In a time where people can feel isolated and scared for the future, Luca and Hamza encourage others to branch out into their own communities too.
“I think a lot of people feel quite powerless in terms of activism,” Hamza says.
“But I think first and foremost they’re not powerless. What they are is isolated.
“Once you start breaking down those barriers and surrounding yourself with the community, it’s a natural part of human nature to want to keep being around the same people and keep building those connections and doing those things together.”
Strong community spirit is essential for the future of activism and organisations such as Young Musicians for Palestine ensure that spirit continues.
Hamza says: “We’re missing a lot of community spaces in our society, just in the way our society is quite capitalistic. So it’s quite nice to be able to build up those community spaces and fill that gap.”
Community spaces – also known as third spaces – are needed to ensure community spirit. There are third spaces you can pay for, such as cafés, bars, clubs or shops. But affordable or free spaces are critical to reach those who remain isolated due to their finances.
“Finding third spaces is really important to make sure you have those foundations where you can try and take your reliance off the current system a little bit more,” Luca says.
They say: “You can’t just bring down capitalism and expect everything to work perfectly. You have to have things in place already.”
This is why YMFP have recently brought in a tiered system of payment, where people can choose how much they can spend.
“We didn’t want to make our events inaccessible,” Hamza explains. “But we also want to try and raise as much as possible, so a tiered system was a good thing to bring in.”
Luca and Hamza both stress the importance of supporting causes, no matter how small you think your contribution is. Not helping is simply not an option.
“We should want to improve the world around us,” Luca says.
“I don’t really see the point in people being human and living together if we’re not going to help each other. And for this cause, just because these people are far away, I don’t think we should consider ourselves disconnected.”
Hamza says: “For me, coming from a Pakistani Afghan background and also being queer, it’s the people in my communities that have always been fighting for me to have a better life.
“The way I’ve always seen it is that this is my turn to pick that up and carry it on for the people that will be here.
“You would not be enjoying your life the way that you are today if it wasn’t for the people that came before you. So why aren’t you getting up and trying to make the world better for the people around you now?”
Organisers, stallholders and performers at all YMFP events want to use their platforms to encourage attendants to do more for Palestine.
Eleanor says: “We hope we can also be a stepping stone for people into more direct political action and try to make sure our gigs provide information on how to get more involved.”
Luca adds: “We’ve started trying to highlight to people in our gigs to support direct action as much as you can, as well as fundraising.
“There are different tiers of action that you can get involved in, with the lowest risk being boycotting. I think everyone can do that and can at least try to control where your money goes.
“Then the lower risks things are protesting, joining marches and picketing. The highest is joining something like Pal Action, which is a bit more like civil disobedience and directly targeting arms companies and people making money off the genocide.”
Hamza says: “You might feel like whatever you’re contributing isn’t that much. But every bit you do does matter.”
You can follow Young Musicians For Palestine on Instagram for information about upcoming events.