Celebrate your streets with a day of loud music, fresh food, and outdoor activities.
Live + Breathe is a free one day event in Southwark Park, celebrating South London’s music, community, and culture. We’re here to make some noise about things we live and breathe outdoors – without the air pollution.
Get Free TicketsSaturday 18th June, 12pm – 6pm
Southwark Park Bandstand
By rail: Closest stations are Bermondsey (Jubilee), Canada Water (Overground), and South Bermondsey (Southern Rail)
By bus: 1, 47, 188, 381, C10, P12
Santander Bikes at Rotherhithe Roundabout and Bermondsey Station
Grab Your TicketBorn N Bread (NTS)
Elsa (Set Pace) | Rebel Clash (aka MC Rage/Rinse FM)
Mark Ashley-Dupe (Peckham’s Finest) | Shumba Youth
Poetic Unity | Loie (Set Pace)
NEONelevate | Jahmar Ngozi + Ben Wickramasurya
Hosted by Love Ssega + Claira Hermet
Peace Ballers | NEONelevate | Poetic Unity
TheRAPutix | Art4Space | CeCe Roller Skates
Megan Garfitt Christensen | Tia Buana-Cokes
All Ages
1.30pm - 2.30pm
Ages 11-18
12pm - 3pm
All Ages | All Day Long
Join On The Day
All Ages
2.30pm, 3.30pm, 5pm
Ages: 5 - 25
4pm, 45 min
All Ages
3pm
Skaters. Cyclists. Runners. Commuters. We should all be able to breathe clean air. But Lambeth & Southwark have some of the worst air pollution levels in London. Whenever we’re outside in our communities, we’re risking our health.
Air pollution can make it difficult to breathe, it can damage our organs, cause asthma and heart attacks, cause long term health conditions, and other life threatening diseases.
But it isn’t the same for everyone. Black, Asian and other ethnicities are excessively affected by air pollution. Because of where we live, communities of colour experience the health impacts of toxic air first.
Ella Kissi-Debrah was the first person in the UK whose cause of death was ruled as due to toxic air pollution. She was 9. She lived in South London too.
Air pollution is a social justice issue. The people whose health is the most affected do the least to contribute to the problem. An estimated 36,000 people die every year due to the effects of air pollution in the UK.
This is the air that surrounds us every day. And it’s attacking everyone’s right to live and breathe freely. We are coming together to demand change.
In 2021, Love Ssega released ‘Our World (Fight For Air)’, a song dedicated to Ella Kissi-Debrah and the communities living on the South Circular. The song and music video brought together a huge range of people from the local area to ask them if they really cared about air pollution. The answer was a resounding: yeah!
Love Ssega is a key partner and the host of Live + Breathe 2022. Learn more about his previous music and campaign here.
Community groups from across Lambeth & Southwark have come together to ask local leaders for cleaner air. Together they have developed a letter to the Lambeth & Southwark Borough Councils with a list of demands.
This is your chance to support them.
Read the open letter below and add your name to it by completing the form beneath.
Dear councillors,
We, the communities of Lambeth and Southwark, need your help to reclaim our air.
Lambeth and Southwark have some of the worst air pollution levels in the UK. This is a problem for every single one of us who lives and breathes on our streets.
The long term effects of air pollution are felt the hardest in the Black and Brown communities of our boroughs. After the tragic role that air pollution played in the death of 9 year old Ella Kissi Debrah, it’s clear that action is needed urgently. Because if not now – when?
We know that you’ve made commitments to clean up our air, but we need to see it to believe it. As recently elected councils, it’s time to put your words into action – and fast. To live and breathe freely, we need to see some key changes now:
Space to thrive. We need more cycle lanes and walking routes, so dirty roads don’t divide us. We want green space close to our homes to clean our air and shape our communities.
A deadline for diesel. It’s time we phased out the cars that are polluting the most. We can’t live on streets that are polluted every day by harmful diesel fumes.
Shared transport first. Our community needs new ways to get around. We want fewer cars and that means councils creating positive, affordable alternatives including more priority bus routes on council roads, cycling initiatives, and shared car schemes.
We’re urging you to work together with us for change. These streets are our streets. We live here. It’s high time that we can breathe freely here.
Co-signed by:
Brixton Soup Kitchen
Choked Up
Extinction Rebellion Southwark
Fare City
Gather
Green New Deal Rising
Impact Brixton
Impact On Urban Health
Love Ssega
Mums for Lungs
Neon Performing Arts Ltd
Old Kent Road Family Zone
Peace Ballers
Peckham BMX Club
Plastic Free Peckham
RMUK Wellbeing
Ryan J. Matthews-Robinson CEO/ Founder of Poetic Unity
Southwark Defend Council Housing
Southwark Green Party
Surrey Square Primary School
The Feminist Library
TheRAPutix