We live in complex and uncertain times
We live in complex and uncertain times. Everything seems to go faster. We are dominated by short-term concerns rather than a long-term vision, and the strong desire to “have” versus the deep aspiration to “be”. The growing concern about what is ours instead of the empathy with the most vulnerable, no matter their origin.
We need to rethink the way we are building our future
We need to rethink the way we are building our future. For that, the Fair Saturday Foundation considers there are two essential elements to build fairer and more developed societies: culture and empathy. These are the two ingredients that dignify us and that contribute to humanised development based on science’s progress. In short, what we define as a better world.
Fair Saturday is a small idea that wishes to contribute to this. We aim for nothing less than to make people think, to generate a positive impact through culture and through the people’s need to be responsible for the creation of a better world.
Fair Saturday Scotland, a day to boost arts, culture and social empathy
Fair Saturday Scotland is our contribution to the international celebration of Fair Saturday which is a global mobilisation that aims to create a positive social impact following Black Friday, the greatest expression of consumerism. Artists and cultural organisations from across Scotland and all around the world will get together in a global festival with one requirement: to support a social cause of their choice through their event.
How do events support social projects?
- Highlight the work of the social project.
- Help them spread their message through their communication channels and give them some time before the show to share it with the audience.
- Generate funds for the chosen project by freely and voluntarily donating part of the value generated through the event (tickets, donations, etc.).
So what is St Andrew’s Day and why is it being linked to Fair Saturday?
St Andrew’s Day is Scotland’s National Day and takes place on 30 November each year. In addition to a national events programme, many of which showcase the arts, for the last few years people across Scotland have taken the opportunity to also reach out and help others less fortunate as part of the celebrations of St Andrew’s Day. So there’s a great fit with Fair Saturday and lots of potential to harness their joint potential
Many artists, cultural organisations and social projects are joining from all across Scotland and around the world
Fair Saturday by Antonio Garrigues Walker
Honorary Chairman of Garrigues and Honorary Spanish President of UNHCR
The idea is good and profound and positive and joyful. It is an appropriate idea for young people and for those who feel their mind is young. And those are the ones who set it in motion. This is about discovering the value, the importance and the grace of culture and connecting it with the immense desire for culture of a society that want to be responsible.
Black Friday has its thing and its how and its reason for being. It has managed the consumption’s vertigo to perfection, manipulating it with an impressive and overwhelming efficacy. It holds its place with a slight – very slight – effort. It leads an unstoppable flow and most of the times it achieves to confuse what we have with what we are. This absurd fever is also part of the human being.
The Fair Saturday movement wants to do just as much in its own way, with other objectives. It wants to take on the world of feelings, of sensations, of ideas, of hope and of some specific dreams that cannot be tackled down or put aside. And for that, the path is quite simple. To fill for one day our venues and every corner of the cities that need to breathe and feed on new winds with cultural activities.
Every last Saturday of November we will have the right to dream together. Choirs, street artists, music bands, theatres, museums, painters, storytellers, poets, sopranos, photographers, dancers, dance schools,… amateur and professional, private and public, from here and there, young and veteran. They will start marching and they will be unstoppable. Artists and cultural organisations from all around the world performing the same day and supporting the social causes they chose. Many things will burst and this will be a sign, maybe definite, that it is possible, definitely possible, to tackle vulgarity, the narrow-mindedness, the greediness, the routine, the stupidity.
Fair Saturday will end up being a brilliant example of how culture is the only solution to dignify the democracy, to generate real wealth and to be able to aspire to a humane future. And the young people and those who feel their minds are young will have won what seemed in the beginning of the adventure – as in every worthy adventure – absolutely impossible.