Rise Baby Rise

The right to protest is under attack worldwide.

In the UK, the PCSC Act, the Public Order Act, and the Terrorism Act are criminalising public engagement, increasing police racism and discrimination. Through these acts more protesters are imprisoned today, than there have been for generations. The crackdown on our right to move, gather and speak for social and political change has intensified. Police surveillance raiding homes, sentencing years in prison, for the simple act of bringing people together and letting voices be heard. On the day of last Rise Baby Rise in London, 900 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act for nothing more than holding signs in support of Palestine Action.

But protest is not a threat. Protest is the pulse of society.

We are grateful to those who came before us. None of the successes of the Civil Rights movement, the suffragettes, the Gay Liberation Front, or Reclaim the Streets would have been achieved without civil disobedience.

In 2023, the first Rise Baby Rise danced through London, and 4042 people joined spontaneously. In 2025, Rise Baby Rise returned to London and Glasgow. Dancing is our way of reclaiming public space, with whoever chooses to join.

We dance because the street belongs to the people.

We dance because our bodies remember.

We dance because movement writes freedom into the ground.

Come, step into the swarm.

Feel how the air changes when we share it without fear.

The city remembers our steps.

The music remembers our names.

And together, we remember that joy is ours too.