So Solid Crew Are Playing a London Gig Raising Money for Refugees

Last year, in that static time before winter properly stretched out into spring, two strangers met on a trip to Greece. It wasn't peak holiday season, and they weren't about to embark on the sort of "life-affirming" week in Mykonos where shots are licked off people's nipples and British couples smelling of sunscreen pretend to fuck on bar counters, partially clothed, in the name of "very fun drinking games where the prizes are more booze." Instead, Ellie Yankah and Tania De Sousa stitched together a friendship while volunteering in Idonemi, where thousands of refugees were living in limbo on the border between Macedonia and Greece.

Conditions were, as you'd expect, grim. The pair have spoken of seeing homeless Afghani children sleeping on tattered cardboard out on the concrete of a city square in Greece while they were there. So months later, on a trip to Thessaloniki, Ellie and Tanya decided to do something about it beyond wringing their hands and giving out aid, creating a series of workshops and programmes to help give displaced families the tools to move their lives forward. The pair named it the Hope Project. And in London next Friday 11 August, they're putting on Dance for Hope, a fundraiser that'll help them keep the project going at a time when civil war and violence continue to drive millions of people from their homes.

"This is a humanitarian crisis – we're dealing with humans," Ellie says. "Tania and I have always believed the only way we could really help displaced people was by treating them like exactly that. If they need a meal, give them the food and let them cook a meal. If they need a table, show them how to build one. That was the ethos behind Hope Project."

The line-up alone is reason to come down: actual So Solid Crew are due to play, as are Footsie, DJs Jamz Supernova and Ellie Prohan, and many more, while Julie Adenuga and JYOTY will host. The money raised will go directly to the Hope Project centre, Ellie Yankah says: "Without fundraisers like these we wouldn't be able to keep the doors open. We rely solely on donations and don't receive any funding from bigger organisations or the government. The money raised is spent on rent, electricity, food, water, bus tickets and anything else needed for the centre."

Ellie goes onto say that the project's priority has been to carve out a community where those seeking refuge "feel human again without the tags of 'refugee' or 'asylum seeker'. We wanted a space that they could facilitate themselves, from cooking, teaching to maintenance of the space." As we've seen with both the Grime Aid gig raising money for Somali refugees earlier this year, and the overwhelming response to the Grenfell Tower fire in London, so many of those in music are ready to muck in and use their platforms to try and help those in need. And if there's a party at the centre of it all, you can't really complain.

You can find out more about the Dance for Hope here, and pick up tickets here.

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