Leeds Zine Fair November 2010

Leeds Zine Fair:  13th November 2010  

The first ever Leeds Zine Fair (that we know of) brought together hundreds of people from Leeds and all around the country in a celebration of self publishing, resistance cooperation and all things DIY.  

The day was buzzing as people met, browsed, found new zines and shared ideas and enthusiasm for projects ranging from the profoundly political to the patently puerile and the queer and quirky.  There were over 40 stalls with individual zine stalls, zine distros, handmade crafts, campaigns and radical
collectives, art, vegan cake and veggie burgers, anarchist books and a record player playing aural oddities from the Black Dogs art collective.   

At the zine reading we were moved to tears by stories from protest camp evictions (Scale Trees Distro) and people suffering from homophobic abuse in prison (Bent Bars). We laughed at theories on the influence of facial hair on revolutionary thinkers (Godhaven Ink) and Venn diagrams describing the optimum pub quiz team (The Venns), and gasped in horror at the tales of severed hands sticking out of the rubble on a building site on Burley Road (Necronomicon).  

Workshops took place throughout the day. Talky workshops discussing setting up workers cooperatives, guerilla gardening, and taking direct action, and practical workshops putting together a zine-in-a-day and making collaborative comics.   Dissident Island went around the event  and interviewed stall holders about their projects. You can check out the interviews with Footprint, On’t Road, Urban Harvest, Wor Diary, Bent Bars, Last Hours and the Print Project. (http://www.archive.org/details/InterviewWithDomFromUrbanHarvest)


Thanks to all the workshop leaders, stall holders, volunteers,  caterers, cake bakers, zine readers and people who came along for making the event such an inspiring day and to Leeds University Union and Green Action for hosting the event.  

The event was inspired as a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Footprint Workers Coop and it was really motivating to all of us, ten years on, to see all of the amazing projects and people that we work with meeting and sharing ideas and inspiration. Thank you all.  

Stall Holders: