On 21st June, the ratcheted-rental-threatened London Eye shames its greedy landlords (the South Bank Centre) by hosting a special event to raise awareness of Third World Debt and its attendant trade issues.
Flight 5065 aims to promote Cafedirect's Fairtrade range and to raise awareness of the issues prior to the G8 conference, which takes place 6th-8th July and has the African economy on its agenda for discussion. Make Poverty History is one of the organisations with a particular interest. For the pinko liberal demographic on the Londonist staff, this is an exciting proposition: good cause + culture = bed-wettingly good thing.
In essence, each of the 32 pods of the Eye will become a mini-venue, to host a 30-minute gig of some sort for 20 people, be it music, theatre or comedy. Currently the acts as confirmed on the official Flight 5065 site are: Damon Albarn curating new African music with his Honest Jon's label, to Beth Orton, Turin Brakes, and hip hop artist Jonzi D; from the National & Royal Court theatres to cutting edge companies Shunt & Recorded Delivery and young British and African playwrights being produced for the very first time; from Arthur Smith & Junior Simpson to new political comics Andy Zaltzman & John Oliver amongst many, many other names.
Tickets are available from Ticketweb, priced £21. You can choose 'departure' times of 7.30pm, 8.15pm or 9pm but you must make sure you're there 15 minutes prior to whichever time you book. As far as we know, The Departure aren't playing.
You can't book specific gigs, you have to take your chances, but it's all for a good cause anyway, and if you're really bored you can just take in the London skyline and play 'spot the building from the Londonist logo'. (No whinging about the lack of Gherkin in the comments, please.)
