By David Hennessy
Shout London, the mental health and arts festival from Ashford Place, returned for its third outing at the weekend.
For the first time the event took place at the new location of Wac Arts in Belsize Park and the two days of screenings, live performances and discussion were followed by the very first Shout awards to honour outstanding work by those working in the field of mental health.
Shout London launched for the first time in 2022 when Michelle Collins and Gail Porter launched the event at Kiln in Kilburn and The Crown Hotel in Cricklewood.
The festival returned last year and has since spread to other cities with Shout Liverpool being the first festival of its kind to take place outside London.
There are now plans for Shout Wales.
The programme boasted short films, poetry walls, spoken word, music and an art exhibition showcasing a range of creative talents and shining a light on various mental health conditions.
Ashford Place CEO Danny Maher told The Irish World: “We’ve had two really good days.
“Over the two days, we had a really good mix of films, dancing, music, poetry, stage performances and it just all clicked.
“It was really very positive, energetic.
“We’re going to roll on to the next Shout now and fully energized after the last few days.
“We’re looking to travel to Wales next year and back to Liverpool again, that will be for ‘25 and who knows where we’ll be in 2026.
“We’re certainly going to keep taking this show on the road and connect with as many people as possible to help us to achieve our ambition of changing the conversation.
“Thanks to The Irish World for their brilliant support of Shout over the last three years.
“Without you, we wouldn’t be here so we really appreciate and recognise your support.”
Councillor Samata Khatoon, Mayor of Camden, told The Irish World: “I’m honoured to be here at Shout London.
“Organiser Carey Fitzgerald established this organization two years ago and since then, they’ve been running this.
“I’m absolutely delighted with the incredible work they have been doing over the years.”
Shout patron and actress Michelle Collins told The Irish World: “It’s great. It’s the third year that it’s been going and I think anything to do with mental health is just so relevant these days.
“It’s just great that we can applaud people who are part of this festival.
“It’s a great two days of creativity, poetry, talk, singing, dancing, everything, and it’s about bringing people together and people telling their stories.
“It’s more important today than I think it’s ever been talking about people’s mental health.
“I’m really proud to be a patron.
“I’ve got a charity that I am a patron of called PEDS who are receiving an award tonight and what they do is just incredible for the eating disorder community.
“I’m really proud.
“I think a lot of particularly young people are really suffering with their mental health and if they know that they can reach out and talk about it and there are people that they can talk to.
“It’s great to celebrate all these people tonight as well. So see you next year.”
The two day festival kicked off with choreographer and dancer Veena Storm V bringing the energy of Bollywood to the stage.
Veena then participated in a discussion on coping with grief, where she was joined by Ellie Marron, director of Knuck and Knuckle which also screened. Knuck and Knuckle is the true story of boxer Lee Reeves who turned to his passion for boxing to cope with his mother’s suicide.
Veena told The Irish World: “I’m very honoured to be invited here. It’s an eye opener and I’m glad to share my story as well.
“I think this is a new era, people are speaking so freely about this.
“Ten years ago, no one used to speak about it, it was all about hidden behind the doors.
“But today, I think meeting strong women and seeing their acts was just absolutely amazing. I felt comfortable talking about it and knowing that we all are getting the right message and the right path.
“My mum passed away, my husband passed away. Everything was paused.
“I was paused and I saw life just going by.
“I couldn’t think forward.
“People were talking to me but I’m not hearing them. I’m walking in a no man’s world.
“This has given me hope.”
Ellie Marron said: “It’s been a really amazing experience here. We’re so thankful to have the film screened for such an important festival like this one opening up the conversation about mental health.
“It’s great what Shout are doing here.”
This was followed by live music and spoken word from Kitty Churchfield.
Kitty Churchfield said: “It’s been amazing actually.
“There’s so much going on, it’s really amazing to actually see all these people having these really open discussions.
“It’s been really, really inspiring to listen to their stories and listen to what they’ve been through and how they’ve created that into something else, and that is their art and their creativity.”
There was then poetry by Dia Tuncer and comedy from Marigold Lately.
There was a panel discussion chaired by Pinks where Dia, Kitty and Marigold discussed abuse and trauma.
Marigold Lately said: “I really support this event and it’s great to perform here and also meet the other artists that are performing.
“It’s a really great event.
“I would highly recommend it.
“It (my material) is all about opening conversations and also challenging the perceived narratives on mental health.
“I just think that’s something that needs to happen continuously until a mental health issue is the same as a broken leg, regarded that way and it still isn’t.
“We just need to keep doing that.
“With mental health, it’s not always regarded as debilitating and it can be.
“Well, it can end people’s lives obviously. So we need to have those conversations and something like Shout festival is an amazing platform for that.”
The feature film Black People Don’t Get Depressed addressed the stigmas of mental illness in Black and African communities.
There was poetry from Sydney Conteh and then a screening of the new short film Falling Upwards from Maria McAteer.
Maria McAteer said: “I’m really grateful and I actually have to thank Shout London because it was Shout that actually inspired me to make this film.
“I thought what I’d like to do is make a film about DDD (Depersonalisation Derealisation Disorder).
“I didn’t give myself much time but the date of the Shout festival was my aim, and people loved it.
“I’m really pleased at the way it turned out and it’s there for people to learn about DDD.”
The first day was brought to a close with music from Neil Avery and Sacha Wood.
Day 2 started with a screening of the documentary Unspoken about the hidden crisis of eating disorders amongst Irish males, and the public health system which is currently failing them.
There was then live music from Becky! Before a panel discussion where Sue Rattle and Mandy Scott from PEDS (Personalised Eating Disorders) and Becky! Discussed eating disorders.
Sue Rattle of PEDS said: “It’s an absolute privilege to be here and it’s lovely to hear other people’s stories. It’s really special.”
Mandy Scott added: “I think there’s a lot that we can do together with Shout to continue to raise awareness of mental health and in particularly for us eating disorders and early intervention.
“Our youngest service user has been age four, and our oldest service user has been aged 84 so it just shows that eating disorders don’t discriminate. They can affect any one of us at any point in our lives. And it’s really important that we keep helping people to come forward and to say when they’re not okay.
“Days like this are so important in helping the general public understand.
Becky! told The Irish World: “I feel really honoured to be part of this today because it’s such an important thing.
“It’s something that I’m still getting used to, sharing my story but I’m really glad that I did and that we’re having these important discussions.
“A few years ago, I would not have been able to envisage me standing here today and doing all of this.
“I hope that my story does show other people that there is hope and they can get themselves to a place that they can’t envisage right now.”
Maddie Kitchen of Sobriety Films discussed addiction and there was a panel discussion on DDD and depression featuring Maria McAteer, Sacha Wood and Sydney Conteh.
Depersonalisation Derealization Disorder (DDD) is when people feel like they come out of their bodies, it is often triggered by trauma.
Sacha Wood said: “I’m excited and just really happy to be back with Shout again.
“This is my second Shout London.
“Just last year, it was amazing to meet Maria McAteer because she has experience of DDD as well.
“That was amazing. And then this year one of our resident artists, Jacob, and he was in the crowd, and sort of took part in the discussion in the Q and A as well.
“So between the couple of years we’ve had more people involved who also want to talk about their experience.
“So it’s more people, new perspectives, new pieces of art and everything.
“It’s super exciting. I love it.
“Social media and the internet has its negatives but it has brought us a lot closer together.
“It means that a lot of people would have once thought that they were just on their own.
“Now we know that we’re not.”
Lizzie Lindsay shared her poetry.
Lizzie Lindsay said: “It feels like such a privilege. I I heard about the event through VoiceBox and was really fascinated with this festival that focuses on mental health but has such a great breadth of work and talent.
“Everything I’ve seen has been such unbelievable high quality.
“I feel really, really privileged to be a part of it.
“It was the first time I’d ever read my poetry out to anyone and to do it in front of an audience was very nerve wracking.
“The minute I got up on that stage, I felt so welcomed, so encouraged and I really enjoyed it.”
There were two short films from Tracy Jenkins on the subject of isolation.
Tracy Jenkins said: “I’ve loved it. It’s opened my eyes to lots of stuff that I didn’t know. It’s been really creative. It’s been lovely meeting new people and connecting with new people. So thank you, Shout London.”
There was live music from Emily Bell and the second day was again brought to a close with music from Sacha Wood and Neil Avery.
Emily Bell said: “It’s very inspiring to hear other people’s stories about mental health issues that I didn’t really have much understanding of and it’s uplifting to see artists come together in a celebration.
“Music has helped me process a lot of things and been an outlet of expression and sometimes can reveal truths that you’re not necessarily aware of before you sit down to write.
“It’s great that we’ve got festivals like this to start a conversation.”
The festival was brought to a close with the gala event and Shout awards.
Shout founder and director Carey Fitzgerald told The Irish World: “It’s been really great to be able to recognise the people that have got us here.
“I have to thank our patron Michelle Collins because she’s really supported everything we’ve been doing from the beginning but also the award winners have really been with us the whole way, like Jon Salmon, and Rhatigan’s really help Ashford Place and the community.
“Everyone’s just been amazing.
“This is our first year of the awards. And, like everything, it’s going to grow.
“We’re just gearing up for 2025.”
On the journey form the first event in 2022 Carey said: “We started it with a wing and a prayer really the first year that Danny, Michelle and I put the whole thing together.
“It’s just grown, because everyone’s talking about mental health.
“The ladies from PEDS were just amazing today so we’re delighted that they received their award as well.
“It’s onwards and upwards.
“We’ve even had interest from Belgrade and Rome so who knows where we’re going to end up? It is a long way from Cricklewood.”
Neil Avery accepted an award for Jon Salmon of What’s Going on in your Head?
Neil told us: “I have nothing but admiration for Jon.
“I got involved with Shout through Jon and when you look at somebody like that who works tirelessly, passionately, unpaid to overcome stigmas and prejudice, I think he’s an amazing guy and deserved that award and a lot more.
“He’s really humble in what he does and does it because he absolutely believes in it, that he can make a change through his work and I’m really honoured that I can accept the award for him.”
JJ Rhatigan’s were honoured for their work around mental health in business.
Aoife Healy of JJ Rhatigan’s said: “We were thrilled to be able to support an event like this so to come here and be presented with an award was just shocking.
“And if you can see my speech, you’ll know just how shocking it was. Not shocking, surprising.
“We’re building on the old Galtymore site in Cricklewood so we reached out to Ashford place.
“Then Carey told us about the Shout initiative and Shout being a Mental Health Initiative.
“Working in the construction industry, there’s a huge combination of issues there that we wanted to kind of be involved with to pay tribute to that.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be able to support it.
“Mental health doesn’t discriminate and it affects us all equally so to be able to support it is incredible, and we’re delighted to be here and very, very proud to have gotten this.
“We can’t wait to continue working together.”
Robert Morris, who owns Silver Jubilee Park where Hendon FC play, won the award for contribution to young people through sport.
Robert told us: “I have to admit, I was completely surprised.
“I had no idea that I was going to receive an award and especially with so many distinguished guests here.
“A real honour and I’m absolutely appreciative to Shout to give me this award.
“I think using sport is a great way to engage with young people.
“We have a big problem in this country where especially young men find it very difficult to express their emotions.
“If we create a non-clinical environment, a place where it’s stigma free, where they feel comfortable, it’s amazing that they open up and that makes a big difference to them.
“The more we talk about mental health, the more we create awareness about it because there is still a stigma and especially amongst some groups.
“I work with a lot of different communities, Brent is one of the most diverse boroughs in the country, and there are certain community groups where it’s a huge taboo so the more that we can talk about it, the more that we can mention that having mental health issues is okay, the better.”
The Irish World was filming at the festival and the awards so keep looking out for our videos from the events.
For more information, go to shout.london.
For more information on Ashford Place, go to ashfordplace.org.uk.
