The Independence Festival is a national Annual celebration of disability arts & culture and presents some of Britain's finest disabled artists & performers.

The Festival kicked off with a march through Leeds City Centre then featured a main stage during the day in Millennium Square, along with an arts workshop and an art exhibition, plus storytelling in Leeds Central Library. In the evening there was a wonderful cabaret in The Mayoral Chambers at Leeds Civic Hall. The theme of this year's Festival was 2001 a space odyssey: the future for disabled people.

Stars of the Independence Festival Leeds 2001 included: Terry Simpson, Clair Lewis, Francis Rwama, Baluji Shrivastav, Leigh Stirling, Darren Poyzer, No Excuses, Julie McNamara, Spider's Web, Johnny Solstice and Maxi T.

Arts workshop was run by Tanya Raabe and Julia Keenan.

The Independence Festival was FREE, thanks to support from Yorkshire Arts, National Lottery Charities Board, Lloyds TSB Foundation, Leeds City Council, Leeds & Holbeck Building Society & Leeds Centre for Integrated Living.

dp rates this as one of his most refreshing and enjoyable gigs of the year ... the lady on the right is Anne-Marie whose job as signer is to translate the songs for the benefit of people who are hard of hearing ... the process of having your songs translated is a strange feeling indeed!

Manchester poet Clair Lewis turned songwriter for the day and was truly inspirational ... dp quoted her performance as being a key point in the making of a highly successful and uplifting festival

Credit to the two gentlemen here who played two stunning sets during day and early evening on sitar and tablas ... Baluji Shrivastav is the sitar man!

Leigh Stirling was on this occasion joined by guitarist Simon Cottingham and as ever was dynamic and overwhelming in both musical ability and stage presence ... despite being acquainted for over 12 years, this was the first time Leigh and dp had played at the same event in over 10 years!