This is the first time ever that the London Eye has been used for a live arts festival and was sold out well in advance of its opening. It seems an African summer breeze has blown in over the UK, with weather temperatures soaring, bringing with it a feast of unforgettable experiences.

How ironic then that, as we gorge on a culinary assortment of creative drama, music and art for AFRICA 05 this year, we are reminded that the Gleneagles G8 political summit in July in Scotland is set to highlight pressing topics of man-made proportions such as poverty and trade justice issues, especially on the African continent.

In the back of our minds we are all wondering what our politicians will do to bring about improvement in these stricken areas.

For the moment celebrity power seems to have the edge and is welcomed as events such as the LIVE 8 concerts and the extraordinary one day mini festival FLIGHT 5065, just taken place on the London Eye, bring about the awareness of unnecessary hardships through the expression of diverse influential art forms.

Created by Cafédirect, a fair-trade organisation set up by charities to directly benefit coffee, tea and cocoa farmers and their communities, Flight 5065 hoped, on our summer’s solstice, to raise the profile of fair trade issues and bring them towards the mainstream as part of the Make Poverty History campaign. It was also designed to celebrate Africa in the fortnight immediately before the crucial G8 summit.

This is the first time ever that the London Eye has been used for a live arts festival and was sold out well in advance of it’s opening. 2000 ticket holders swarmed into the 32 capsules on the revolving monolithic wheel over a three half hour cycle period, to be entertained by over 135 artists performing specially commissioned pieces of drama, music and comedy whilst soaring over the London skyline.

Theatre highlights included contributions from the National and Royal Court Theatres; the latter producing up to 27 one-minute plays, from leading dramatists such as Roy Williams, Joe Penhall, Simon Stephens, Anthony Neilson and Tanika Gupta.

The world of music was represented by Blur’s Damon Albarn who’ll be curating new African music with his Honest Jon label, as well as Beth Orton, Turin Brakes and hip-hop artist, Jonzi D; while Arthur Smith and new political comics Andy Zaltsman and John Oliver added their own inimitable style of humour.

British celebrities Colin Macfarlane, Junior Simpson, Jo Brand, Jonzi D and established companies The National and Royal Court Theatres including a host of African talent with artists representing Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone took off on Flight 5065 to a rapturous response. Segun Lee-French, a Manchester based writer and performance poet, once given the challenge, wrote a 25-minute satirical critique based on colonial reversal. What if Africa had colonised England? A witty and thought-provoking offering of alternative perception and dimension was the result.

Called Ayo and Ade’s Big London Safari, it charts the moment when Ayo, the new Governor of London comes from Nigeria and is escorted on one of the ‘safest’ safari rides in the capital of Blankland by an influential business official, Ade.

Hoping to edify and impress his governor for the purpose of securing lucrative business deals, Ade takes Ayo, who as a child had always dreamt of seeing Blankland, aboard the London Eye to show him the extent of his new governance.

Naïve in his ideals, Ayo hopes to empower the ‘natives’ of this land with a bit more self-sufficiency, until an encounter in the capsule with a Blanklander renegade, Fred, a ‘disobedient breed’ of savage, refuses to be treated as a ‘colourful’ subservient when Ayo attempts to take his picture for the album. This sparks a conflict of interest between Ayo and Ade after Ade unexpectedly recognises Fred as his fugitive and fraudulent ex-office clerk and wants immediate recompense. The affect of this volatile exchange makes Ayo see that his reforms will not be ideally realised if he is to maintain any sense of supremacy over this particular colony.