So, while I’m looking forward to tonight’s event, what I’m really looking forward to is the day when Tibetans inside Tibet can also celebrate with the same freedom that we enjoy here.

Looking back over the last month, the change in pace is almost tangible. The beginning of the month was very quiet in terms of news from Tibet. Then suddenly we had a flurry of news within the last week or so – including some news from Lhasa, which is extremely rare. Unfortunately, it was news of a fatal solo protest but it was still incredible that Tibetans in Lhasa managed to get the information out past all the surveillance they are subjected to.

June has also been a month of preparation for us. During July and August we’ll be going to four festivals: Buddhafield, Womad, the Green Gathering and Greenbelt. We’re also hosting our annual Summer Shindig in London on Friday 18 August and launching a new campaign.

That would keep us busy under normal circumstances but, since this year is Free Tibet’s 30th anniversary, our plans involve more than just turning up at festivals with our tent. We are designing a small exhibition about Tibet which we will take round the festivals and also show at our own events. We actually turned it into a competition and invited art and design students to get involved and submit their ideas. The winning proposal came from Lewis Shannon and Helena Jordan, two architecture graduates from Central Saint Martins in London. Over the last few weeks we’ve been working with them to refine the idea and are really looking forward to seeing it come to life in a few weeks.

In the meantime, we are still working on the Larung Gar and Beyond Belief campaigns and we’ll be encouraging people to get involved in both of these over the summer. If you haven’t yet signed our Beyond Belief petition then please do. The idea of the Chinese government controlling the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is just unthinkable. And if you haven’t yet seen our Larung Gar video then please take a look and feel free to share it online.