Groovement Podcast / The Great Oven: Liber[té] on Radio Alhara

THE GREAT OVEN ON LIBER[TE] – RADIO ALHARA

HOSTED BY JAMITO, TALKING TO CO-FOUNDER JAMES GOMEZ THOMPSON

RECORDED IN THE GREAT OVEN / TANG / MIXMAG / RADIO ALHARA DISCO CANTINA AT ALL TOGETHER NOW FESTIVAL, CO WATERFORD, IRELAND, 2 AUGUST 2025

FIRST BROADCAST SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2025

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The Great Oven builds giant community ovens – from their website:

The Great Oven has been building giant community ovens and sending them to places of need for over two years – to refugee camps, war-torn communities, and inner cities in crisis. Born in Tripoli, Northern Lebanon and operational in the refugee camps of the Bekaa Valley throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our work is also responsive to the continued and devastating impact of the Beirut Blast.

Our work in Lebanon is headquartered in Beirut. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, we found a home in a disused music venue badly impacted by the blast. With the help of our volunteers, a dancefloor became a community kitchen and a terrace an art studio where ovens were decorated. Each day our walls would vibrate with the music of guest DJs and fellow residents, Radio Alhara.

In 2021, the Great Oven moved into its very own space, a hub for all of our Lebanon activity and a safe space for marginalised and displaced people to share in the joy of food, music and art.

Groovement has also provided some of the soundtrack over the years, so when GO got the opportunity to curate a stage – a Disco Cantina in association with Mixmag and Radio Alhara – at Irish Festival All Together Now, co-founder James Gomez Thompson jumped on the phone to Groovement and several other members of the community as to what the stage would look like.

This conversation was recorded at the end of the second day of the festival, where each day a 100 person banquet was facilitated by Tang, often working from established recipes from past ovens, and with QR codes to tip the recipe makers. The food was cooked in two great ovens, and after the festival one was kept in Dublin at Bohemian FC, with the other sent on its way to The Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem, the base of Radio Alhara.

The whole show is soundtracked by Palestinain artist, activist and DJ Nour, who was performing at the time.

James would like to extend an extra special thanks to Great Oven founder Nour Matraji for moving mountains in getting the ovens from Lebanon to Ireland.