RESTLESS Natives is a multi-venue, cross-cultural festival taking place in Glasgow’s East End from Monday, May 9 to Sunday, May 15.

The festival champions the do-it-yourself ethics of inclusiveness, affordability and grassroots culture.

Over the past few years, the area to the east of Glasgow’s city centre has bloomed with vibrant new ventures such as “co-working destination” Glasgow Collective, microbrewery and restaurant the Drygate, and most recently, Saint Luke’s, a majestic venue which retains the original early 19th century features of the former parish church.

As co-ordinator Halina Rifai says it was the opening of Saint Luke’s which “sealed the deal” in locating the festival in the area, and organisers were always certain Restless Natives would be a city-based event which would allow for local businesses to benefit from increased trade.

KENT FACES AND UNDERGROUND HEROES

RESTLESS Natives’ music line-up is an enriching meld of established names, such as overgrown hooligans-for-good Future Of The Left and the ever-energetic Rolo Tomassi (Saint Luke’s, May 14), to noteworthy newbies such as Glasgow scuzz-pop trio Breakfast Muff (May 13, 13th Note) and award-winning punk jazzers World Service Project (May 10, Mono).

Two coups were scored with the addition of a double-header featuring composer Tim Hecker – a musician described by Rolling Stone as having made “some of the most celebrated ambient records of the 21st century” and Blanck Mass, aka Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power, a man who makes electronica so pummelling you’ll likely need peeling off the stained glass of Saint Luke’s (May 15).

Then came Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah, the confirmation of which as playing the 500-capacity Saint Luke’s provoked disbelieving guffaws from Rifai’s associates. The prolific, vivid storyteller will be supported by striking Edinburgh songstress Law Holt – a pairing Rifai put together as part of a drive to show that promoting excellent new talent does not have to be at the expense of gender balance.

“There has been quite a lot of chat in the last couple of years about the lack of balance on festival line-ups,” says Rifai, also an instrumental figure in TYCI, the female collective founded by Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry. “This for me is a massive thing. But I’m also really proud of the diversity of the line-up. There really is something for everyone.”

A bargain at today’s prices, at £17.50, the Ghostface show is the most expensive; most are around a fiver. And with an allocation of tickets with dice.fm, a ticket-purchasing app with no booking fees, it’s hoped there will be enough savvy fans through the doors to allow for donations to local charities.

In a line-up which is as much about celebrating DIY promoters and labels as the artists, Glasgow Collective will host six nights of showcases from some of the country’s independent labels, from the electronica of Glasgow’s Hot Gem (May 11) to the improv/jazz of promoters Stretched whose night on May 12 features acclaimed instrumental trio Corrie Dick’s Little Lions.

The venue’s week of showcases begins on Tuesday 10 with Le Thug, Numbers Are Futile and the thrillingly odd DTHPDL, all of whom are on Edinburgh’s excellent Song, By Toad Records, founded in 2008 by music blogger Matthew Young.

“Song, By Toad really showcases the DIY community and Matthew is at the centre of that, as are a lot of people he works with, such as Adam Stafford,” says Rifai.

DIY ON FILM

ADAM Stafford features on the festival’s film line-up. The Falkirk multi-instrumentalist and filmmaker will perform a live soundtrack with acclaimed singer-songwriter Siobhan Wilson to 1926 silent film A Page Of Madness (Drygate, May 11).

Rifai says: “I hear rumours that Philip Glass and Yann Tiersen will influence Siobhan’s performance, whereas Adam uses a lot of loop pedals. He can be very explorative on stage and very out there. He’s a completely different character when he’s on stage.”

Another one-off is David Thomas Broughton, a folk refusenik whose live shows see him duetting with personal attack alarms and using the venue’s furniture as percussion.

“The film follows his creative process,” Rifai explains of The Ambiguity Of David Thomas Broughton (GMAC, May 14) a film with similarities, Rifai says, to 2014’s Michael Fassbender-starring Frank. “He can’t be pigeon-holed at all. He’s so off-the-wall and unpredictable, and it’s a very emotional film which explores the darker side to his work and how surreal his world is.”

Largely programmed by Canadian producer Richard Warden, the film strand also features Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop (Drygate, May 15), Big Gold Dream: Side B, an exclusive take on Grant McPhee’s story of Edinburgh’s independent music scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s (May 10, Drygate), and Instrument, a doc following Washington DC post-hardcore icons Fugazi (May 12, venue TBC). The screening will feature a live Q&A with Ian MacKaye, a musician for whom DIY is an unbreachable moral code.

“He’s a very strong character,” Rifai agrees. “The true epitome of DIY. You can’t get more DIY than him.”

Among the many highlights will be a screening of Tom Geens’ uncompromising directorial debut Couple In A Hole where the greenery of the Winter Gardens in the People’s Palace will echo the Pyrenees woods Kate Dickie (Red Road, Game of Thrones) and Paul Higgins (Utopia) isolate themselves in. A live Q&A will follow by the film’s soundtrackers BEAK>, Geoff Barrow from Portishead’s new outfit. BEAK>, Rifai reveals to The National, will then perform a DJ set at Bloc+.

WALKING WITH PURPOSE

RESTLESS Natives’ film and music strands are augmented by the Off Kiltr Street Feastival, which showcases street food from both established culinary names and innovative newcomers (May 14 and May 15, Collective Studios) and two newly-announced walks around the area.

Glasgow Music City Tours’ Merchant City Music Walk – Past and Present will take in Britain’s oldest surviving music hall, the Panoptican, the much-loved Barrowland Ballroom and locations significant to the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Simple Minds (May 13).

On the festival’s closing day, the nearby Glasgow Women’s Library lead a tour of illuminating the histories of the area’s ever-resourceful and politically active women.

Restless Natives takes its name from Michael Hoffman’s wistful 1985 caper in which two bored Edinburgh lads leave a life of no prospects to hold up tourist coaches with novelty weapons. Somehow, the pair become folk heroes.

Though no one at the festival is suggesting a similar route, the message of empowerment resonates.

“We wanted to show people that anyone can do this,” Rifai says.

“We want to say: ‘Don’t feel overwhelmed by big companies and so on – you can create something fantastic and rewarding if you’re passionate about it’.”

www.restlessnativesfestival.org