Festival Time
work hard and play hard
We do believe in hard work,
and justifiably we like to party too. Having been involved
with many festivals and parties in the uk, part of our project here in
the south of france is to host free
family friendly festivals, small to
middling, nothing
large! We have a great team of people involved, from
caterers (hello Tana, Violet and Ian!), to djs and sound system,
passing through jugglers, clowns and
story tellers. So far we have held a few in conjuntion with
the Messmedia crew from the uk who have been instrumental in providing
us with a sound system (yay!) and lots of amazing decorations for the
trees. We are extremely interested in green technology, and
although at present a lot of the show is run on a diesel generator, we
are hoping to have in place solar showers and a bicycle generator to
run at least some of the power this summer. we are working
towards a fully green festival, where the generator would be purely for
backup in case of emergency! wind generators, solar panels
for
hot water, and bike gennies are being made and invested in as
i
type. Any help in this area is greatly appreciated!
Eco
toilets have been built on site.
AFTERWORDS!!!
FranceTrance5 2009
the great erection commences...
friends started arriving by thursday, setting up their tents, bagging the best spots. The beautiful yurt was put in place, the kitchen equipment slowly went up the hill. When Dylan arrived the dome kicked off, and the party was underway with the arrival of James bringing the sound system together. Altogether a fine party was had by all, with the live bands starting off every evening followed by djs galore! From rock to techno, from electric cello to classical violin, we had it all. Thank you to all our participants on stage, look forward to seeing you next time.
The kitchen went very well, lots of produce from our garden and our friends received with glee. special thanks to violet and tana for their amazing curry, and Ian for his pies.
The participation idea was well received, the washing up was shared by all (hi rory, jane, heiko, rachel and harry...) and the kitchen seemed to clean of its own accord... lots of fairies around.
Our Best moments?
The weather!
For the first time in years, great weather, thank you great spirit
The children painting with hands and feet, stan the man and his electric cello 'going up the country' tribute to woodstock, justin, craig and the kinks. A fantastic saturday night and friday night depending on who i talked to - so a great big thank you and merci to messmedia for bringing such amazing talent with you...
the construction of the dome was a great moment. listening to Heiko and his guitar... the magic hat!
arrival of james and crew from oxford, dancing in the dome, being told how welcoming we are, meeting lots of beautiful people, spending time with them
the stone circle has been added to, with a large stone being unearthed and transported to site, no, not by pulling and pushing - we used the tractor! And five people sitting on the front to stop the tractor from doing a wheely up the hill!!!!!!!
Things we have learnt, to arrange 4 next time - poetry, theatre, more children stuff, daytime djs... chill out space near kitchen. query Ticket system and door crew. Solar showers to be completed, improve again on the recycling system, dont bring the sounds system down on the little tractor (oops) get the wind gennie up and work on the bicycle gennie.
there are some people without whom justin and I would have collapsed, so thank you to all of you; Tim, Sylvain, Dylan, James, Ben, you deserve all the best in life. Thank you to all the people that came to thank the incredibly hard working crew.
hope we can do it again next year.... (see blog for other links to photos...)