Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Green(ish) Festival in Newcastle
Hey hey
Well its been one month since I arrived! Quite an achievement I think, its gone pretty fast really - and done so many things already too, racing around the country.
I got on the bus at Leeds on Saturday heading for Newcastle - there was a 'Green Festival' there over the long weekend (May bank holiday) so with nothing better to do I headed up to it! (Sophie had a contact there that said I could crash with them...) A couple of hours later, after road rage and a duck flying into the windscreen I was there - in the middle of a mass convergence of Newcastle soccer fans going to a game! Battled my way through a sea of black and white till I found the park where the festival was at - its central and right next to the soccer stadium! Once I got inside however I felt much better - the place was all colourful and vibrant and happening, found the guy putting me up, had a feed at the social centre cafe then volunteered my time as a steward. Sold programmes mostly (the festival itself was totally free) which ment I could walk round and take it all in - it was pretty big and full of stalls, information on all things 'green', yummy vege food, kids games and activities, a healing area full of coloured te-pees, a heritage area with woodworking, felt and fabric making, bread making and other old-school skills, and about five different music stages/zones. Saturday was a family day then Sunday alcohol was sold and music went till 11pm. Took a while for the sun to come out on Sunday but when it did the place was groovin! there were amazing drumming groups (I thought of Annora!) music from all over the world (Iranian, Hindi, punk, folk, reggae, Cuban, trance...) it was great! Except that being in the centre of town and open to all and selling booze, it sort of morfed into a version of Sparks in the Park with thousands of drunken hords.
This made for a HUGE clean-up on Monday, volunteered my time picking up rubbish and sorting out recycling, it really didn't look like much of a green festival then I can tell ya! By 9pm that evening we had got a large chunk of the clean up done, and had (fish) and chips under the bandstand - even tried mushy peas but not really to my liking.
The people I have been staying with are lovely, the Newcastle crowd are really neat and at the moment starting up a social centre (hence the fundraising cafe) which is close to happening.
Haven't seen much of Newcastle itself yet, will do today - then the plan is to go back down south to Scarborough to help on a woodlands project. Hope to get free board in exchange for working on the project.
All and all things are going smashing - having a blast travelling round and seeing all the amazing things and energies here. Whats the word in NZ? anything of great importance I should know about?! Often think about what everyone is up to :) is it getting cold and yucky yet?
hugs and lots of happiness
me
Well its been one month since I arrived! Quite an achievement I think, its gone pretty fast really - and done so many things already too, racing around the country.
I got on the bus at Leeds on Saturday heading for Newcastle - there was a 'Green Festival' there over the long weekend (May bank holiday) so with nothing better to do I headed up to it! (Sophie had a contact there that said I could crash with them...) A couple of hours later, after road rage and a duck flying into the windscreen I was there - in the middle of a mass convergence of Newcastle soccer fans going to a game! Battled my way through a sea of black and white till I found the park where the festival was at - its central and right next to the soccer stadium! Once I got inside however I felt much better - the place was all colourful and vibrant and happening, found the guy putting me up, had a feed at the social centre cafe then volunteered my time as a steward. Sold programmes mostly (the festival itself was totally free) which ment I could walk round and take it all in - it was pretty big and full of stalls, information on all things 'green', yummy vege food, kids games and activities, a healing area full of coloured te-pees, a heritage area with woodworking, felt and fabric making, bread making and other old-school skills, and about five different music stages/zones. Saturday was a family day then Sunday alcohol was sold and music went till 11pm. Took a while for the sun to come out on Sunday but when it did the place was groovin! there were amazing drumming groups (I thought of Annora!) music from all over the world (Iranian, Hindi, punk, folk, reggae, Cuban, trance...) it was great! Except that being in the centre of town and open to all and selling booze, it sort of morfed into a version of Sparks in the Park with thousands of drunken hords.
This made for a HUGE clean-up on Monday, volunteered my time picking up rubbish and sorting out recycling, it really didn't look like much of a green festival then I can tell ya! By 9pm that evening we had got a large chunk of the clean up done, and had (fish) and chips under the bandstand - even tried mushy peas but not really to my liking.
The people I have been staying with are lovely, the Newcastle crowd are really neat and at the moment starting up a social centre (hence the fundraising cafe) which is close to happening.
Haven't seen much of Newcastle itself yet, will do today - then the plan is to go back down south to Scarborough to help on a woodlands project. Hope to get free board in exchange for working on the project.
All and all things are going smashing - having a blast travelling round and seeing all the amazing things and energies here. Whats the word in NZ? anything of great importance I should know about?! Often think about what everyone is up to :) is it getting cold and yucky yet?
hugs and lots of happiness
me
# posted by claire @ 11:50 AM 
