Community Garden Network at Electric Picnic 2015

Posted on: 30/08/2015
Community Garden at the Electric Picnic

Community Garden Network at the Electric Picnic

From the 4th to the 6th September 2015 The Community Garden Network will be involved with Global Green Village at the Electric Picnic.

We’ll be creating a pop up community garden and sharing the space with a lovely bunch of people that include Cloughjordan Farm, Irish Seedsavers, Green Me, East Clare Coop, Moy Gardens and Urban Farms among others.

If you’re at the festival don’t forget to stop by and have a chat! In the meantime, here’s more information about Global Green at Electric Picnic straight from the organisers:

GLOBAL GREEN – AN ECOVILLAGE AT THE HEART OF ELECTRIC PICNIC

Collaborative experiment brings together activists, artists, makers, musicians, foodies and hackers

A pop-up ecovillage at the heart of this year’s Electric Picnic, created by some of the people behind the acclaimed ecovillage in Cloughjordan, will showcase new musical acts, offer the most authentic food on site – served by the food producers themselves – and host discussions, demonstrations and slam poetry on radical ideas for a community-led future that works.

Global Green, now in its eighth year, is the festival’s dynamic “green edge”. Created by Cultivate Living and Learning – based at the more permanent ecovillage in Cloughjordan in Co Tipperary – Global Green lays claim to being the conscious heartbeat of Electric Picnic, reminding us of the alternative, environmental roots of the three-day event in Stradbally, Co Laois.

Davie Philip of Cultivate said: “Global Green in 2015 is an exciting experiment in collaboration, an ecovillage brought to life by a diverse community of cultural creatives, activists, artists, musicians, foodies, hackers, social entrepreneurs and slam poets.”

Central to the politics of sustainability is food. In a single visit to this year’s Global Green, festival-goers can meet local food-producers, learn how to bake, join a discussion on the politics of food and, most importantly, eat some of the delicious food offered by The Outsiders’ Food Project, all sourced from within a 50-mile radius of Cloughjordan – which itself is just 35 miles from Stradbally. The Food Project received the Judges’ Award for best food at the festival in 2014.

Davie Philip said: “On hand to tell the amazing story of local food will be the farmers, the seed-savers, the craft baker, the cooks and young food entrepreneurs, the campaigners fighting for food sovereignty and solidarity globally, the local food activists helping us appreciate what Ireland has to offer and, closing the loop, the composters turning what we waste back to soil.”

As grassroots organising and radical politics gather momentum in Ireland and across Europe and as activists count down the final weeks to the major climate summit in Paris in December, Global Green’s hEdge School will host talks and discussions on sustainability, activism, and community.

Speakers range from TV presenter Duncan Stewart, Thomas Crosby of Stradbally Hall and Green Party councillor Claire Byrne to professional-surfer-turned-community-farmer Fergal Smith and Melvin Benn (head of Festival Republic, which runs Electric Picnic, and a board member of Julie’s Bicycle, which works for sustainability in the creative industries). Dóchas, Friends of the Earth, the Irish Environmental Network and the Heritage Council will lead discussions on climate change, sustainable development, local resilience and the challenge of how to communicate critical issues in an accessible way.

Finally, Global Green has its finger on Ireland’s musical pulse with atmospheric, electro, acoustic and folk music by day and dance and hip-hop beats by night in its Voices Rising tent. Highlights include Saint Sister, Elephant, Hauer, Replete, The Expert and Deetrich, to name but a few, and this year sees the introduction of a performance poetry showcase featuring Julie Goo, Temper-Mental MissElayneous, Fergus Costello and Cormac Lally.

You can shake off that fuzzy head and get your festival day underway with Global Green’s popular morning mindfulness and yoga sessions and then hang out on the green for the best coffee and breakfast on site. Visit the ecovillage throughout the day for the music, ideas, food and atmosphere, and at night find out why it’s the best-kept secret of the Electric Picnic.

 

 

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