The first Off Grid One Planet Community Festival takes place at Thoulstone Park, Chapmanslade, on 14th – 17th August.
Off Grid is a pioneering blend of festival, college and conference hosted by members of the crews behind festivals such as Cloud Cuckoo Land. Off Grid’s capacity is limited to a family friendly 500 in order to encourage intimacy during an intensive four-day programme of talks, workshops and performing arts.
Frome’s Mayor, cllr Peter Macfadyen said, “Off Grid is a unique opportunity to bring together the region’s most inspirational thinkers and practical activists in a temporary space where everything is possible. We’re excited by the potential of Thoulstone Park as a natural development and by the organiser’s open invitation for Frome’s community to engage with Off Grid’s One Planet Community Festival model.
“Over the coming years, Off Grid can become a living platform for this convergence of like-minded people and projects.”
Participants will engage in an immersive educational experience curated over four action packed days.
The Off Grid College is a 12-module course in practical sustainability, applied permaculture and appropriate technology, hosted in our Tin Village demonstration site and developed in collaboration with Shift Bristol.
Meanwhile, The Cloud of Unknowing is a four-day interactive conference covering a diversity of subjects including Uncivilisation, Common Futures and One Planet Frome. These three-hour sessions will pioneer a brand new format inspired by TEDx, Open Space and the Way of Council, and will be hosted by Cat’s Cradle with support from the Schumacher College.
The Circle of Visions stage will showcase folk, world and roots music including United Vibrations, Seize the Day, The Drop and Kidnap Alice, plus local favourites Frome Street Bandits and West African drummers Iroko. The Old Tree is Off Grid’s pub and local brewing co-operative supplying ale, mead, cider, ginger beer and elderflower champagne, hand-crafted for the people and by the people!
Children under 12 will participate for free, with The Children’s Fire bringing together the West-country’s finest storytellers and a dedicated Off Grid Kids space providing abundant opportunities for inspirational fun and slightly anarchic play.
Building Man, Birthing Woman
Project manager Marcus Letts said, “Above and beyond the talks and workshops, Off Grid is developing a genuinely participatory festival model. We’re inviting everyone involved to share in the co-creative process, with Building Man and Birthing Woman a fundamental aspect of this event’s design.
“We hope you will feel secure and powerful enough to openly share your unique gifts in these brand new spaces. Welcome to our New Story of the People!”
Building Man, Birthing Woman is Off Grid’s co-creative source. This ten-day eco build and permaculture design short course will require pre-event registration with only 50 spaces available, so book early using the £10 discount code for local residents FROME10 when purchasing online: www. offgrid-festival.co.uk/buy-tickets/
Meanwhile, Birthing Woman is a sharing space for reconnection and rebirth as we prepare as a species to heal ourselves and our Mother Earth.
In 2014 this emerging sacred space will host our Gaia Dome, Red Tent, Men’s Circle, Children’s Storytelling Fire and Wild Woods Bushcraft Camp.
One Planet Community Festival
Behind the scenes, Off Grid is designed according to One Planet Living principles. The organisers hope that this open source model will help to empower individuals and build community resilience, in order to encourage both local abundance and global sustainability.
Please book your place early, register for volunteer participation and tell a friend! For more details visit www.offgrid-festival. co.uk or www.thoulstone park.co .uk. Buy tickets from Frome’s Cheese and Grain for only £90 with no booking fee, or use the £10 discount code for local residents FROME10 when purchasing online at www.offgrid-festival.co.uk/ buy-tickets/ Search for Off Grid Festival on Facebook and Twitter.
