Other Attractions

Lost Horizons Sauna

Famous wood-fired sauna and place of lushness. As well as offering wonderful affordable saunas to you all, Lost Horizons also run a fairtrade organic cafe, selling food, chai, truffles and other delights. They offer an open space for facilitation of workshops and acoustic music in the evening. If you want to present a workshop to Off-Gridders, just turn up at Lost Horizons and book in!

The Marquee of Many Tales

Tim Bates and Martin Faulkner will tell new and traditional stories in the Marquee of Many Tales. There stories will take us on a journey from the beginnings of creation to the end of time itself. They also will hold a space for your stories and will facilitate group story-making workshops

Post Economix

The ‘Post Economix’ arena of the Sunrise Off-Grid Festival will be hosting a series of workshops, talks, and presentations focusing on the future of ‘exchange’. Over the four days of the festival, you can explore and discover a whole range of alternatives to the ‘credit crunched’ current economic system - everything from creating your own local Transition currency to living without money!

Presentations and talks will be given by some of the UK’s leading ‘new economists’, including: Mark Burton (the ‘Totnes Pound’), Martin Simon (Director of Time Banking UK), John Rogers (Founding Director of the Wales Institute For Community Currencies), and Mark Boyle (Founder of the Freeconomy Community). There will also be a series of participatory ‘Time For Community’ workshops with Avalon Fair Shares, plus Open Space and World Café events.

A ‘Symbol Of Life’

As part of the Post Economix theme, you will also be able to take part in Sunrise Off-Grid’s exciting and unique economic experiment: Inspired by the Totnes and Lewes Pounds, Sunrise Off-Grid will be the first festival in the world to launch its own ‘Transition’ currency: the Sunrise SOL.

The SOL notes will be issued from the ‘Post Economix’ arena, and will be accepted as a valid currency by all the stalls and traders at the Off-grid Festival from 20th to 24th August 2009. As with the Totnes and Lewes Pounds, the SOL will be a legitimate ‘private’ currency which - whilst having no official value outside the festival - we will, by mutual consent, treat as roughly equivalent to £1.

There will only be a limited supply of 2,000 notes, which can be acquired in issues of 5 notes in exchange for £5 sterling at the Post Economix’s stall in the Transition Tin Shed. You can also request SOLs as part of your change from any of the Off-Grid stalls and traders.

As the aim of the SOL is to promote the concept of supporting the local economy - in this case the Off-Grid stalls and traders - and we would encourage you to be spent all your SOLs at the festival. To ensure the flow of the currency, the notes will NOT be refundable. Therefore we advise you to spend all your SOL notes by Sunday evening, (unless you wish to take some home as a souvenir). From 6 pm on Sunday, the stall holders and traders will not give SOLs out in change - unless you specifically asked for them.

"You hold in your hand a powerful tool for economic regeneration ... Pass it round, spend it, envision the potential it embodies ..." from the original Totnes Pound.

SKILLS SHARING, INFORMATION GATHERING AND MEET & GREET

Sunrise: Off Grid is more than just a festival. Its a forum for meeting others of a like-mind and sharing invaluable information and skills. Our aim is to facilitate this in as many ways as possible, and in the simplest manner.
The Information Centre, which will be manned all day, every day, is the place where you can find out about whats going on. Its also the place where you can sign up to share your own workshops, talks, presentations, performances and other offerings. Plenty of space has been left in the timetable for people to offer their own contributions to the gathering, as well as take part in already scheduled discussions. Lost Horizons will be providing an open workshop space as part of their sauna set-up, whilst The Maloca has one or two free slots for holding of BIG Discussion groups and forums. Other programmed venues have spaces deliberately left open so that you can contribute what you know.

The Information Centre will also have a board for people to post notices and requests. If you are looking for somebody to build you a compost toilet, or someone to teach you how to make an Earth Oven, here is the place to post that. Off-Grid will be brimming with skilled craftspeople, off-grid livers, community builders and eco-pioneers, each with their own tid-bits of information that could help somebody else in need. Keep an eye on the noticeboard to see if anyone needs what YOU yourself know!

Thursday afternoon in The Maloca will host a meet & greet session for Off-Grid livers, lovers and dreamers, to introduce ourselves to each other, hold an introductory discussion to the concepts and practicalities and start building the community. Simultaneously, in the Dynamix space, there will be a Contact Improvisation workshop for those who want to get to know each other by touch and movement rather than conversation.

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