Sunrise: Off Grid is a new development from the Sunrise Team in its second year. Its an intimate camp for conscious evolvers, exploring solutions to global issues and providing the tools and techniques for more sustainable lifestyles. S:OG is inspired by the Off-Grid movement and is a deep exploration of community living, creativity and consciousness.

S:OG is Sunrise taking another step towards practical sustainability. It is a seed camp for the larger event, a forum for ideas to be expressed and discussed by our growing community. It is for those who really want to go a bit deeper, to explore the issues touched on at the main Sunrise Festival and who want to forge a dynamic, year-round community.

S:OG embodies the principles of the Transition Towns movement, promoting community resilience in the face of an uncertain future. We believe in localisation of our lifestyles, sustainable values and, more than anything, a worldview based primarily on the principles of Love. We do what we love, because we love what we do.

The Sunrise Celebration and Sunrise: Off Grid are being produced by a new Community Interest Company (CIC), Natural Communities. This new CIC has no shareholders to take home dividends, which means every penny of profit is redirected back into the community in some way. Its an exciting development that we have been moving towards for years.

Natural Communities is all about sustainability, about forging new pathways in the world, about preparing ourselves for the exciting times ahead. The CIC has dedicated its mission to promoting and establishing sustainable communities, and working to develop and educate on sustainable techniques and technologies. See the About us page for more details.

Off-Grid 2010 is being held at Fernhill Farm in the Mendips, a working eco-farm project. Being invited to Fernhill is a real honor for us and a chance to cement our principles in a way most sites don't offer. As well as being run in a sustainable manner for sheep rearing, the farm is also the home of a number of landmark environmental technologies and techniques that fit well with the Off-Grid ethos - including rainwater harvesting, a woodfuel boiler - with most of the wood grown onsite and a reedbed WET system for all liquid waste. The aim is for solar thermal to be fitted during the event. There is a working permaculture garden, regular education programmes and eco-build camping barns. See http://www.sunrise-offgrid.co.uk/#fernhill-farm.php for more details.

Having such facilities in place means we can demonstrate much of what we try to teach in situ with leading experts to explain how it works. We will also be using many of the farm facilities, as is appropriate for an Off-Grid event - from the permaculture garden through to the shearing barns for music and workshops. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Fernhill Farm.

S:OG will be of an intimate size, where the community can get to know each other easily, and ideas are more readily exchanged. It is a Camp rather than a Festival, and is based on principles of skill and knowledge sharing. By keeping it at a very limited capacity, we feel more focused discussion can be had and more achieved.

Sunrise is a Green & Spiritual Music and Arts Festival. Sunrise: Off Grid is focused upon other elements. Its about pushing back the boundaries of your perceived self; sharing and developing your skills and knowledge; discussing ideas and developing them together as a community. S:OG features 6 workshop spaces and a central lodge, The Maloca. There are also a wealth of other activities, from solar cinema, to kids area, healing and more...

Many of the workshops will focus on the practical elements of sustainable living. From training in construction of renewable energy technology to eco-build skills, Transition culture to alternative monetary systems. The challenge is to dive in and take away whatever knowledge, wisdom and skills you can.

As a small green event, we are aiming for full community consciousness when it comes to the 'green' stuff. We would like to see people separating their own waste - at least into one bag of recyclables and one bag of waste (these will be provided), and perhaps taking it away with them where possible. We hope that attendees will choose organic and/or local food where possible, and use only natural cleaning products and toiletries. We would also like to see everybody looking out for each other, working together to keep the site a clean and safe place to be in. It is all our responsibility to take care of the land we share and for each other.

Sunrise: Off Grid will try for environmental best practice across the board. Here is a small range of what will be available.

Site-wide Organic Food & Drink * Compost Toilets * Wood-fuelled &/or Solar Showers * Wood-fuelled Sauna * Renewable Energy powered venues * Sustainable Community Representation * Minimal Waste Policies * Horsedrawn Transport * Cycling routes & more....