See OFF GRID COLLEGE for more talks and workshops

Veiw the entire Day by Day schedule here

INSPIRING CHANGE - OFF-GRID'S HEADLINE SPEAKERS

Sunrise: Off-Grid will be playing host to some of the leading minds, hearts and voices in emergent culture. Our main speakers have been selected for their wisdom, knowledge and experience and their ability to inspire change and ask the big questions. These talks will take place in the Zia Solar main Stage.

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Simon Emmerson & Mark Constantine: The Sound Approach to Birding

Simon Emmerson: Grammy Award-nominated record producer, guitarist, DJ and founder of the group Afro Celt Sound System, which fuses modern dance rhythms (trip-hop, techno, etc.) with traditional Irish (Celtic) and West African music. Their albums have been released through Peter Gabriel's Real World Records.
He is also the main organiser of and plays in The Imagined Village, a collaborative work from many roots artists intended to produce modern folk music that represents modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom and as such, features musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In the Eighties Simon also put together the trailblazing jazz/soul outfit Working Week.

Simon's other passion and hobby outside of work is for birdwatching, and will be joined by Mark Constantine in giving a talk on bird species and showing off their new musical project featuring recordings, and a live representation(tbc) of birdsong.

Mark Constantine - ethical soap connoisseur, green activist and bird-watching expert.
Mark Constantine shook up the beauty world with his wacky cosmetics company, Lush, founded in 1995 to dispense soaps, bubblebaths and fragrances made mainly from vegetable ingredients. Constantine has pledged to give a slice of the profits each year to those activists willing to stand up to the powers that be. Over 100 causes have received Lush funds, money generated principally through Charity Pot, a cocoa butter and almond oil body lotion.
Now he's taking on the book trade with an innovative birdwatchers' guide; The Sound Approach to Birding, draws on his long-held passion for birdwatching. It takes an entirely new approach to bird identification, helping experienced birders and beginners alike identify birds by their song, using sonagrams, which translate the different calls into graphic illustrations.

The book, which comes with two stereo CDs, has taken 17 years to put together. The resulting Sound Approach database is the fourth-largest natural sound archive in the world and has won the Best Bird Book Award from British Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology, the UK's top award in the field. Future projects include a second bird book, The Sound Approach to Petrels. A book by his older son Simon, a Lush perfumer, is also in the pipeline; the idea is to trace how ethical buying works, from rose otto sold in Bulgaria in a valley that was taken over by arms dealers in the Communist era to the deforestation that can be caused by sourcing sandalwood.

www.soundapproach.co.uk

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William Bloom
William Bloom is one of the UK’s most experienced teachers, activists and authors in the field of spiritual development and holistic healthcare. His work has helped thousands of people. He is the author of many important books including the bestselling The Endorphin Effect, Psychic Protection and Soulution: The Holistic Manifesto. He co-founded Alternatives, is a founder of the Foundation for Holistic Spirituality and the Spiritual Companions network.
www.williambloom.com

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MARK BOYLE - Living without Money

Mark Boyle is the founder of the Freeconomy Community, whose aim is to help reconnect people in their local communities through the simple act of sharing. His pioneering ‘justfortheloveofit’ website is based on the principal of “pay the favour forward” i.e. if someone helps you, help someone else.
On 29th November 2008 - national ‘Buy Nothing Day’ - Mark began a year-long experiment to live without money. "I decided to practice what I preach and stop wasting so much." To prepare for his new life, Mark started weaning himself off money by selling his home - a houseboat and its accompanying berth on Bristol harbour - using the money to hire a designer to set up the Freeconomy Community website. He also packed in his job as general manager of an organic food business to concentrate on his new life.

“My passion in life is to use the power of sharing to simultaneously re-build local communities AND reduce waste. After completing a Degree in Business and spending 6 years in the organic food industry, I decided to follow my dream and vision. So in the middle of last year I sold my beloved houseboat to finance the setting up of ‘The Freeconomy Community’, a new project whose raison d’être is to take the problems the world faces today and turn them into opportunities. With over 6,400 members and hundreds joining every week, this thankfully seems to have taken over my life!”

The Freeconomy Community won the People’s Choice Award in the 2008 UK Catalyst Awards.
http://www.justfortheloveofit.org

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NICK ROSEN - Off The Grid

Nick Rosen: Nick Rosen is an award winning documentary maker, journalist, and broadcaster. Born and based in London, he has often lived and worked in the US. Over the past two decades he has been a Teaching Assistant at the Georgetown University Philosophy Department, a journalist in San Francisco and a documentary filmmaker in New York. Nick is an off-grid expert, editing the website
www.off-grid.net and since 1994 has been off the grid part-time.

Author of 'How to Live Off-Grid' and 'Off The Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America'

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Jonathan Cainer: Is it possible to get a zodiac sign transplant?

Jonathan Cainer writes a much loved zodiac column, followed by millions around the globe. His daily forecasts can be found in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, The Melbourne Herald Sun, The South African Times and the British Daily Mail. They are also translated into Spanish (for the Ola website) and Japanese - where they are read by thousands of subscribers to a special mobile phone site. Jonathan's weekly and monthly predictions reach an even wider audience, appearing in magazines across the USA, Canada, Turkey, The Arab Emirates and even Bali (!)... plus Reveal and Hello in Britain. And of course, his prodigious output can also be read on his own website, www.cainer.com.

Jonathan's demanding schedule means he rarely finds time to make public appearances but we are proud to say that he has given a special talk at every Sunrise Celebration since our first event, back in 2006... and he will be coming back once more, to talk to us again, this year.

Jonathan says
'I have a special place in my heart for sustainable outdoor festivals that promote the Green ethos... and of these, Sunrise has always been my favourite. I'd be looking forward to this year's event, even if I wasn't going to be a guest speaker. But I always enjoy my talks at Sunrise. They're cosy and intimate... and I often get asked really clever questions that make me think on my feet and find answers I didn't even know that I knew how to give.'

www.cainer.com

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Charlie Veitch: In Service to the Goddess - One Year on the Frontline

Unfortunately Charlie can no longer to make it to Off Grid, due to exepected circumstances. He sends his blessings and wishes us all a great event.

To see lots more about Charlie and the Love Police check out his Youtube Channel www.youtube.com/user/cveitch

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Tamsin Omond: Life of an Environmentalist

Cambridge educated Tamsin Omond has over the past few years become a pinup for the Environmentalist movement.

She will be discussing how she went from aspiring to be an Anglican Priest to playing a pivotal role in the protest against the expansion of Heathrow Airport, leading the Suffragette inspired 'Climate Rush' on Parliament, getting arrested for her efforts and most recently how she ran to be an MP in the 2010 General Elections.

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THE KINDNESS OFFENSIVE - 21st Century Hippies?

Most people are aware of the 1960's Hippie movement and the massive cultural impact it had. Few are familiar with the small group called 'The Diggers' whose very practical approach to feeding hungry people got it all started.

Kindness Offensive members who were actually there with the Diggers will talk about their experiences and how the lessons learned from that bygone era can be applied in a corporatised 21st Century context and are being applied by The Kindness Offensive who have in the past two years fed 100,000's of people and given away £2.5 million worth of goods.

TKO had lots of fun at our Sunrise Celebration this year. Check out their video here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/KindnessOffensive#p/c/81FDF330DE8AB835/0/veImWKtMGbk

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TONY WRIGHT - Left in the Dark Book Tour

A presentation at Sunrise: Off-Grid outlining a radical new theory of human evolution and how that led our current state of mind. A diagnosis explaining the root cause of human suffering, a means of treatment and ultimately prevention that will restore sanity where madness has prevailed.

Virtually all cultures preserve myths with an almost identical theme; that from a past golden age humanity has suffered a progressive degeneration. Is this near universal tradition based on real events? The answer appears to be 'yes'. Recent scientific evidence supports the idea that we suffer from an inherited hormonal condition that has damaged part of our brain. In an unexpected twist, it is the damaged part that is not only driven to play the major role in telling us who we are but also dominates our basic biological functions. Such a scenario explains some extraordinary anomalies that have emerged from research into how our brains function. It provides an underlying reason for the present crises in health, from the dysfunction of the immune system to the declining age of puberty. It also makes sense of the diverse mystic and religious practices that are said to lead to enlightened states or 'oneness with God'.
If our common experience of near constant low-level fear and anxiety is actually a consequence of a neurological disorder, there may be a fundamental solution to the problem. We all know that fear, distrust and a lack of connection lead to conflict and ultimately war. Such a solution therefore could be of crucial importance to our global future.

Despite the staggering implications the basic proposal is already attracting emotive endorsement and support from sceptical mainstream academics and scholars in many disciplines to spiritually inclined philosophers, environmental activists and pretty much everyone who has read and understood the basic proposal as outlined in the book.

“A stunningly innovative and challenging theory” Dr Dennis McKenna (Heffter Research Institute)
“This is a startling book that makes us rethink the most fundamental issues of religion, psychology, and philosophy.”
Richard Heinberg (Post Carbon Institute)
“Left in the Dark offers a provocative and original answer to the most important question of our time.”
Linda Buzzell-Saltzman (IAE)
“ It will be, it must be, taken very seriously in any discussion of human origins.” Prof. Colin Groves (ANU)

http://leftinthedark.org.uk/

UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES - Avalon Rising / Ancient Futures

AVALON RISING
Earth mysteries | Ancient knowledge | Consciousness | 2012 | Lawful Rebellion | Shamanism | Esoterica

The Avalon Rising Conference space will be a place of learning, awakening and education; an ancient 'mystery school' within the Somerset hills. Discover multimedia presentations, film screenings, workshops, skywatching and panel discussions. There will be having an exclusive screening of several new esoteric films with three and a half days of esoterica.

ANCIENT FUTURES
Ancient Futures draws the pathways between the old and new, the ancient past and the approaching future. It is about reconnecting ourselves with the roots of our consciousness to find sustainable ways of managing our lives and this Planet. Looking back on the ways of living of our ancestors, we discover portals to a dawning paradigm where we once more connect back with the Earth. Ancient Futures explores the realms of world culture, art and music, entheogens and mind-expanding techniques, myths and cosmologies and ancient techniques of ecstacy.

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There are hundreds of thousands of megalithic sites across the planet and archaeologist still do not know their purpose. In this talk, Hugh Newman will explore the emerging science of 'earth energies' and will present new cutting-edge information about fertility, health and consciousness secrets of the ancients. Including a new theory of the orb phenomenon, and how this was a clue to the ancient breakthrough in understanding earth energies and their relationship to fertility. It has also now been proven scientifically that the ancient sites increase fertility in crops, seeds, and even humans, as the ancient legends state. Many of the ancient sites still function as fertility generators today, even after thousands of years, and could emerge as a low-tek technology harnessing the subtle powers of the Earth. With pollution issues, the peek-oil situation and global warming looming, perhaps the ancients left us with a global megalithic survival technology to keep us abundant and healthy in a post-2012 world.

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MARK HELEY: 2012: PARADIGM SHIFT

Many people are talking about there being a paradigm shift but from what to what? And what to do about it?

Mark Heley makes an argument for the nature of the changes happening in the world today being systemic, fundamental and irreversible. Drawing on insights from cutting edge science to ancient cultures and prophecies, “2012: Paradigm Shift” aims to show what the organizing principles of the emerging culture are, and how to align with them to move forward.

Mark Heley has spoken at many events around the world including Burning Man, Earthdance and the Boom Festival. He is the author of “The Everything Guide to 2012” and has been researching the bleeding edge of science and culture for many years.

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HOLLY PAIGE - FOOD FOR CONSCIOUSNESS

Research suggests that humans once lived, and could again live, in a very different and profoundly preferable state of consciousness to the one we consider normal today. Nutrition and hormones determine the accuracy to which DNA is read and the brain ('lens of consciousness')is built, from the moment of conception. The modern diet provides only 5% of the micronutrients that other primates ingest each day in the wild, whilst pineal underactivity has reduced all important melatonin levels to a point which is having major impact on our state of well-being. Given the knowledge that is now coming to light human beings could eventually be on-goingly experiencing a mode of awareness and function usually associated with peak states - in 'a benign state of perpetual wonder and joy'. Even now, the undamaged amino acids (proteins), fatty acids (fats) and flavonoids (fruit compounds) found in nutrient rich raw foods plus judicious biochemical supplementation can significantly improve our brain chemistry to improve the way we feel and allow us to experience more energy, personal effectiveness, intuition, creative powers and deepen our connection with others. This talk will look at the research and also some very practical things we can do to increase the happiness and harmony in our everyday lives.

Holly Paige has spent the last few years exploring, writing and talking about the links between nutrition, the way we feel and the world we create. Website www.foodforconsciousness.co.uk

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SHAUN KIRWAN: What on earth is geomancy?
Introduction to the world of geomancy

Nature spirits - How to 'Talk' to Gnomes.
Introduction to the nature kingdom realms.
Workshop including Meditation, body dowsing and discussion.

Also
Daily dowsing workshops at 3pm in the around site meet outside the Avalon Rising/ Ancient Futures talks space

Shaun Kirwan is a Dowser and Geomancer. By drawing on western Geomancy, Shaun has developed intuitive techniques for Earth Healing, and creating sacred space. Shaun has been dowsing for over 14 years. Since completing an apprenticeship with Dr Patrick McManaway (former president of British Society Of Dowsers), in 2002, Shaun has been a practicing Geomancer. Shaun is also a designer of Stone Circles and sacred Sites, including the Big Green Gathering Stone Circle and Sunrise Celebration Wood Circle. He has also been actively involved in researching energy grids and other geomantic features. His new Geomantic consultancy, includes house/landscape healing and sacred space creation — see www.georepairman.co.uk

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES, LAND AND FOOD - Transition Tin Village

• Somerset In Transition - http://transitiontowns.org/Somerset/Somerset
• Transition Glastonbury - http://transitiontowns.org/Glastonbury/Glastonbury
• The Moon Bear Rescue Campaign - http://www.animalsasia.org/
• Tipi Valley Land Trust - http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/index.php?one=dat&two=det&sel=tipivill
• The Land Magazine - http://www.tlio.org.uk/TheLand/
• Five Penny Farm - http://fivepennyfarm.com/
• Land Roots - www.landroots.co.uk/

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Liam Collins: Building and Renovating using Found Materials

Liam is a sculptor, builder, presenter, and journalist dedicated to recycling and repurposing waste building materials. He is the creator and presenter of the Discovery programme: 'Fix your house for free' - which also features Celebrity Builder Tommy Walsh. During the 2009 series Tommy and Liam built and renovated 5 large developments for 5 families using Liam's techniques of sourcing 'found' materials.

Liam is also the founder of TAS Construction Ltd. A renovation building company, which has fully renovated 3 houses and converted 1 Houseboat with found materials.

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Jyoti Fernandes : Fivepenny Farm/The Peasant Evolution Producers Co-Operative

Jyoti Fernandes is a member of the Peasant Evolution Producers' Co-Operative is a collective of small-scale producers in West Dorset, South Somerset and East Devon who have joined together to help each other make a viable living off the land. The Co-Operative believes that being a peasant is a way towards the future. They promote organic farming and sustainable land management, fairtrade, rural crafts, and handmade, healthy local food.

"Alongside my work as an organic farmer and a mother, I spend a lot of time campaigning for small farmers and their rights worldwide. In this country that means helping people through the planning system to enable them to live and work on the land. I try to share our own experience of getting permission to build our house to, hopefully, inspire others to do the same. Our own planning struggle was quite a stressful time, but we felt we had a right to live here, to be independent of the state in both housingand income. It can be hard work, but every single day, we enjoy moments of pure joy, affirmations of our way of life."

The Peasant Evolution have a collectively owned processing barn where they have an old cider press for making juice, a jam and chutney kitchen, a dairy, a herb processing room and a meat cutting room. The barn was built as a community project.

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Linda Hull: Foodmapper Launch - Somerset Land and Food
With food security rising up the political agenda daily and waiting lists for allotments standing at over 100,000 nationally, educational charity Somerset Community Food has seized an opportunity to address this issue locally by winning funding to bring more land into community based food production. The resulting programme of work, Somerset Land and Food, is a new Lottery funded project until 2012. The first task is mapping the location of existing allotments, community gardens and other food related projects in order to assess where demand for land exceeds supply. Once this baseline has been established, it will be possible to pinpoint support for community groups and professional growers seeking to acquire new land and secure tenure. Partners, including South West Food and Drink & the SW Department of Public Health are collaborating to commission a new digital mapping tool designed for just this purpose - Foodmapper.

“There is lots of great work happening out there to make local food more accessible to local people, but often it’s fragmented,” says Linda Hull, co-ordinator of Somerset Land and Food. “We hope that FoodMapper will bring together the diverse groups and organisations concerned with local food and local food security.”

By collaborating in this way, a tremendous opportunity exists to restore and create linkages which partners hope will improve the targeting of interventions and build the capacity of practitioners and activists working at the community level to pool resources and share learning.

Foodmapper will be launching at Off-Grid as part of Farming Futures Conference on August 21st and in the Transition Tin Village

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Mike Grenville
Mike Grenville has been involved in the growth of the Transition movement since early days, firstly in establishing an Initiative in Forest Row, East Sussex but has also helped foster communication between initiatives in the South East. Editor of the Transition Network newsletter and a lively and passionate communicator on Transition, Peak Oil and the transformation in world consciousness.

'Introduction to Transition'
Find out what makes Transition Initiatives such a fast growing and inspiring movement with the co-author of the forthcoming Pocket Guide to Transition.

'Avoiding Burnout'
The environmental movement is notorious for the burnout and depression that can follow years spent staring into the foolishness that modern humanity unleashes on the world. This workshop will give you some insights, tools and tips to help you and your colleagues stay fresh and inspired.

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Glenn Prigmore
Mike O'Riser's Mystical Mutually-beneficial Mycelium Musings...

Musings with music, listen and share
positive news, on 'earth share and care'
learn about spores, those friendly fungi
nutrient exchange, in food for you and I
'make n do' for the kids, join in role play
this talk on soil brightens the day!

The Southwest's expert in mycorrhizal fungi talks about the magic of this symbiotic living force, a 'fungus root' connecting the majority of plants and trees, without its presence we would most likely perish through nutrient deficiency, and it is without doubt that plants and therefore us would not have evolved without it.

Come curious and ask questions!

"Although the subject is full of hard science my intention is to share it in terms of energy transfers, food and life cycles that we are all aware off. I feel my role after working and studying extensively for years in agricultural land use, is to spread the word about the dynamic web of life, and about a new future working with this positive function, for sustainable high yield nutritional food production and land use that we can all believe in."
Glenn George Prigmore BSc(Hons) MSc

Glenn has given talks on friendly fungi through the Permaculture Association, the Towns in Transition Movement, and at Bournemouth University of Conservation Sciences where he was awarded a Masters Degree in Environmental Protection. His partner Samantha Jane will act as assistant in their interactive talk. As a couple they write and play music that is environmentally, socially, economically conscious and go under the name of the BearCat Collective www.myspace.com/bearcatcollectiveInteractive Mycorrhiza Talk ~ Friendly Fungi

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Stephanie Rearick : TimeBanking - justice, sustainability, education, health and community-building work

Stephanie Rearick is founder and Director of the 1600+ member Dane Co.TimeBank in Madison, Wisconsin - one of the fastest-growing Timebanks in the USA - and serves as Co-Chair on the TimeBanks USA Board of Directors. She spent six years with the international environmental organisation Greenpeace and served as director of their Madison office. She is also co-owner of Mother Fool's Coffeehouse, which she and her husband have run since 1995. Rearick is also a musician and recording artist.

This workshop will serve as an overview of the TimeBanking model of equal, strength-based service exchange; the core values of TimeBanking (assets, reciprocity, community, redefining work, and respect); examples of how TimeBanking is being applied around the world for justice, sustainability, education, health and community-building work; and resources for starting a TimeBank in your community.

Participants will learn some basics about projects currently using TimeBanking to tackle social and economic problems and will engage in activities to examine assets, needs and desires for their own community. We will then work through how TimeBanking can serve as a tool to help build the kind of community they dream of.

Goal: To create an experiential environment and get participants to begin to think about what's important to them in their communities and to see how TimeBanking can be used as an organising tool to tackle social and economic issues in their neighbourhoods.

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Alex Lawrie : Co-operative Solutions for Housing, Land, and Energy

Alex Lawrie is a founder member of Stepping Stones and Cornerstone Housing Co-ops, Footprint Workers Co-operative and Chapeltown Credit Union, Yeovil Car Pool, Fairground SW (a community co-op) and of UpStart Services (the forerunner of SCS, founded in 1997).
He studied politics at Leeds University, worked for Yeovil College as a lecturer in IT, has received training in Fundraising and Training Skills from the DSC, and in Planning for Real from the Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation (he is NIF training associate). He is the author of 'Empowering the Earth' (Green Books, 2000). His role in SCS includes work on housing co-ops, LETS, car pools, secondary co-operatives and co-operative development infrastructure. Alex became SFEDI accredited in 2008.

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Claire Milne : Co-operative Solutions for Housing, Land, and Energy

The Work Reconnects - using LOVE and compassion to fuel our Transition to resilience
Dismayed at the collective suicide we are committing through our mindless destruction of the planet and disregard for fellow beings? Bewildered at how we will bring about the seismic shifts needed for our Transition to resilience? Got a sense that is has to go beyond guilt trips, angry activism and moral persuasion to use LOVE and compassion as the motivating factor rather than fear and hatred? The Work that Reconnects is a beautiful and profound process that supports people to uncover and experience their innate connections with each other and with the self-healing powers in the web of life. This workshop will support you to feel the emotions that living in today's world brings and to freely express feelings like anger, guilt, denial and sadness to give way to inspired and effective action based on LOVE, gratitude and compassion. This workshop will help enliven and motivate people to play their part in creating a sustainable civilization support you to motivate and inspire other 'less usual suspects' to get involved.

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Clare Hedin: Creativity in Consciousness; Living a Mad Life of Sound!

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The Future of Food: scaling up community solutions to create resilient food communities
Find out how community projects can play a vital role in the transformation of our globalised food system. Across the country local groups are working tirelessly to transform food in their community, however in the absence of scaling up and working more collaboratively our food system will continue to be dominated by supermarkets and their insatiable quest for profit. This talk will give a bigger picture perspective on the potential role for community groups in this transformation and how to step up to this challenge in your community. Come and find out about innovative and pioneering community food initiatives and be reminded that we are already making such a huge difference and that by working together

"Another world is not only possible, but on a quiet day I can hear her breathing." Arundhati Roy.

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The Grow Your Own Village Initiative Workshops

The workshops we are planning include arty stuff such as face paint, henna, recycling metal cans into ashtrays, knitting and rag rug making - which is using potato sacks and old clothes to make beautiful rugs.
As well as this we would like to offer a stinging nettle workshop, where we can show people how to make string and thread from the plants fibres, and how to make your own stinging nettle and lavender shampoo.
We'll also bring the materials to make seed balls, which are clay balls with seeds which can be scattered, based on a simple permaculture planting technique.

• Rose Bud - an artist, and owner of the bell tent
• Cindy Southall - artist, knitter, face painter
• Becky Whittemore - artist, cob maker, seed ball maker.
• Andy Baker- Bringing 12 volt solar power sound system
• Rabbit - Cob builder, stinging nettle shampoo expert
• Charlotte Summers - Organiser of hippies and all of the above
• Nadoo - Transportation

.THEMES.

• OVERVIEW
• OFF GRID COLLEGE
• TALKS & WORKSHOPS
• MUSIC
• KIDS
• CONFERENCES
• PRACTICAL LEARNING
• WELL BEING
• OTHER CONTENT
• THE SUNRISE SOL
• OFF GRID COLLEGE
• WORKSHOPS
• TALKS
• KIDS
• ALT CURRENCIES
• WELL BEING
• FUTURE FARMING CONFERENCE
• OTHER ACTIVITIES