Green festivals, Cuba and peak oil, and iPhones
My family and I just got back from The Ragged Hedge Fair, a small "green" family-oriented festival. We had a great time, and it was a good feeling to be somewhere where they obviously cared a great deal about the impact of the festival. All the power was wind and solar, for all the tents and stages – not a single bit of grid power. Even the "floodlights" by the toilets were running off batteries, presumably charged by solar or other means – contrast with The Larmer Tree Festival which had a hideous generator running all the time to keep the lights by the camp site toilets on.
All of the food was organic (which actually meant, frankly, there was not really enough variety available sadly) and everything was setup for meticulous recycling of everything except the kind of thing that can only go in landfill. They even had composting loos on site in addition to the typical chemical toilet / blue juice hell boxes.
I saw two people using their Apple iPhone, which was an interesting juxtaposition of basic, sustainable, renewable lifestyle against the highest tech you can get in a phone right now. Next to a stand where a man had hand-built a mud and straw pizza oven the day before to cook and sell his pizzas, there was somebody who I believe was a performer (apologies if that is your normal dress) having a conversation on his iPhone.
I also got to see the documentary about how Cuba survived their localized Peak Oil calamity in the 90s. Something like 85% of the produce grown in Cuba is organically grown – truly stunning. Even more so that so much of it comes from pretty urban market gardens. Cuba’s organic pesticides and fertilizer technologies may well come to save our arses when Peak Oil hits the rest of us.
There was also a great band called Mamienco from France, playing a sort of fusion between punk, latin and French folk – really excellent. I particularly like the bass clarinet and the bearded bass player/singer who went from exotic French crooning to growling rock scream. A sort of folky Mr.Bungle!
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