Southwell and Nottingham groups teamed up to give Greenpeace's first ever presence at the Southwell folk festival over the weekend of the 12th and 13th June. The festival takes over the entire village for 3 days with events on at the local pubs as well as occupying a field near the village. A far cry from when it first started its existence on a cricket pitch near Mansfield.
It is now well established on the Midland folk circuit with a lot of well known acts appearing (well known to everyone but me). The festival coincides with the Gate to Southwell procession from Nottingham to Southwell which features local morris dancers, including our very own Dave Mooney.
We were in the marquee with the instrument makers and sellers of ethnic jewellery - not the best spot but at least we were out of the weather. We split it so that Southwell group did Saturday and Nottingham group did Sunday. Trade was steady but a bit slower than we would have liked although we did have the neatest No Tar Sands posters I have ever seen with the most thought provoking comments including a demand to see a risk assessment. Obviously a more intellectual bunch attend folk festivals. One chap told us he knew the person who had designed the Helios logo but then admitted that was a long time ago and they had lost touch. It would have been interesting to see what he thought of all the redesigning that is going on for the tar sands campaign.
Thanks to everyone that helped over the weekend, with a special thanks to Cathy Mackle who came across from Lutterworth and Luke and Dave showed that street comms training really does work!
Someone from the festival came and took a picture of us for their website but I haven't managed to find it yet. We were, as far as I could see, the only NGO there so it was a bit odd but maybe we have started a trend and next year there will be more. We certainly met with a positive response and almost everyone that slowed down to have a look stopped and added to our posters.
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