Two weeks ago I was sitting at home looking through Glastonbury photos from friends and thinking about the missed opportunity to go with Greenpeace for free. Feeling sorry for myself I was stuck at home on the computer when an email came through from my network coordinator. He told me that there were a few spare places to go to the big chill festival in Malvern, Herefordshire. I frantically checked the line up and reached for my phone. Within minutes of receiving the email I had got myself a place at the festival.
A few days later I found myself outside the Greenpeace skate park watching pro-skaters make grinding a half pipe look like a walk in the park. My job was to tell people watching the spectacle about the new Detox campaign. If they seemed interested then I would give them free transfer tattoos or ask them to fill in a petition slip. We then sent the slips to Nike and Adidas challenging them to tell their suppliers to clean up their act over in China. The problem is that toxins used in manufacturing of materials and products are often dumped into the water supply. This causes a loss of health and livelihood for the locals. Although the problem is reasonably straightforward, like most Greenpeace street communication work we were bound to meet a few contrarians. A few days, and a couple of heated debates later we counted over a thousand petition slips filled in.
I don’t know whether it was the fact that I was covered in fake tattoos or the quantity of skaters much younger than me dropping the half-pipes with ease. But for some stupid reason, I woke up on Saturday feeling tough enough to brave the skate park. Needing no warm up I headed straight to the top of one of the pipes. Chris; a fellow Greenpeacer and Skater advised me to get used to the board before dropping in. I reluctantly had a little go and thirty seconds later couldn’t have felt more prepared. Looking down from the top of the pipe it dawned on me that you couldn’t learn Skateboarding in two days just by watching people. But nevertheless and somewhat arrogantly I pressed my front foot down and found myself hurtling towards the floor. It didn’t go quite how I planned and within half a second I was looking up towards the sky flat on my back. So much for beginners luck! I climbed back up to the top and tried one more time. The second time hurt just as badly if not worse than the first. Feeling embarrassed and bloody I limped back to work. One week later I still can’t sleep on my side.
The whole weekend was brilliant and as well as meeting some great new people, I also got to watch a lot of great bands such as Chemical Brothers and Kanye West for free. Sitting at home now I find myself a new fan of James Blake after an amazing set. I can’t wait to get to my next festival and hope to do many more with Greenpeace.
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