The Green Gathering

The Green Gathering is a showcase of real life, low-impact alternatives. Its focus is education for sustainability, with the proviso that education should be hands-on and fun. The festival’s strapline is ‘beyond hedonism’ and it aims to provide an environment where creativity can be applied to ecological and social dilemmas.

This translates into a tapestry of skillsharing and entertainment, all powered by wind, sun and people. Campaign stalls and a Speakers’ Forum vie for attention with tiny music stages showcasing up-and-coming and avant garde talent. Performance artists, healers, mystics and tipi dwellers inhabit the festival’s fringes.

Traders and caterers are picked for their ethics and the quality of their wares. Workers’ co-operative stalls, handmade and recycled goods, and organic produce are abundant. There are forays into the surrounding woodland for wild food, and campfires to cook hand-picked produce on. Festival-goers frequently say that attendance at a Green Gathering inspired them to change their outlook and habits.