the best of the alternative west
summer • issue 61 • june - august 2010
cover WIN! Tickets to 2000 Trees, Croissant Neuf, Larmer Tree, Shambala and Unicorn Camp PLUS a luxury Cotswolds break & Lake District walking holiday DISCOVER: green, food, family, activism, events, news, campaigns, courses FIND: everything from acupucture to zen in our unique A-Z directory
Your 3 month guide to green & ethical living
The Spark
the spark Issue 61 SUMMER edition welcome The natural world is
bursting with life as that long, cold winter fades into memory and we’re cheered by the surge of energy that surrounded the Election in May. We wait to see if a new era of co-operation brings with it positive change. This summer season we turn our spotlight onto stunning high spots in the West. We’ve also got animal healers, pioneering women, inspiring eco projects, activist poets, secular celebrants, and details of special festys to transform your summer. (There’s some gorgeous giveaways, too). See you in the autumn! Love from The Spark team.
three months of life worth living
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ignite events
classes, events, meets, retreats
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out
high up in the West Country hills
festival guide 16
14 out
special camps & festivals glorious high spots all over the West Country
q & a
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activist poet Dennis Gould
Photo Anna Harriott
the team
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ignite
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planet
low impact kit, wild bee saviours
people
(left to right) Vicki West (commissioning editor), Ann Sheldon (advertising manager), Darryl Bullock (business manager), Beccy Golding (production manager), Samantha di Giovanni (accounts) and Will Paice (designer). (not pictured) John Dawson (publisher), Tilly Black (proof reading); Jo Halladey (photography). Contributors: Will Simpson, Chris Mitchell, Hannah Latham, Ken Edmonds, Fiona McClymont, Kate Evans, Jo Middleton, James Murray-White Interns: James Hairsnape, Kristina Lupton
86 Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5BB
Tel: 0117 914 34 34 www.thespark.co.uk
Tuesday to Thursday 10am - 5pm
using the web for your campaign
food family
16 spotlight
the West’s best camps and festivals this summer Photo Jo Halladey
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mind/body/spirit
holistic animal care, menopause
marketplace
32
green goodies, ethical products
spark listings 33 28
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family
changemakers
a new dad’s perspective
‘Once’ Arts & Ceremonies
Please go to the inside back page for our affordable ad rates.
A-Z directory of complementary therapists, eco-services and more
comps, obits 52 beautiful retreats; tributes rear view 53 our resident cartoonist Kate Evans
the small print
Advertisers are advised that all copy is their sole responsibility under the Trade Protection Act. All adverts must comply with the British Code of Advertising Practice. We reserve the right to refuse, amend, withdraw or otherwise deal with advertisements submitted to us at our absolute discretion and without explanation • Blue Sax Publishing Ltd can accept no liability for any loss or damage resulting from omission or inaccuracies relating to telephone numbers, wording, spacing or positioning or other material regardless of how caused • We reserve the right to vary print run by 1000 up or down• Blue Sax Publishing Ltd, who publish The Spark, cannot take any responsibility for the quality of an advertiser’s service or advertiser’s conduct. In choosing an advertiser you may wish to consult the appropriate professional bodies • The Spark title can only be used under current licence from Blue Sax Publishing Ltd • Intellectual copyright remains with the publishers of The Spark - Blue Sax Publishing Ltd© All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without permission of the publishers.
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a dad’s role in childbirth
what we do
our ads
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Codex rumours, herbal licences
(ad enquiries) sales@thespark.co.uk (ad text or alterations) ads@thespark.co.uk (editorial) editor@thespark.co.uk
The UK’s biggest free independent ethical quarterly, The Spark reaches 99,000 readers in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud, Taunton, Glastonbury, Swindon, Bath and Bristol. Our editorial is independent so no advertorials for us. We report on local solutions and people making a difference to their lives and their communities, while our adverts cover a range of ideas to help make the world a better place. We’re looking for new freelance writers (green issues and social change) so get in touch and share your enthusiasm/expertise.
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changemakers 54 ‘Once’ Arts & Ceremonies
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mbs
comps
holistic healing for animals
win! gorgeous holiday breaks
booking form 55 buy an ad to reach 99,000 people
ignite may-june
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compiled by Kristina Lupton
Get involved!
zoom in Bristol Festival of Photography fayre play Between May 29-30 the takes place until June 9 this year. It’s your chance to witness over 80 exhibitions featuring some of the most innovative and stunning examples of photography for miles around. www.bfop.org
annual Eco Veggie Fayre brings a riot of colour, music and delicious food to Bristol’s Waterfront. Fairtrade, eco-activist and veggie/vegan campaigns galore, plus nutrition and cookery workshops for kids. www.bristol.ecoveggiefayre.co.uk
stand up and be… Counted,
June 1-4, staged in the Council Chamber of Bath’s Guildhall, is no ordinary play; the documentarystyle performance asks the question ‘why don’t people vote?’ revealing some pretty insightful stuff about democracy. www.lookleftlookright.com
SWAG! fight for Greenbelt land in Bath BANES council have given developers the go ahead to build 2,000 new houses on greenbelt land south of Bath, between Newbridge Turnpike, Newton St. Loe and The Globe roundabout, on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. Residents of Newton St Loe, local farmers and environmental action group Bath SWAG (South West Area Greenbelt) are opposing the plans. They fear the 2000 homes will act as a catalyst for more development, particularly for the proposed ‘rapid transport system’ which threatens the Bristol to Bath railway path. With many empty buildings and brownfield sites available in Bath, SWAG are asking why valuable agricultural land is being marked for housing, when preserving green spaces for biodiversity and growing food should be our long term priorities in the face of Peak Oil and climate change. This campaign needs support so Bath residents: get involved! Please contact bathswag@live.co.uk for more info
eco-escapism Westonbirt
Arboretum’s new course “Woody Women” aims to empower women through learning woodland skills and crafts. Learn tree folklore and absorb the mind & body-goodness that trees bring. June 5-6. www.forestry.gov.uk
culture club Immerse yourself in a
weekend of Baka culture. Sample the music, food and skills of these African rainforest Pygmy people, and escape from the daily grind on a campsite in an orchard in gloriously green Gloucestershire. June 11-13. www.baka.co.uk
truly green The Somerset Green Fair
& Scythe Festival seeks to celebrate community, and share positive solutions for a changing world, showcasing alternative energy, rural skills, organic food production and creativity. Volunteers welcome and camping is available. June 13. www.greenfair.org.uk
BASICS (Bristol Against Sainsbury’s Insane Colossal Superstore) To object to the new Sainsbury’s at Ashton Gate, email development.management@bristol.gov.uk and quote planning reference number 10/00812/P. BASICS oppose the development on the grounds of increased traffic and CO2 emissions; and negative impacts on local wildlife, water quality and people. www.basicsashtongate.co.uk
A social afternoon for older men who fancy a pint and some company takes place every Wednesday afternoon, 2-5pm, at St Georges Hall Wetherspoons Pub in Redfield, Bristol. £1.49 a pint of Ruddles, cards and cribbage to hand. Ask for Mike Purnell. Bristol World Naked Bike Ride 2010 takes place June 13. Body paint, underwear, wigs, glasses, swimwear and all other creative expression strongly encouraged! Leisurely pace. Nudity is not an offence: come and have fun and promote Car Free Sundays in the city. The World Naked Bike Ride is a symbol of the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic and a protest against oil dependency. Organisers say: “most riders find the experience exhilarating, liberating, empowering... and downright hilarious!”. Facebook group Bristol World Naked Bike Ride. http://bikebeard.blogspot.com email queenofthewombles@gmail.com Sylvie 07961 225053
Free Bus Campaign Calling for free public transport at the point of use. Let’s get our cities moving! Email freebusbristol@googlemail.com www.freepublictransport.org.uk
frome improvement
The beinghuman weekend June 18-20 celebrates a host of independent, innovative musicians, artists, comedians, writers and film-makers including Talvin Singh, Mongolian Band Altan Urag, and the Afro Celt Sound System. Essential. www.beinghuman.com
discover and celebrate
wildlife behind the lens Retreat to the stunning Chew Valley between June 23-25 and be expertly taught the art of filming animals in their natural environment. The course includes accommodation and equipment and runs from Avon Wildlife Trust’s Folly Farm centre. www.follyfarm.org
bee different Our honey bee
Refugee Week takes place between June 10-20 and events are happening across the UK. At the Pierian Centre in Bristol, the refugee experience is explored through art, food, film and music from around the world. Get involved!
population needs nourishing and protecting. Monkton Wyld Court is running a beekeeping course for beginners this summer between June 8-10 & June 22-24, hosted by beekeeping expert David Wisecombe. Learn the secrets of the bees, visit hives and help the planet’s pollinators!
www.refugeeweek.org.uk, www.pierian-centre.com
www.monktonwyldcourt.co.uk
almanac
Full moons: May 27 (sunrise 5.06am; sunset 9.14pm), June 26 (sunrise 4.57am; sunset 9.54pm) and July 26 (sunrise 5.28am; sunset 9.10pm). Longest day June 21 with 16 hours 38 minutes daylight! Spark 62 published August 23.
Birthdays, anniversaries, etc: June 3 is the feast day of Saint Kevin, the patron saint of blackbirds, and the birthday (in 1906) of the jazz-age star of screen and stage Josephine Baker; World Environment Day takes place on June 5, used by the UN to promote worldwide awareness of environmental
issues; Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12 1964; June 30 is a big day for fans of Wuthering Heights, as it marks the birthdays of both authoress Emily Bronte (1818) and songstress Kate Bush (1968); July 10 is the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow
Create a woollen brain neuron which will join hundreds of others to raise money for a head injury charity and become an art installation at Bristol’s Brain Imaging Centre, opening later this year. Free knitting and crochet pattern http://knitaneuron.blogspot.com
Add Your Blog to Bristol Indymedia Blog Feed
www.bristol.indymedia.org/contact (see p.22 for more on blogs)
Bristol Cycling Festival takes place this September, 11-25. Get Involved and organise a bike film/silly race/art/practical demo/other fun event! There is some funding availble from Bristol City Council, energy and folk to organise are needed. www.bristolcyclefestival.com
Warrior, Greenpeace’s iconic ship, by the French secret service; August 9 is the UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous People; the Islamic festival of Ramadan starts on August 12; the late Christopher Robin Milne (son of AA Milne) would have celebrated his 90th birthday on August 21.
ignite july-august
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delectable delights!
July 24 sees the return of the Bristol Wine & Food Fair, offering exquisite wine and food tasting, as well as the newly added International Dining Area & a children’s cookery competition. www.bristolwineandfoodfair.co.uk
Many activists from the South West travelled to Copenhagen in December 2009 to take part in peaceful protests surrounding the climate talks. Two activists from elsewhere in the world now stand accused of terrorism-related offences allegedly committed during this time. Australian Natasha Verco and American Noah Weiss were both involved in non-violent direct action in Copenhagen as part of the Climate Justice Action Network. Both were arrested and held without charge for three weeks in Denmark, and now face charges of organising violence, organising public disorder, significant damage to property, and organising disorder. If convicted, they face up to 12 years in prison. Their trial continues in August. Messages of solidarity and messages to the Danish Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs can be sent through the Climate Justice Action website. www.climate-justice-action.org
musical infusion Get sucked in by the infectious energy of Django Reinhardt as music
makers Evan Christopher, David Blenkhorn, Dave Kelbie and Sebastien Girardot interpret and recreate the rhythms of the legendary jazz musician in their acclaimed performance Django A La Creole. For one night only, at Wiltshire Music Centre on July 10. www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk
frome-tastic 10 days of music, drama,
film, photography, green issues, multi-media and more. The Green Frome Festival attracts people from all over the world and its diverse and energetic events promise not to disappoint. July 9-18. www.fromefestival.co.uk
A ‘Manifesto for Motherhood’ is what Amnesty and a coalition of organisations are asking for. Join their call for improved care, information and services for women of reproductive age everywhere. Email our leaders! (Talking of Amnesty, their Annual Garden Party will take place in Bristol on Sunday August 8 this year at Goldney Hall, Bristol, 1pm-5.30pm £5/under 16s free!) www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details. asp?ActionID=683 Amnesty Annual Garden Party Bristol email: helenbristolamnesty@hotmail.co.uk
Tree Aid is organising a 130km Cycle Challenge around the Avon Cycleway on June 19. Participants aim to raise at least £100 each to buy a bike for an African family. 8.30am start, Cleve Rugby Club, Mangotsfield, Bristol. www.treeaid.org.uk/cyclechallenge
POWER2010 is a people-powered, grassroots campaign calling for parliamentary reform in the UK. Find events/protests in your area. www.takebackparliament.com
eccentric poetry for all vintage thrills If it’s traditional, The eccentric & smile-inducing poet, Murray Lachlan Young, presents his own work: ‘Modern Cautionary Tales For Children’ on July 17 at The Egg, at Bath Theatre Royal. Will appeal to kids and adults alike: bring wigs and pigs’ noses!
family fun you’re after, look no further than Carters Steam Fair. The Carter family spend winter creating and maintaining beautiful, charismatic fair attractions that they showcase during the rest of the year. Seafront Lawns, Weston Super Mare. August 1-30
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
www.carterssteamfair.co.uk
cook up a storm Get back to nature with a ‘Pick and Cook’ course centred around foraging, cooking and eating good, seasonal grub! Create an edible masterpiece from the gifts of the garden and enjoy it with wine or cider at the end of the day. Aug 14 near Cardiff. www.ediblelandscaping.co.uk/courses.html
watch it! Food Inc Exposé of the American fast food industry. www.foodincmovie.co.uk
The Turning Point: A Return To Community Get excited about living in low impact communities www.theturningpointfilm.co.uk
Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore’s insightful history of capitalism www.michaelmoore.com
The Journey Inspiring stories from around the world thejourneytv.moonfruit.com
‘Money As Debt’ series
Buddha-full A collection of sacred
Buddhist relics is touring the world, aiming to inspire people of all spiritual traditions and paths. The collection includes relics relating to the Buddha and his closest disciples, and various Buddhist masters. At Bath Guildhall from August 20-22 www.maitreyaproject.org
did you know? Dharma Day, which takes place on July 26, is an important day in the Buddhist calendar marking the beginning of the teachings of Buddha. Soon after his Enlightenment Buddha went to his former disciples to
out and proud There’s a full week of activities lined up for Bristol’s first proper Pride
event in years from August 14. A huge celebration of the best that the area’s LGBT community has to offer, Pride Bristol 2010 includes film screenings, live perfomance, art exhibitions and more, and will culminate in a march through the city and massive party in Bristol’s historic Castle Park on August 22. To find out more about what’s happening, or to offer your services to the band of volunteers steering the event, check out www.pridebristol.com share his experience with them. Dharma Day celebrates this event, recognising it as the start of the Buddhist religion. The first teaching to Buddha’s disciples is known as The First Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma. In early Buddhism, the period around Dharma Day (the eighth lunar month in the traditional Indian calendar)
marked the beginning of the monsoon season. Buddha and his followers would give up their nomadic lifestyle for three months, sheltering and meditating together until the rains were over. They would then resume their travelling, passing on his Buddha’s teachings to all who listened. Today, Dharma day is used as an opportunity to express
The history of banking explained in a clear, easy animation http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=_doYllBk5No
Requiem for Detroit? The first post-industrial city? Exciting times… www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Requiem+for +Detroit&aq=f
gratitude that Buddha and other teachers have shared their enlightenment with others. It is usually celebrated with readings from Buddhist scriptures, often in a temple, Buddhist centre or monastery in the presence of monks or nuns.
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three months of essential events. to place your ad call 0117 914 3434 • 80p a word
regular events Wednesdays Bristol Feral Choir - improvised vocal/singing sessions and performances. Fun, feral and friendly! You’re welcome to come and try it out to see if it’s your bag, or email with questions. Cost £6/£4 concessions. Discount for termly booking. Find us on Facebook, call 07837 599239 or email: bristolferalchoir@gmail.com Wednesdays
summer
Saturday 12 June
New Dimensions A monthly meeting of like-minded people to hear talks on a wide range of esoteric subjects
Sunday 20th June 2010 ENHANCE YOUR LIFE WITH ‘LIFE UPGRADE’ Tracy Holloway Sunday 18th July 2010 OUR ASCENSION INTO NEW DIMENSIONS Chris Bourne Sunday 19th September 2010 SPIRITUAL HEALING THROUGH HERBS Nathan Hughes Held at: The Friends’ Meeting House, 126 Hampton Road, Redland, Bristol. BS6 6JE Everyone welcome. Refreshments included 3.00pm – 5.00pm Entrance £5.00
Ffi please contact 01225 722963 leasurs@tiscali.co.uk
The Wednesday Zen Meeting. 7.15pm-9pm, Fulcrum House, 3 Grove Road, BS6 6UJ. 0117 9632505 info@wednesdayzenmeeting.org.uk
may Wednesday 26 May Creative Beatboxing course with Vid Warren & Mel McCree. Learn the basics and experiment in Bristol’s only beatbox choir! Taster session Weds May 26 7-9.30pm, followed by 4 week course Weds June 9, 16, 23 & 30. www.bristolferalchoir.org.uk www.vidwarren.com
Saturdays & every 2nd Weds Your Community Clinic; making therapies affordable. Aimed at those on low/modest incomes, everyone welcome. A wide range of low-cost treatments are offered by a team of professional therapists dedicated to raising awareness of holistic treatments and their benefits in the community. FFI: venues, dates, etc. www.yourcommunityclinic.com or call Teresa (for Wednesdays) 0798 224 3804, Saturdays 0780 973 6187
Thurs 27 May - Tues 1 June Vegi Ventures Peak District Walking Holiday, Derbyshire. Good company, good food and a choice of gentle or more challenging walks every day. Call us for a brochure or visit our web sites. Tel: 01760 755888 www.vegiventures.com & www.yuvaholidays.com
Second Saturday monthly
june
2pm-4.30pm Divine Embrace Meditation and Group Healing Transmission of Christ Consciousness www.divineembrace.co.uk 0117 986 2675 healing@divineembrace.co.uk
until June 7 Poetry Competition, £1000 first prize. Raising funds for EKO. Closing date 7 June. For more info visit www.educatingkenyanorphans.co.uk
One Sunday per month Energy Self-Healing. Learn how to develop your own health, emotional, mental and spiritual balance using powerfully effective energy exercises and self-healing techniques. Monthly web seminars, places are limited so register early. Plus download your Free webinar, the first in the series ‘Awareness’ from www.energyselfhealing.com
Friday 4 - Sunday 6 June Traditional Building Skills: Working with Lime. Residential Weekend Courses at Over the Rainbow Cardigan Bay. Also July 9th-11th. Contact: info@overtherainbowwales.co.uk Saturday 5 June Good Mental Health Workshop: Word Power with Elanora Ferry. Interactive storytelling and creative writing workshop. 10.30–1pm. £4/£2. Held at Bristol Mind, 35 Old Market Street, Bristol. Ffi: email: sishbristol@yahoo.co.uk
Second Sunday monthly Chocolate for the Soul Retreat . An opportunity to experience the joy of your soul in magical surroundings. ‘Being’ and creating in nature. De-stress, laugh, receive a healing transmission, recharge and enjoy the awakening of your senses . www.divineembrace.co.uk 0117 9862675 healing@divineembrace.co.uk
Saturday 5 June Learn to make natural skincare. Bristol. www.goodnessandwonder.co.uk 0797 640 3829 Wednesday 9 June Introduction to Reflexology. 6 week course. Wednesdays 7.15pm-9pm. Bath Reflexology Centre. www.bathreflexologycentre.co.uk 0117 932 2912
Sunday 13 June Green Scythe Fair. Thorney Lakes, Muchelney, Somerset TA10 0DW. Family day out/ weekend camping available. Scything championship, traditional crafts/ stalls (until 6.30), live music, speakers, kids activities, local food, cider and beer. Dogs on leads welcome. 11am til 11pm, last entry 7pm. Adults £5, accompanied children free. See www.greenfair.org www.thescytheshop.co.uk/festival.html for more information Thursday 17 June Early Bird deadline for The Spark Autumn issue 62. Especially good for advertising your courses, training and workshop programmes. 0117 914 34 34 sales@thespark.co.uk Friday 18 - Sunday 20 June The Independent Yoga Network’s Midsummer Yoga Festival. Leela Centre, Dorset. Workshops by some of the most experienced Yoga teachers in the UK. This will be a great chance to meet new people and network with others in the Yoga community, to debate and share, to practise and relax, and to enjoy! The family friendly event includes the Suryah children’s club, music, dance, evening campfires, sauna, delicious vegetarian food, warm and friendly atmosphere, beautiful group rooms and a range of comfortable accommodation. The Independent Yoga Network is a not-for-profit organisation of Yoga Teachers and Teacher Training Schools committed to maintaining and promoting the freedom, independence and integrity of Yoga. By Yogis, for Yoga! To make a booking online or for further information visit the website: www.yogafestival.org.uk or call 01902 689218 Saturday 19 June Like trees? Love cycling? Then get on your bike for the 2010 Tree Aid Cycle Challenge. Ride 130 km around the beautiful Avon Cycleway to raise money for Tree Aid. £100 can help rural African families cycle out of poverty with a new bike so they can collect water, take their children to school and transport tree products to market. www.treeaid.org.uk/cyclechallenge Charity No: 1135156 Saturday 19 June Make natural skincare for babies and children. www.goodnessandwonder.co.uk 0797 640 3829
ignite
three months of life. to place your ad call us on 0117 914 3434 or email ads@thespark.co.uk 80p a word
Sunday 20 June Mayan Calendar Workshop. 01458 835506 www.stargaia.com Sunday 20 June
Saturday 3 July Good Mental Health Workshop: Healthy Eating to lift your spirits with Bearnie DeMonick. Cooking to help lift your mood and recipes to try at home. 10.30–1pm. £4/£2. Held at Bristol Mind, 35 Old Market Street, Bristol. Ffi: email: sishbristol@yahoo.co.uk
Saturday 10 July
Saturday July 17
Saturday 10 - Sunday 11 July Sacred Earth. One-day traditional 4-round sweat lodge ceremonies. In the Bristol/Bath area. Details: Mel 0117 951 2639 www.melaniewright.org.uk
Thursday 22 July Final deadline for an ad in The Spark Autumn issue 62. Its not too late to get in and reach our many, many, lovely readers (that includes you!). 0117 914 34 34 sales@thespark.co.uk
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Saturday 31 July - Sun 1 August
Tuesday 6 & Fri 9 - Sun 11 July
Wed 23 – Sun 27 June Satsang with Satyananda. Be present with Satyananda, a living master transmitting his message of truth and freedom through clear dialogue. 23rd - 25th at 7.30pm, 26th & 27th at 1.30pm & 4.30pm. Venue: SoundWorks Bristol, BS3 1NW. www.satyananda.org 0117 944 1618
Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 July
Friday 23 - Sunday 25 July Sacred Earth Camps: Bear Shamanic Healers Lodge. Building the bridge to a personal shamanic world view of healing and wholeness. £125 includes food, sweat lodge. Details 01884 881467 www.sacred-earth-camps.co.uk
Tuesday 6 - Saturday 10 July
Thursday 24 June Indian Raga Concert by master musicians, Pandit Barun Kumar Pal playing Hansa Veena (www.barunpalhansaveena.net) and Subhajyoti Guha on Tabla (www.subhajyoti.com). Matara Centre, Gloucestershire (www.matara.co.uk), 7.30pm. Tickets £12/10. Bookings: 01453 767061 or mail@innatemusic.co.uk Friday 25 June - Tuesday 3 July LandTime, rite of passage for young adults 17-25, Dartmoor. Jeremy Thres 01647 221444 OJL1@btconnect.com Saturday 26 June Intuitive Dance and Contact Improvisation Class. Dance workshops with a difference! Gain confidence giving and receiving weight, doing simple lifts and using your whole body to express yourself through dance. No experience necessary. £6/£4, 10-13.30. Jubilee Hall, Wedmore Vale, Bedminster, Bristol. For more info contact Naia: shiatsusouthwales@gmail.com 01291641663
july Saturday 3 - Sunday 4 July Heal Your Life Weekend – Future Inn, Cardiff. Fed up with bad relationships, poor health or life in general? This is for you. Visit www.aplacefortheheart.co.uk or call Gillian (certified by Louise Hay) on 029 207 10744
Fri 23, Sat 24 & Sun 25 July The Template: Sacred Geometry Activation. 01458 835506 www.stargaia.com
Thursday 8 - Sunday 11 July
Monday 12 July Nurses everywhere are warmly invited to the Florence Nightingale Centenary Lecture. Speaker: Professor Barbara Dossey, CoDirector, Nightingale Initiative for Global Health. 10.30am-3pm, Penny Brohn Cancer Care, Bristol. Lecture, buffet lunch and tours of the Centre. All nurses welcome. Donation only. Booking: www.eazybook.com/nightingale
Tuesday 27 July Chanting for Inner Peace. Weekly chanting sessions to quiet the mind and open the heart. 0117 9021829 www.timchalice.webs.com Wed 28 July - Sun 1 August Glastonbury Goddess Conference, with Fringe events from 26th July. The best Goddess event in the world! Info: www.goddessconference.com e-mail: goddessconference@ ukonline.co.uk Tel: 01458 831518
Friday 16 - Sunday 18 July Buqi for Horses – Equine Healing in Dorset with Dr Shen Hongxun. For all interested in Equine healing or Buqi Healing. Horses hormonal, nervous and musculo-skeletal systems can be brought into balance by working on their energy pathways. This course teaches the use of Buqi energy forces to treat all animals. Fee: £220 Contact: jo@buqiforhorses.com see: www. buqiforhorses.com
august Friday 6 & Saturday 7 August Sing Africa: A summer weekend workshop with Withywood Community Choir at the Withywood Centre. £15 Friday eve, 7.30-9.30pm & Saturday morning 10am-12noon. Places limited, book early. 01275 851309 liznailsea@yahoo.co.uk Saturday 7 August Good Mental Health Workshop: Light Box Happiness Workshop. This workshop uses Japanese book-binding to learn about positive thinking. 10.30–1pm. £4/£2. Held at Bristol Mind, 35 Old Market Street, Bristol. Ffi: email: sishbristol@yahoo.co.uk Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 August Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza 2010. Saturday: Madness supported by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. Sunday: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicola Benedetti plus guests. Fantastic firework display both nights! Bring a picnic! Adults £30 per night (adv) children £15. Group discounts available. Free park & ride from Clarks Village, Street. To book call 01458 834596 www.glastonburyextravaganza.co.uk
the future at your fingertips for only 80p a word 10
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three months of life. to place your ad call us on 0117 914 3434 or email ads@thespark.co.uk 80p a word
Sunday 8 August
Friday 20 - Sunday 22 August
Saturday 4 September Good Mental Health Workshop: Dance Movement Therapy with Emma and Pat. 10.30–1pm. £4/£2. Held at Bristol Mind, 35 Old Market Street, Bristol. Ffi: email: sishbristol@yahoo.co.uk Sat 4 – Thurs 9 September Chris James presents the Healing Power of Sound Residential Training Level 1. Lighthouse Centre, Tytherington, Frome. Carmel 07702 625835 www.chrisjames.net
Tuesday 10 - Sunday 15 August
Monday 23 August New Spark out today! August issue 62. Roll up, roll up, get one while its still hot off the press! 0117 914 34 34 sales@thespark.co.uk Sat 28 – Sun 29 August Chris James presents Transformation Through Sound. Discover your true self through your voice and the healing power of sound. Oxford OX2 7EZ. Earlybird £140 before 1st June. £170 after. Sue 01491 652110 www.chrisjames.net
Tuesday 10 - Sunday 15 August Tribe of Doris Intercultural Summer School. Celebrating spirit through drum, dance, song and ceremony. Teachers from around the world, over forty workshops a day, youth and children’s area. All ages, abilities and cultures welcome but book early as this event will sell out! www.tribeofdoris.co.uk doris@ tribeofdoris.co.uk 0845 458 0190 Friday 13 & Saturday 14 August Sing Africa: A summer weekend workshop with Voxpop at the URC Church, Nailsea. £15 Friday eve, 7.30-9.30pm & Saturday morning 10am-12noon. Places limited, book early. 01275 851309 liznailsea@yahoo.co.uk Tuesday 17 - Monday 23 August LandTime, introduction to rites of passage for young adults. Gill Westcott and Jeremy Thres 01647 221444 OJL1@btconnect.com
september
Sat 4 - 11 & Sat 11 - 18 Sep English Lake District Walking Holidays. Friendly and relaxed; fabulous location on the shores of Buttermere; week 1 gentle pace, week 2 moderate pace. Call us for a brochure or visit our web sites. Tel: 01760 755888 www.vegiventures.com & www.yuvaholidays.com
classifieds accommodation to let Somerset Cottage to Let. Four bedrooms, farmhouse kitchen, central heating, woodstove, oak floors, beams, large garden adjoining open fields, vegetable patch, shared or family let, £950 pcm neg. 01761 439024
houses for sale Detached Bungalow With Hydrotherapy Pool. In delightful village near Stroud. Four bedrooms, two receptions, energy-efficient heated indoor pool, easy gardens. Level access to shops/amenities. £324,950. tradingpoetry@yahoo.co.uk
Mon 6 - Wed 15 September Desert Island Retreat including Taiji, Qi Gong and Meditation. Lampedusa, Sicilly. Tel. 01594 531129 www.spineworks.info Sat 11 – Tues 14 September Chris James presents the Healing Power of Sound Residential Training Level 3. Lighthouse Centre, Tytherington, Frome. Carmel 07702 625835 www.chrisjames.net
october
Friday 1 - Sunday 3 October Esoteric Soul Healing. Year long Training in Glastonbury with Kathy Jones, begins October 1st-3rd, 2010. Learn to heal yourself and others. For beginners and those who want to deepen their healing practice into the inner levels of the soul. Info: www.kathyjones.co.uk e-mail: kathy.jones@ukonline.co.uk Tel: 01458 831518 Saturday 23 October Training in reflexology at Bath Reflexology Centre, full professional course starting now. www.bathreflexologycentre.co.uk 0117 932 2912 Saturday 30 October Free Vegan Food Fair Broadmead Baptist Church, 12 -4pm. Find out more about veganism. Lots of free food! All welcome www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/ veganfoodfair
november Fri 12 - Sun 14 November Salsa Residential Weekend: Over the Rainbow, Cardigan Bay, with Tutor Norma Daykin. All welcome. Contact: info@overtherainbowwales.co.uk
positions available Are You A Natural Assistant? Want A Change From The 9 To 5 Workday? Lively disabled woman values: positivity and the simple things in life Loves: fresh air, trees, gardening, good food, music and alternative lifestyles Requires: facilitated assistance with all aspects of daily life, practical personal support, and mobility on a 24 x 7 basis (but please note: this is Not a care position). This job involves all types of driving, a varied work day, adaptability. dependability, and the capacity to be pro-active, focussed and ‘on the go.’ Essential requirements: • female • 25 yrs+ • full clean driving licence & one year’s driving experience • fluent written and spoken English. Also: • hardworking • practical • self-motivated • fast learner • high level of physical fitness and stamina. Gross Pay: £7.66/£8.96 per hour. Block shifts: 24 hrs+. Location: Keynsham/Bristol area. Please text your name and address to request written details and application pack to 0798 481 9469 This advert complies with Section 7(2b) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975
Get into Festivals Free or even get paid! Network Recycling works at festivals to ensure the entire site is tidy and free from litter as much as possible. We need your help to achieve this at WOMAD, Shambala, Solfest, Glade, Lounge on the Farm, End of the Road and many more. We offer a full adult pass, a meal per shift and crew camping in exchange for your time and commitment. If paid work is more your thing, then we are now recruiting crew and drivers to work over the summer. See website for details: www.eventrecycling.co.uk or telephone: 0117 955 5520
Spark Designer Can you design display ads for us? Are you an experienced art worker? Are you a good team player with a great sense of humour? You need to be perfect in photoshop, cheerful with customers, irrepressible in indesign and professional in production. Days are not fixed but are around 10/12 days per issue, and you need to be flexible at deadlines. Work is based at our office in Bristol. Payment at standard rates (£10.50ph: everyone earns the same here!) CVs and pdfs to darryl@thespark.co.uk by June 4.
Spark bookkeeper We need a part-time bookkeeper (1 day per week) to make sure that bills are paid on time, invoices get paid on time and we get our wages on time. Based at our office in Bristol, you need to be used to working with MYOB and have an understanding of databases. Payment is at our standard rate (£10.50ph: we all earn the same!) CVs by June 4 please to darryl@thespark.co.uk.
think you can do better? we’re looking for talented new writers. email editor@thespark.co.uk for details
coming in the next issue, full results of the
Spark readers survey 2010
we know that you are concerned about animal welfare, organic food and climate change; you’ve told us that you like to go to concerts and the theatre, that more than 90% of you holiday in the UK (despite the weather) and that an impressive 79% of our wonderful Spark readers have volunteered at one time or another.
we think you’re amazing. to keep up to date with what’s happening, and to read new and exclusive Spark-y stuff, go to
www.thespark.co.uk
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ignitehigh times OUT!
three months of essential events and more • 80p a word
12 14
Will Simpson packs a picnic and runs to the hills, reporting back on some of the West’s most beautiful vistas…
Ebbor Gorge, Somerset Cleeve Hill, Glos
Symonds Yat, Herefordshire
Cradled between the counties of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, Symonds Yat itself is the rock that towers over the River Wye, providing spectacular views over the river’s curve and the nearby Forest of Dean. Symonds Yat is part of two long distance walks: the Wye Valley walk and the Offa’s Dyke path. Climbers and stargazers alike love this part of the country, and keen bird watchers can often glimpse goshawks and buzzards hovering above its 394 ft drop. After your climb, you can hire canoes by the hour for a pleasant punt down the river, with one of the watering holes there operating a “hand pull” ferry where a boatman wynches you across the river on an overhead rope. The rock’s name comes from Robert Symonds, sheriff of Herefordshire in the 17th Century, ‘yat’ being an archaic word for ‘gate’ or ‘pass’.
Glastonbury Tor, Somerset
Gloucestershire has a plentiful supply of beautiful countryside, picture postcard villages and, of course, stunning views. Cleeve Hill offers one of the finest, being, at 1083 ft, the highest point in the whole of the Cotswolds. On a clear day you can see over to the Black Mountains of Wales and right down to Exmoor. It also affords a half decent vantage point over Cheltenham racecourse. Close to the summit is a neolithic ‘long barrow’, one of the large rectangular earth mounds that are believed to have been mass burial sites for prehistoric peoples. Apart from walking, Cleeve is popular with rock climbers (who can often be glimpsed clambering up the part of the hill known as Castle Rock) and golfers: since Victorian times it has been home to a rather challenging golf course.
The 521 ft hill that towers over the Isle of Avalon and offers a beautiful 360° view out over the Somerset Levels is associated with all sorts of mystical ephemera. For centuries it was closely linked to Arthurian legends and was thought to be the burial site of the King and his Queen Guinevere. We do know that the Tor was originally an iron age hill fort that remained in use until the 5th Century AD and monks’ cells from as early as 900 AD have been found cut into the hillside. Spring water from the ‘White Spring’ issues from the Tor and ‘Red Spring’ water can be collected from Chalice Well below. The tower that remains today is the ruins of the medieval St Michael’s church, destroyed by a minor earthquake that hit southern England in 1275. St Michael’s was rebuilt but only survived until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. The Tor sits on the Michael Line, that if drawn on a map cuts through 20 natural and man-made sacred, ancient sites in southern England.
One of the hidden treasures of the Mendips, Ebbor Gorge was formed thousands of years ago by the same geological process that created its more illustrious companion over at Cheddar. Lying just outside the village of Priddy, Ebbor Gorge sits in front of Hope Wood, a pretty, mossy woodland area which, with is a haven for all kinds of flora and fungi, including butterflies, birds and bats. The Spark crew saw four wild deer on our last foray up there! The walk up to the look-out point sees you scrambling up along the course of a gentle waterfall, whereupon a short meander through the woods leads to the top of the gorge. The view – out over the Somerset Levels – is pretty special. As you come out of Ebbor and retreat down to the hill into the village of Priddy, there’s another look-out spot on your left, complete with picnic tables and lovingly crafted wooden seats.You can take in Glastonbury Tor to the East and see right out to the Bristol Channel to your right. The birdsong up here is lovely and you’ll get less crowds than in the neighbouring, and more touristy, Cheddar Gorge.
Bristol Planetarium
Maes Knoll, Somerset
It is thought that this Iron Age hill fort was originally constructed circa 250 BC by a local offshoot of the Dobbuni tribe, a celtic grouping that lived in what nowadays is North Somerset and Gloucestershire. After the Romans came it fell into disuse although it might have been revived after the legions left in 410 AD. Later, during the Second World War, the hill housed a corrugated iron hut where Dundry Home Guard would keep a look out for potential air raids over the city. Often known as ‘the tump’, the summit offers a fantastic view over across the whole Chew Valley. In the other direction you get an amzing view back out over Bristol and as far as the Severn Bridge.
Looking for a great view in the middle of the city? Tired of the view from our window, The Spark team took a trip to Bristol’s Planetarium, located in the giant disco ball in Bristol’s Millennium Square. The ball is, TARDIS -like, much bigger inside than it looks. A cinema screen extends around the top half of the ball. As the lights lowered we looked up into the orangey, lightpolluted glow of the city sky at night. Then our chirpy presenter Naomi invited us into the middle of the countryside, flicked a switch and, to the audible gasps of the school group sitting near us, dark descended and we were sitting below the full glory of the deep, dark, star-splattered sky. It really was quite beautiful and we murmured and ‘wow!’-ed along with the kids as Naomi pointed out constellations, stars and planets.
Westbury Hill, Wilts
Worcestershire Beacon
The highest point of the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire Beacon stands at nearly 1,400 feet above sea level and in terms of scope, offers a view beyond compare in the region. At the summit (assuming it’s a clear day) you can see as far as Shropshire, the mountains of Wales, down to the Bristol Channel and across to Birmingham. Indeed, standing at the top it’s somewhat mind-boggling to think that in an easterly direction there’s no higher land mass standing between you and the Russian Ural mountains. For decades climbers could look forward to the prospect of liquid refreshment as there was a small cafe situated at the Beacon’s summit. Alas, the cafe burned down in 1989 and attempts to rebuild it were thwarted in the House Of Lords because of conservation issues.
A 25-minute planetarium show is included in the price of an At-Bristol ticket. Book the show you want to attend on arrival. Three different shows available, suitable for school groups, under 5s and 5+. www.at-bristol.org.uk/thepla netarium
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This escarpment on the edge of the Bratton Downs on Salisbury Plain is best known as the location of the Westbury White Horse, and this high point offers panoramic views right across Wiltshire. The county is famous for its carved chalk horse figures and Westbury is thought to be the oldest, dating back to Anglo Saxon times. According to local legend Alfred The Great commissioned the carving of the figure but executed the architect when he designed the horse the wrong way round: it should have been facing towards Westbury instead of riding out of town! In 1778 the horse was entirely recut, apparently because its designer – the steward to the Lord Of Abingdon – felt that with its short stubbly legs and long body it was not a good enough representation of a horse!
The Bath School of Shiatsu & Yoga 1 day workshop Saturday September 11th Foundation course Starts September 25th/27th 1st year training Starts November For more information call: 01225 859209 www.bssy.co.uk 15
camps & festies special
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Camping it up
JUNE
Sunrise Celebration
Somerset • 3-6 June • £105/£115 on the gate www.sunrisecelebration.com Experience… Sustainable energy innovations; carnival field run by The Invisible Circus; the Pussyfoot cocktail/cabaret bar; speakers Jonathan Cainer, Mark Boyle and Mark Thomas; Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Canteen; world dance area; fire walk; kids adventure field; folk/world/dub/ska/reggae/dance music Check the Sunrise Celebration website for details of their Off Grid festival planned for August 2010. Details yet to be confirmed as we went to press…
Wychwood
Cheltenham Racecourse • 4-6 June • £110 www.wychwoodfestival.com Experience… music from a plethora of local bands; kids dance workshops in collaboration with the English National Ballet; storytelling from the Roald Dahl storytelling museum; quirky cinema, tons of live music
Leamington Peace Festival
Leamington Spa • 19-20 June • £FREE www.peacefestival.org.uk Experience… one of the UK’s longest running free festivals; live music, workshops, kids’ activities and over 150 stalls, with lots of info on charities and campaigning groups
The 3 Wishes Faery Fest
Photo Brian Tomlinson
Bodmin, Cornwall • 18-20 June • £89 www.3wishesfaeryfest.co.uk Experience… a whirling spectacle of faery folklore; midsummer celebrations; storytelling from tree dryads; ‘goblin’ drummers; dancing into the wee
Druid Camp 2010
Forest of Dean TBC • 14-18 July • £85 www.druidcamp.org.uk Experience… ceremony, ritual, circle dancing, storytelling, acoustic music, talks from respected elders, bands from the protest, pagan and folk scene; quiet time in the forest; ‘Stav’ workshops (Nordic martial art based on the Runes)
Photo Brian Tomlinson
T
his year our smorgasboard of camps and festys has been hand-picked to give you the best of what our region has to offer this summer. We’ve searched for the grassroots events that have emerged from a desire to create something a bit special. They all have a low impact ethos, are not chained to the corporate dollar and encapsulate festival spirit in the true, old-fashioned sense. They exist to celebrate art, music, spirituality and community. We’ve stuck to festys that are either situated in or around the West Country or have strong West Country roots. We have also stuck to weekend-or-longer events where you can camp. For obvious reasons Glastonbury needs no listing. We’ll give you only standard adult weekend ticket prices here, but DO CHECK websites for info on concessions, day prices and kids’ prices. For a really detailed listing of camps all around the UK, see also the excellent www.campscene-directory.co.uk (send them an SAE for a free copy).
Glade
Larmer Tree
Wiltshire/Dorset border • 14-18 July • £184 www.larmertreefestival.co.uk Experience… intimate festy of 4,000 people; Victorian gardens complete with peacocks; gourmet food galore, lazy picnics under the trees, family vibes, real ale, country garden ambience, folk/roots/world music, tons of workshops, carnival procession for kids, pristine toilets!
Buddhafield
hours; Celtic/folk music aplenty, fancy faery dress
Gold Coast Ocean Fest
Croyde Bay • 18-20 June • £35 www.goldcoastoceanfest.co.uk Experience… an ecologically conscious beach fest, beach volleyball, beach soccer, skate demos, professional water sport comps, live music at sundown, eco-exhibits, workshops for kids, “sampling booths and simulators!”
Buddhafield
Taunton • 14-18 July • £105 www.buddhafield.com Experience… wind and solar-powered festy; a drug and alcohol-free space; radical workshops on everything from sustainability, permaculture and social change to dharma, shamanic journeying
Spirit Seekers Camp
Wrexham • 18-20 June • £65 www.natureactivitymusicalretreat.vpweb.co.uk Experience… camping in 12 acres of ancient woodland, morning yoga, circle dancing, shamanic drumming, power chanting, mask making, hand massage, campfire stories, Summer Solstice celebration and more…
My Festival Summer Alex Holland, Roustabout
Shambala
and tantra; all forms of bodywork including yoga, tai chi and dance; live music, cinema, arts and crafts, kids/teen spaces, wood-fired showers, veggie/vegan cafes, saunas
Glade
JULY
Somerset • 15-18 July • £135 www.gladefestival.com Experience… a creative, subversive dance party; all genres of electronic music; late late nights, ‘twisted’ cabaret, colourful characters, interstellar circus, art installations, small funky venues
Beyond The Border Wales
S.Wales • 2-4 July • £80 (wknd) www.beyondtheborder.com Experience… an international storytelling festival set in the grounds of a castle; the South Wales coastline nearby; stories that encompass traveller’s tales, stories/songs from Celtic Britain, Armenia, Egypt and West Africa, 1001 Nights, Silk Road stories, plus “tales to sustain”
2000 Trees
Pagan Federation Myddle Earth Summer Camp
North Wales • 2-4 July • £30 www.myddle-earth.info Experience… ritual, lectures, workshops and entertainment during the day; Pagan bands in the evening; storytelling ’til midnight; a central fire for storytelling and acoustic music into the early hours…
Roustabout have been putting up Big Tops and stages at festivals for 20 years, bringing “curves instead of corners, colour instead of boredom” to any event… This summer… I’ll be doing all the admin for Roustabout. I will also pop off to cherry pick some festivals with my Roustabout hat on. I will also be DJ Badly, hopefully at the Pussy Parleur in the Dance Village at Glastonbury, and at Quality Tom’s replacement bar in Shangri La, also at Glastonbury. I’ve been approached to do the odd change-over set on the ‘Other Stage’ too: 10-12 minutes of tunes between bands. I’m also booked to play at Endorset in Dorset and Secret Garden Party. I’m happiest when… I’m being DJ Badly, looking like a salty old sea dog at 45! Or scaring youngsters in a high viz coat pretending to have authority! Comedy moments? At a festival called ‘Torpedo Town’ in Hampshire in the early ’90s. The crowd fell apart with laughter as Bradley, Henry the drummer’s mongrel, was mounted in the middle of the stage by an Afghan hound! The band were playing on the ‘Club Dog’ stage. Festy disasters? I took LSD at Glastonbury in 1979, at the tender age of 14! Not big or clever, that one. I ended up jumping around on a large inflatable sausage and a large bloke jumped on next to me, catapulting me skywards. I landed on the ground with my arms out in front of me, breaking both wrists. Favourite festy moment? Standing backstage on the NME stage with John Peel while managing ‘Back To The Planet’ (South London ska/punk/dance rockers of the ’90s) watching them pull off a fabulous gig in front of 20,000-30,000 people! I was a proud chap…
Quest Natural Health Show
Newton Abbott • 8-11 July • £20 www.questuk.co.uk Experience… 15th year of inspiring workshops, talks, healing sessions, music and trade stands, a Transition Movement marquee (new for this year), creche; kids’ programme
Small Nations Festival
Llandovery • 9-11 July • £15-£65 www.smallnations.co.uk Experience… roots music from small nations the world over, (all artists are from small, ethnic communities within bigger countries). From Wales to Kurdistan, from the sitar to the hurdy gurdy, there’s musical diversity a-plenty in the Welsh mountains!
Workhouse festival
Llanfylln • 9-11 July • FREE www.workhousefestival.co.uk/enroll/birthday.html Experience… the 7th birthday celebrations of this small and much loved festy. It’s a scaled down event this year of 500-1000 people, so tickets are limited. If you’re not already involved with the festy, become a member via the website (for a small donation) and entry is yours Shambala
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Gloucestershire • 16-17 July • £50 www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk Experience… a small festy with a strong emphasis on local talent; comedy, campfires ’til late, locally sourced beverages, organic food, green workshops, solar-powered stages, chip fat generators, strong green ethos
Chagstock
Dartmoor • 16-17 July • £55 www.chagstock.info Experience… a small festy in the beautiful surrounds of Dartmoor; plus good family vibes, acoustic/folk/rock music in the shape of The Hoosiers, Seth Lakeman, Oysterband & more
Trowbridge Village Pump Fest
Trowbridge • 22-25 July • £105 www.trowbridgefestival.co.uk Experience… long-running, much loved local festy; family vibes, beautiful river valley setting, local food and ale, music this year includes Bellowhead, Show Of Hands, The Blockheads and Dreadzone
The Small Festival
Dorset • 23-25 July • £60 www.thesmallfestival.co.uk Experience… a very small, family-friendly festy; lots of audience participation; crafty workshops, impromptu jamming, storytelling, political debates, cookery workshops, dancing, singing, live comedy, beautiful surrounds
WOMAD
Wiltshire • 23-25 July • £125 http.womad.org Experience… art, music and dance from diverse cultures the world over; The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Ozamatli, Gil Scott-Heron, Horace Andy, The Drummers of Burundi, Nouvelle Vague, musicians from Africa, Israel, Europe, the US, the Caribbean and Australia to name a few
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camps & festies special Photo Anna Harriott
Glastonbury Children’s Festival Glastonbury • 6-8 July • £8 (4-11yrs) £5 (12s and over); 3 yrs & under free (all non-camping)
Nicola Ferris, ‘King of Ping’
www.childrensworldcharity.org/festivals/festivals.php
Experience… quality shows from the best children’s performers in the region; weird and wonderful walkabout, craft tent, clay tent, circus skills workshops, drumming workshops, toddler tent, climbing wall Larmer Tree
Farmfest
Somerset • 30-31 July • £35 www.farmfestival.co.uk Experience… a festy that gives its proceeds to char-i-dee! (Practical Action in this case); a proper West Country knees-up on an organic farm; 5,000 capacity, local cider from the orchard; Mad Hatter’s tea party; fancy dress, art installations, eclectic bands, lots of DJs, good, local food
The Healing & Astrology Camp
Gloucester • 23 July-1 Aug• £125 www.rainbow2000camps.org/healing Experience… accessible astrology for all ages, from “introductory natal charts to full-on planetary transits”, including progressions and synastry (relationship comparisons); dance, drumming, yoga, meditation, healing, vegan food
Qigong Summer Camp
Dartmoor • 23 July-1 Aug • £260 www.qigong-southwest.co.uk Experience… practising qigong outside, living close to the Earth, still meditation, moving meditation, woodland forays, river swimming, campfire songs, storytelling, dancing, ceremony, celebration
Dance Camp Wales
South Pembrokeshire • 27 July -7 Aug • £180 www.dancecampwales.org Experience… a small community camp of 700 people; a genuine cross-generational mix of folk; a week and a half dedicated to music, dancing, creating and celebrating; children’s storytelling, a ‘rave’ night, dances of universal peace, circle dances, workshops in hip-hop, rock’n’roll and loads more plus trapeze workshops
Sharpham Barton Family Camp
Nr Totnes • 31 July-8 Aug• £150 (adult) www.sharphamfamilycamp.co.uk Experience… adult workshops in massage, reflexology, firelighting, circus, archery & more; kids’ workshops in sword-making, tree-climbing, storytelling & more; plus zipwire, streetdance, farm walks, therapies, talks, and outdoor activities such as caving, canoeing and climbing
AUGUST
The Music Camp
Forest of Dean • 5-8 July • £70 www.themusiccamp.co.uk Experience… Rainbow Camp hospitality, a low impact ethos, community spirit, lots of dance/ singing/instrumental workshops, a musician’s forum, song writer’s circle, a camp scratch band, lots of jamming, improv, late night cafe scene, sauna, a pedal-powered stage
Gaunt’s House Summer Gathering Wimborne, Dorset • 5-8 Aug • £95 (early bird), £125 www.gauntshouse.com Experience… workshops in storytelling, qigong, sacred geometry, dance, breath work; live music from Seize the Day, Kora Colours, Praying for the Rain; kids’ stuff including wild skills, bush crafts, circus skills, face painting, mask making and more
Healing Field Gathering
My Festival Summer
Somerset • 5-9 Aug • £50-£70 www.healingfield.co.uk Experience… healing village; colourful temporary community of domes, yurts & benders; little mystical gardens; workshops in yoga/tai chi/ healing arts/inner sound/dance/drumming/ improv/play & more; cheesy disco, dressing up, hot tubs, sauna, discussions on contemporary social issues, ‘cosmic speed dating’, campfires, chai cafes, kid-friendly atmosphere
18 sounds, singing bowls, didgeridoo, jazz harmony and buskers’ favourites; river swimming holes ten minutes through the woods; evenings of song sharing, performance and poetry, late gatherings round the central campfire, lovely saunas
Peace Through The Arts Camp
Dorset • 21-29 Aug • £175 (with many concessions) www.unicorncamps.com Experience… dances of universal peace; sacred song, chanting and playing to experience healing; spiritual journeying and empowerment; shared celebration and community, circle dances, personal development, plus volleyball and teen sports, a creativity area for kids and parents
Endorse It in Dorset
Dorset • 6-8 Aug • £70 www.endorseit.co.uk Experience… old school vibe, family-friendly crowd, comedy stage, local cider, ‘punk karaoke’, 70 live acts: e.g. ska from Symarip, roots rock from Macka B, bluegrass from The Curst Sons and dub reggae from Love Grocer
Small World Summer Gathering
BuddhaDharmaSangha Camp
Dartmoor• 7-15 Aug • £180/£150conc. (inc. food) www.qigong-southwest.co.uk Experience… meditation, qigong & inquiry as central tenets of the camp; formal practice and discussion groups; applying the principles of Dharma to a modern lifestyle; quietness and stillness in nature; drug/alcohol-free space; walks on the moor; nights around the campfire, star gazing, songs, stories
King of Ping combines the great game of table tennis with rockin’ tunes and fancy dress for a festival championship experience! This summer… the King of Ping crew will take their high energy, flamboyant, rock ballad-backed, amateur table tennis tournament to Shambala for the second year running! Born from ping pong competitions in the back yards of Bristol, we debuted at Shambala in 2009. Eight tables, 16 main contestants, some red and gold-clad crew, lots of ping and pong and a happy throng! Eight tables are reduced to one throughout the festy tournament to end up with the final show on “Elvis,” our King Of All Tables. There will be great prizes, not just for King of Ping (the winner) but also for the ‘blingiest pinger’ (best dressed) and King Pong (how did you make it into the top 16?!). This year the Shambala KOP show will be even bigger and better: we expect high standards of fancy dress from all potential contestants and both creative and expert play on the tables. They’ll also be more chance for a ‘pingabout’ without competing in the big event. Also watch out for a mini Kings of Ping comp this summer at a venue in Bristol. King Ping Poppy (events organiser) also took Kings le Ping to France this Spring (Chamonix, Winter Sessions). My best festy moment? Responding to the beckoning Iggy Pop and leaping onto the Other stage at Glastonbury to the growl of “Now I wanna be your dog!”. Copping a feel of his sweaty, rock & roll torso as I ran back past him to jump back into the crowds!
Unicorn Natural Voice Camp
Dorset • 7-15 Aug • £75-£195 www.unicorncamps.com Experience… your inner voice, lots of singing, acoustic vibes, workshops, an alternative family camping holiday, beautiful surrounds, communal cooking and eating, a drug/alcohol-free environment…
Dawn Star Healing Camp
Somerset • 9-14 Aug • £TBC www.dawnstar.org.uk Experience… a pilgrimage to nearby Glastonbury Tor, Chalice Well and Hill; yoga, tai chi and meditation workshops, shamanic healing ceremonies, singing, dance, movement, family constellations, bodywork, reiki and more
Tribe of Doris Intercultural Summer School
Devon/Somerset border • 10-15 Aug • £220 www.tribeofdoris.co.uk Experience… dancing under the stars; finding your animal spirit; drumming ’til dawn, healing ceremonies, ten days of amazing workshops (Sabar dance, darbouka rhythms, Jewish and West Papuan song and a groundbreaking fusion of English folk with the music of the Orishas); plus open mic, jamming and improv. Welcome back after a year’s break!
Green Man
Brecon Beacons • 20-22 Aug • £120 www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk Experience… stunning views of Sugarloaf mountain in the Brecons; rousing tunes in the form of folk/psychedelia/dub-reggae/roots/ modern electro and stoner rock; Billy Bragg, The Mighty Doves, Flaming Lips, Wild Beast, Egyptian Hip Hop, Joanna Newsom and more; local cider; art installations, literature, film, ceilidhs, massage, impromptu jam sessions
Croissant Neuf Summer Party
Usk, Monmouthshire • 13-15 Aug • £80 www.partyneuf.co.uk Experience… the UK’s only festy powered solely by solar energy; an intimate, eco-conscious crowd; eclectic mix of folk/roots/acoustic/reggae/dub/ dance and world music; lantern processions, campfires, cabaret, dance workshops, yoga, fancy dress, pub quiz, 5-a-side footie, sports day, treasure hunt, all in beautiful Welsh countryside
Beautiful Days
Ottery St Mary • 20-22 Aug • £165 www.beautifuldays.org Experience… the Levellers’ annual festy; freespirited, old school vibes; lots of families; the Devon countryside; walkabout theatre; site art; real ale; dub/ska/folk/rock/acoustic music; performances this year from The Wailers, Billy Bragg, Easy Star All Stars & more
Heart Sound Voice Camp
West Dorset • 15-22 Aug • £165/£150 early bird www.heartsoundcamp.com Experience… singing with Dee Jarlett and Ali Orbaum of Bristol Gasworks choir, Dorset’s Sarah and Gilo, special guest teacher Polly Barton; a mellow camp within walking distance of Charmouth beach; kids’ workshops, storytelling, a well-being area
Oak Dragon Camp
Somerset • 20-29 Aug • £135 www.oakdragon.org Experience… a small camp of 70 people; living in community on the land; making practical and ceremonial objects; ancient shamanic practices; exploring your creativity, listening to your intuition, discovering your inner wisdom, eating/ cooking/storytelling with your ‘fire’ circle camp, spontaneous activities for kids
Unicorn Camp of Magick
Dorset • 16-20 Aug • £125 www.unicorncamps.com Experience… a new camp which explores the power of transformation through earth magick, ritual, astrology and storytelling; “a serious adult study for self-disciplined students of the craft”; a camp focussing on the principles and practices of contemporary magick; lessons in developing your awareness and skills in the principles and practice of ritual magick
Rise Up Singing
Dartmoor • 20-28 Aug • £225 www.riseupsinging.co.uk Experience… days filled with vocal improv, healing
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Kent • 26-30 Aug • £70 www.smallworldsolarstage.org Experience… community spirit; renewable energy initiatives on-site; diverse music from gypsy to ska to Balkan to bluegrass; spoken word, walkabouts, buskers, communal campfires, theatre, science workshops & parade for kids, healing area, yoga, dance, magicians, circus performers & more
Spirit Horse Village Heart Gathering (Cauldron of Plenty)
Mid-Wales • 26-30 August • £85 www.spirithorse.co.uk Experience… a Spirit Horse camp, if you’ve never been before: meet elders, artists, practitioners and experience the celebration, the ethos of the camps and the people who run them; the Mountain Retreat promises some magical landscape too!
West Country Storytelling Festival
Embercombe• 27-29 Aug • £84 www.weststoryfest.co.uk Experience… stories for change: marrying song, story and sustainability; story tellers from around the world; Jan Blake, Hugh Lupton & Robin Williamson from the UK; activities on the lake; giant puppets, workshops, film-making, a solarpowered stage; friendly, family atmosphere
Shambala
Northamptonshire • 27-30 Aug • £109 www.shambalafestival.org Experience… a true cross-pollination of lovingly crafted festy tomfoolery; punters who genuinely get involved; a low impact structure and ethos; progressive on-site recycling and energy policies; fantastic selection of games, music, art installations, cabaret, circus, play areas, permaculture and more…
SEPTEMBER Waveform
Wiltshire • 10-12 Sept• £95 www.waveformfestival.com Experience… all genres of electronica (130 live acts and DJs), hosted by an eco-aware crew; solar and wind-power innovation, hot tubs, organic food, art installations, creative surrounds, friendly, chilled out dance parties, a late night crowd
Urban shout out!
St Werburghs City Farm Summer Fair
St Werbs, Bristol • 12 June • £5 Midday – 7pm www.swcityfarm.org.uk Experience: Live music, stalls, local food, real ales & cider, cabaret. This year’s theme is ‘Bees and Bikes’: carnival procession 4pm. Come and celebrate 30 years of the city farm! All proceeds go to animal upkeep
Bristol Festival of Nature 2010
Harbourside, Bristol • 12-13 June • £Free www.bnhc.org.uk Experience: Talks, workshops and activities celebrating the natural world
BRISFEST 2010
Various venues, Bristol • 24-26 September • £5 www.brisfest.co.uk Experience: Bristol Community Festival renamed: over 1000 bands, DJs, artists, circus/cabaret performers, comedians, digital art installations and graffiti
WIN! tickets
19 Photo Jim Ropner
Unicorn Natural Voice Camp Two Thousand Trees
singers at all levels of ability. There is also a full programme of activities for children and teenagers, including games, creative activities, singing and drumming.
The story of Two Thousand Trees is a familiar DIY tale: six friends got fed up of the commerciality of big festivals and created one of their own. The festival reflects their own green leanings and musical taste, with a strong local ethos: ale, food and acts are all UK-sourced and the bands hail mostly from the South West. The boys have done good and are rightly proud of their “A Greener Festival” award.
To win tickets, simply tell us: What does the word ‘Unicorn’ mean? (Answers at www.unicorncamps.com) Send postcards to Natural Voice Comp, The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol, BS1 5BB, not forgetting to give us your full name, address and telephone number. Closing date June 17.
www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk
Just tell us: How much fossil fuel will be used to power all the fun and frolics at Shambala Festival this year? (Answer at www.shambalafestival.org) Send postcards to Shambala Comp, The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol, BS1 5BB, not forgetting to give us your full name, address and telephone number. Closing date June 17. www.shambalafestival.org
Photo Christian Payne
Wandering Word poetry venue will return in all their glory.
Larmer Tree Festival are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, on 14-18 July, in lush Victorian gardens on the Wiltshire/Dorset border and they’re offering one lucky Spark reader a pair of three-day tickets, worth £240, to celebrate with them absoutely free! This year’s festy sees 80 bands, six stages, a comedy club, lots of street theatre, 150 free workshops, a tranquil therapy area and loads more for an intimate audience of 4000. Toots and the Maytals will be headlining, and Jools Holland (with Alison Moyet), Martha Wainwright, Robert Cray, Toumani Diabate and many more will be performing. Comedy headliners are
Russell Howard, Rich Hall, David O’Doherty and Jon Richardson. To be entered into the prize draw just tell us: What is the name of the therapy area at Larmer Tree Festival? (Answers at www.larmertreefestival.co.uk) Send postcards to Larmer Tree Comp, The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol, BS1 5BB, not forgetting to give us your full name, address and telephone number. Closing date June 17. www.larmertreefestival.co.uk
Travelling Light The biggest contributer to carbon emissions from any big event is the travel to and from site, and eco-conscious festys across Sparkland are on the case. This year Sunrise Celebration are running a Wacky Races competition, to encourage festy punters to travel to the site in Bruton in a mad, colourful melee of alternative vehicles. Wind power, solar power, waste veggie oil and even cow-poo will fuel this motley crew of eco-travellers come June 4. The Wacky Races will culminate in a prize for the most innovative and low impact way to get to the site and the winners get a luxury, four-day break in a roundhouse in Cornwall for their trouble. To enter the Wacky Races you need to document your journey with a camera or video recorder, and arrive at Sunrise by 7pm on Friday. Fancy dress can draw on any aspect of the Wacky Races theme. A winner will then be picked on Sunday afternoon by a panel of judges. So far there are plenty of cyclists and runners on board, plus Know Alternative’s solar-powered 1960s milk float. Know Alternative are a Bristolbased collective of enterprising folk, passionate about green energy and bringing a DIY vibe back to festies and outdoor events. In recent years they’ve run solar-powered stages, discos and cinemas at the Big Green and Green Man. Also on board for the Wacky Races is an Italian Piaggio Ape van, used by Bella & Fifi who supply beautiful, seasonal, local and organically grown flowers to weddings and events around Bristol and Bath, (see www.bellafififlowers. co.uk). The Piaggio has 3 wheels and only a tiny 500cc petrol engine!
Croissant Neuf Summer Party
Croissant Neuf Summer Party are offering two family tickets to their event on 13-15 July, set in the beautiful surrounds of Usk in Monmouthshire. Croissant Neuf started life as a travelling musical cafe, a cornerstone of the green fields at the Glastonbury Festival, and is now established as a much loved family festival in its own right, playful by day and magical by night. Croissant Neuf power all their tents, bars and stalls on solar power and last year scooped three top awards for sustainability, more than any other festival in the world. They were also nominated for Best Small Festival, Best Family Festival and the Grass Roots Award (at the UK Festival Awards). With an eclectic musical line-up and loads for kids and adults to get involved with, it’s one not
Send postcards to 2000 Trees Comp, The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol, BS1 5BB, not forgetting to give us your full name, address and telephone number. Closing date June 17.
Larmer Tree
www.unicorncamps.com
Shambala
Shambala 2010 promises another long weekend of sweet mayhem, camaderie, excellent entertainment, creativity and special memories. Not got your ticket yet? Shambala are giving one lucky Spark reader 2 tickets, absolutely FREE! New for 2010 is the Qu Junction Stage from the group formerly known as Blackout. The Meadow plays host to Bristol Storytelling Festival’s story yurt and a new indigenous music stage. The Chai Wallah stage offers late night jam sessions, Django trbute session, poetry slams and much more. A new ‘grand yurt’ will house a dedicated acoustic stage and old favourites the Wilderness Woodland, Crazy Golf, Wacky Olympics and the
So, to win a pair of tickets to this super-green and friendly little festy, just tell us: How many friends got together to create the 2000 Trees Festival?
Photo Jonny Gloster
Unicorn Camps are offering one lucky Spark reader 2 FREE TICKETS, worth £195 each, to their Natural Voice Camp in August. The camp is the perfect place for anyone who enjoys harmony singing, or wants to discover their natural singing voice in a beautiful, relaxed environment. Campers live and cook in ‘home’ circles so the camp is a very communal experience. The focus is on music and harmony, and the site is drug and alcohol-free. Set in the Dorset countryside, there are hot showers on site and log fires aplenty! Unicorn Natural Voice Camp offers a wide range of performances and workshops, taught by ear by Natural Voice Network teachers, for
2000Trees managed a stonking 90% recycling rate in 2009, and all their food and drink is locally produced, and served in either reusable or biodegradable (corn starch) containers. Locally sourced chip-fat biodiesel is used on-site, and one stage is 100% solar-powered. 2000 Trees has a policy of only booking UK-based acts. There is a coach service to and from London and a subsidised shuttle bus service running between the festie site and Cheltenham train station, so if you fancy ditching the car, it’s all been made easy for you...
to be missed. “Families are at the very heart of CNSP and we make sure that there is plenty for people of all age,” says organiser Luke Howell. To win tickets, simply tell us: How many awards for sustainability did CNSP 09 win? (Answers at www.partyneuf.co.uk) Send postcards to Croissant Neuf Comp, The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol, BS1 5BB, not forgetting to give us your full name, address and telephone number. Closing date June 17. www.partyneuf.co.uk
www.sunrisecelebration.com/#competitions/travel-challenge.php
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Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly aboard Bella & Fifi’s 500cc Piaggio van
Guided cycle rides are also happening between Bristol and the Glastonbury AND Sunrise festival sites this year. The route will take riders on quiet roads through some of the best scenery in Somerset, heading through the Chew Valley and climbing up over the Mendips, before dropping down to Wells and onto the sites. The rides will be led by experienced cyclists, and a support vehicle will even carry the bags! You won’t get guided home again but you will get a map and you can get your bags taken back to Bristol if you want.
Sunrise Ride leaves 8am, Thursday June 3 (book by May 31); Glastonbury Ride leaves 8am Thursday June 23 (book by June 17). Contact cyclefestivals@googlemail. com to secure a place. Book early!
Q&A
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Dennis Gould What’s been your biggest mistake? Leaving my children when they were quite young. I’ve got three daughters. We’re friends now, but it’s been quite difficult, more for them than for me. My youngest daughter brings it up quite often. What’s your favourite book? An impossible question! It really depends on your mood, doesn’t it? It would vary between The Good Soldier Svejk, a Czech satirical novel about a guy in the first World War who acts the idiot to get out of the fighting. That’s by Jaroslav Hasek and it’s brilliant. Or The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. My favourite collection of essays is Stand Still Like the Hummingbird by Henry Miller. My favourite children’s book is probably Peepo by Janet and Alan Ahlberg, and my favourite story is Treasure Island. I could go on…
Interviewed by Fiona McClymont • photo Jo Halladey escape that, I stupidly joined the army. I would have loved to go to Art School, but I didn’t know how to do that, so instead I signed up for three years. As soon as I came out I joined the Peace Movement. It was through that, that I got the chance to go to a Quaker College in Birmingham and it was there that I had a chance to read for the first time. I was 21. I read everything I could get my hands on, from Tolstoy and Ghandi, to DH Lawrence. I started working for Peace News and also began to write my own poetry. The first pamphlet of poems I wrote was called RAF Marham For Sale. It was about an US airforce base and I remember performing some of them outside the base, so from the word go I was performing what I wrote. I’ve been publishing pamphlets of poems from that time on.
Dennis Gould is 72 and lives and works in Stroud. He has been writing for Peace News and writing and performing his poetry since the 1960s. In the late ’60s he co-formed Riff Raff Poets, along with his friends Jeff Cloves and Pat West (who sadly died in 2008). For 37 years they performed their poems and songs at marches and demos, at bomber and submarine bases and nuclear weapons facilities, and they continue to perform today. Dennis runs a bookstall every Saturday at Shambles Market in the town. His latest publication is a pamphlet of his poetry entitled ‘Stroud Blues’ and he organises poetry readings and events once a month in Stroud. What’s the best thing about living in the South West? I’ve lived in Stroud for 20 years but I’ve been coming here since the ’60s, because I had friends here and also was very interested in Whiteway, the Tolstoyan colony based just outside the town. I love all the valleys and the mix of artists and craftspeople here. It’s just a lovely place to be.
Why is performance so important to you? I want to reach people. The printed form is still elitist: sadly, books are expensive and lots of people can’t afford them, which is why I produce cheaper pamphlets and postcards. I have a strong belief in my words and a belief in my experience. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, after all. I just hope that perhaps one individual in the audience might go away and write, or organise an event themselves. I also have a political commitment, to the peace movement and the libertarian movement. Contrary to the myth about literature and politics being kept separate, which is just nonsense, all literature is political (I’m talking about politics outside of the parties).
What inspires you? People often think that artists and poets are very fanciful and romantic, whereas usually the opposite is true. They are more likely to be interested in the concrete and precise. My work is certainly based on real experiences and real events. I always keep a notebook in my pocket, so if something comes into my head I can get it straight down. I’ve been doing this for such a long time now, it’s not a problem what to write: it’s more a problem choosing what to publish out of all the stuff I’ve got. It’s really important to have time to sit and read, to think and to dream because that’s when, and how, creative things happen. I used to read a lot when I was a kid and my mum would say: “What are you doing with your head stuck in a book?”. It’s funny, I’ve noticed that people get worried and disturbed when they see someone so relaxed and concentrating. It’s about the fact they’ve no longer got control over that person, I think.
What’s your greatest achievement? Still being here and still playing football. Other than that, I’m proud of publishing a pamphlet of Kenneth Patchen poems. Patchen was one of the early jazz poetry guys from America, he inspired a lot of the Beat writers but he wasn’t at all well-known in Britain. I don’t know how I had the arrogance really, but in 1966 I wrote to him and he said “Yeah, go ahead and publish my poems if you want to”. So I slept on a friend’s floor in London and went to the British Library every day, when it was still that lovely old reading room and I chose 60-odd of his poems. I had no money, but borrowed enough off friends to pay a printer and in 1968 I brought out Love and War Poems by Kenneth Patchen. I was touring non-stop at that time, reading in colleges, clubs and festivals and I took it with me wherever I went. I sold it for two and sixpence, should have been more really. Anyway, it sold out.
How did you become a poet? I don’t come from a literary background at all. I left school at 16 and worked as a trainee hotelmanager for two years, but I got pissed off with basically being a servant, plus, they wouldn’t give me Saturdays off to play football! So to
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What drives you mad? Politics, politicians and the arms industry. I mean, why are we still in Iraq and Afghanistan, for God’s sake? Why are we spending billions on manufacturing nuclear weapons at Aldermaston and Burghfield, still, to this day? All those billions that could be spent on other things. How do you publish and print your poems? I use a letter-press and hand type-set every poem that I write. I’ve actually written a poem about the process itself called Letter-Press Apprentice Blues. Occasionally, to save time, I’ll use a photocopier, but that’s as technical as it gets. I’ve never used a computer, not because I have a particular ideological objection to them – friends are going to make me a website, which will be nice – but I have to admit that I don’t like looking at screens. Letter-press is a craft, it’s literally hands-on. Type-setting poems takes some time, but you get a certain quality from that, something of the poet/printer’s experience within the words. I’m not precious about it though; printing, for me, is just the best way of getting my words out there into the world. It cuts out all the middle-men. Who and what are the Stroud Football Poets? Football and poetry are not things that are usually put together, which is exactly why some friends and I thought it would be a great idea to form the group. This was back in 1995. We play football every week and also do lots of readings and performances of poetry all about the game: we’ve even done a gig at the London Festival Hall. Football has always been important to me. I grew up wanting to be a professional footballer, played for the army in Cyprus and then played semi-professional for a bit. It’s just a great game! You don’t need to buy into all the commerce and conformity and crap that surrounds it; just a ball, that’s all you need. What’s your greatest fear? Missing the next Glastonbury! I’ve always taken part, as part of Riff Raff poets I helped set-up the Poetry Tent in the Green Fields and have been performing there since the late sixties. People forget that the music is only a small part of what goes on at Glastonbury. Of course, you never get to hear about everything else because all the journalists don’t want to venture too far from their posh hospitality area near the main stages. What has life taught you? To be self-employed as far as possible. To follow your own path and hold on to your own dream and vision despite the money, or lack of it, despite everything. And just do it. www.footballpoets.org
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planet
Got a passion for green issues and experience of writing? Email vicki@thespark.co.uk
Leaders of the pack
Bee the change Vicki West
We’ve all bought ‘eco’ products that haven’t lived up to the promise. Jo Middleton hunts down quality outdoor kit that’s low impact AND built to last this summer
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e’ve put together a small selection of quality, eco-friendly camping and outdoor gear for this summer, that actually does what it says on the box. Whether you’re pottering in the garden, rambling in the wilderness or frolicking in the surf, here are some ideas for low impact alternatives to your essential kit list.
Solar shower
If the thought of a dunk in the nearest lake doesn’t excite you, then we can highly recommend a stepladder and a watering can. Other than that, get yourself a solar shower! Lightweight, cheap and easy to use, you simply fill it with water, and let the sun do the rest. The Gelert solar shower has a 20litre capacity, is supplied with a shower head and flow control, and the sturdy PVC bag can be hung safely from a handy nearby tree. Buy from a range of camping stockists or online at www. gelert.com (£5.99)
Skin protection
It’s important to keep yourself protected from sun damage, even when those rays aren’t tropical Green People do a lovely range of sun lotions and after-sun for adults and children, all of which are free from poreclogging ingredients (which can cause prickly heat), such as PABAsunscreen, (a para-aminobenzoic acid) parabens, phthalates and artificial fragrances. The no-scent SPF25 sun lotion is ideal for people with sensitive skin, contains 82% organic certified ingredients and is available in a 200ml size tube. www.greenpeople.co.uk (£16.95)
Wind-up lantern
It’s the middle of the night and you need to make an emergency dash to the toilet. Now is not the time to find the batteries in your torch have run out. Wind up torches and lanterns are great for camping. Not only are they more environmentally friendly and cheaper to run, but they mean you never have to worry about your light failing at a crucial moment. The yellow Indigo lantern from Freeplay Energy, with a nightlight and variable brightness control, is also pretty funky-looking. The lantern can be charged via a USB connection and a fully charged battery can give up to 70 hours of light on the nightlight setting. Alternatively, just 60 seconds of hand winding will power the nightlight for two hours. The Indigo lantern is available from www.freeplayenergy.co.uk (£24.99)
Solar outdoor lights
Although we all like the idea of spending long summer evenings outdoors, gardens can be hard to light effectively without yards of trailing cables or burning hundreds of candles. Solar power really comes into its own when it comes to garden lighting and there are loads of different styles available, from lanterns on poles to rod lights you can stick in your flower beds alongside your garden path. The lights can stay outside in all weathers: they simply charge up during the day and come on automatically when it gets dark. Most are very portable, so can easily be taken on holidays and stuck in the ground around your campsite. Solar lights are available from most department and DIY stores, but one of the best ranges, in terms of value and quality, can be found at Wilkinson. Visit www.wilkinsonplus.com and check out the black hanging lanterns – two for £10 – and a whole host of other solar lights for the garden.
Wind-up/solar-powered radio
When you run out of campfire songs but fancy a bit of music, a wind-up radio is a camping musthave. Perfect for when you’re out and about, at home or in the garden, the Eton FR160 is a small but sturdy wind-up radio than can also be
solar powered, or charged by a USB connection. As well as the SW/AM/FM radio, it features a phone charger and a small torch. It’s very easy to use and the radio reception and sound quality is excellent, given its size.
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Bioscience at the University) to plant a wildflower meadow and build bee boxes. Stroud has also just become the first Bee Guardian Town, with the Council agreeing to manage 26 urban green spaces and create inspirational bee habitats. When I caught Jessie on the phone she was just back from drilling tiny holes into standing trees around the parks of Stroud. “We were creating homes for cavity nesting solitary bees such as the red mason bee,” she tells me. “The red mason is 120 times more prolific as a pollinator than the honeybee…” Building bee boxes for solitary bees is really simple. Furnish yourself with wood and a drill: full instructions are on the Global Bee Project website...
Carlo will be giving a talk at the Octagon in Bath on June 3, www.globalbeeproject.org
The Global Bee Project is a grass roots initiative dreamt up in Stroud by Italian/English couple Carlo Montesanti and Jessie Jowers. Motivated by their passion for the wild bees that live in our native land, the two have set out to create a community of Bee Guardians that stretches out across Gloucestershire and into the wider world. “We really wanted to build a bridge between the public and the scientific community,” says Jessie, “and show people that you don’t have to be a conservationist to change the lives of wild creatures. When it comes to saving and creating habitat for wild bees, EVERYONE can make a difference: in fact, it’s crucial that ordinary people get involved.” We’ve been hearing stories of honey bee decline for years now, but a story less often told is the decline of our wild, solitary bees who pollinate hundreds of native plants and crops. We’ve got approximately 250 species of bee in Britain. Just one of those is the honey bee, 24 species are bumble bees – three bumble bee species have recently become extinct – and the rest are solitary pollinators such as miner bees, leaf-cutter bees, mason bees and all manner of other industrious little individuals, who tuck up inside hollow plant stalks, beetle holes and dead wood. Solitary bees are not social bees like honeybees, but they often live clustered together, each in their own little hole, much like humans live in apartment blocks. “Intensive agriculture has destroyed their habitat in the countryside,” says Jessie. “They are struggling to survive as hedgerows are cut down, pesticides are used and more land is ploughed up. Towns and cities have become safe havens for wild bees, all year round, so it’s really important to make our gardens and urban green spaces as friendly to them as possible.” With this in mind the Global Bee Project encourages everyone to plant bee-friendly flowers and build bee nest boxes in their gardens. Schools, universities, town councils and community organisations are jumping on board to transform public spaces into bee-friendly havens. “At first we were trying to campaign against the big corporations who are responsible for mobile phone masts, pesticide use, etc, but we were getting disheartened,” says Carlo. “It’s really important to keep confronting these things, but for us, we needed to do something positive and empowering to keep our spirits up! We couldn’t go on otherwise.” With this in mind, GBP spent time travelling around the region, giving talks on bee history and culture to inspire people into action. They now act as facilitators for groups wanting to create new bee habitats. “Solitary bees are completely non-aggressive and are really safe to have around children,” says Jessie. “Because they don’t live in hives, and don’t have honey to protect, they don’t swarm and have not developed the need to sting.” I listened to Carlo speak to a captivated audience in Bristol about human relationships to our winged friends. Our connection to bees is a complex, and, in some cultures, a deeply spiritual one. Not only did humans use wax for light (candles) for thousands of years, and for other practical purposes such as shipbuilding, but bees also inspired the invention of the syringe. Scientists looking for a way to inject into veins without haemorrhaging looked to bee stings for their breakthrough technique. It is also thought that the design of some Mayan temples is based on the inner structure of the honeycomb built by the stingless bees that they worshipped. In addition to all this, 20,000 plants worldwide depend solely on bees for their pollination. “Human behaviour is pushing the very existence of many species onto the critically endangered list,” says Carlo. “Honey bees are in trouble but they are not endangered yet because we keep them commercially… but no-one’s taking care of the wild bees.” Global Bee Project has just collaborated with Gloucestershire University (the third director of GBP is Dr Adam Hart, Head of
The Eton FR160 is available from www.ethicalsuperstore.com (£29.95)
Socially responsible sleeping bags Snuggle up with a clear conscience in a 100% cotton quilted sleeping bag from Bill Brown. All Bill Brown products are made from natural materials, and with respect for the environment and local communities at every stage of the production process. Colourings and dyes are all azo-free (so no issues of toxicity to the water table during the dyeing process) and the textiles have Skal International Certificates for the delivery of sustainable textile products (Skal International certify organically farmed produce worldwide). The factory in Kerala, India, where the bags are produced is a Soil Association-certified company, which prohibits child and forced labour and protects workers’ rights, as well as ensuring that 8,000 commonly used chemicals are not used anywhere in the process. Working hours are restricted to a maximum 48 hours in a week and all the factory workers are covered by health insurance. Not only that, but the bags are gorgeous, too. Available in ‘patchwork’ or ‘hippie’ prints, the bags are good value for money, and can also double as single-bed quilts. www.bill-brown.com (£80)
Solar chargers
If you need to access your mobile/laptop/music away from home, or your kids are missing their digital fixes, then solar chargers are a great way to keep everything running away from mains power supplies. Pico solar charger There are a whole range of devices available that use solar energy to recharge everything from phones to cameras. Some are basic, like the lightweight Freeloader PICO (£16.99) which weighs less than 50g but can still keep a phone going for up to 35 hours. Others offer a more impressive range of features, such as the Freeloader Pro (£69.99) which comes with ten adaptors and a power cradle, the CamCaddy, enabling users to charge digital compact cameras, SLRs and video camera batteries. Freeloader Pro Also have a peep at the powermonkey–eXplorer from Powertraveller.com, which costs £65 and uses solar energy to charge iPods, mobile phones and MP3 players. Both the Pico and the Freeloader Pro are available from www.solartechnology.co.uk www.powertraveller.com
Recycled wetsuits
The wetsuit is essential kit for Britain’s rough, wild coastlines and lessthan-balmy sea. Whether you’re surfing or paddling, it’s a must-have for many a beach-bound British family these days. The production of traditional wetsuits, however, is pretty resource-intensive, as you might imagine from their petroleum-based material. Fear not. Gul have recently launched a fantastic new lowimpact wetsuit, made from a material they call ‘recore’: a combination of recycled PET polyester, non-petroleum-based neoprene with a recycled polyester and bamboo lining. The new suit is supported by Surfers Against Sewage and is available from a range of stores and online throughout the UK. www.gul.com (£200)
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’Cos you’re worth it James Murray-White
Karen Sims (left) and Jo-Ann Deane
Bristol hairdresser Jo-Ann Deane took a radical decision two years ago after her mother and sister both suffered with breast cancer, and she herself underwent a preventative double mastectomy. Having worked as a mobile hairdresser for many years, she was shocked to learn about the toxic side-effects of chemicals used in the hair and beauty industry and decided to change the whole way she worked. She and business partner Karen Sims promptly set up The Green Room on Gloucester Road, which they claim is the first organic hairdressing salon in Bristol. Their ethos is to use natural propducts that don’t polllute the planet and don’t threaten human health. Despite the recession, business is booming. “My mother had chemotherapy and was told she couldn’t colour her hair during it because the colours contain ammonia and parabens and many other chemicals,” says Jo-Ann, who is now a campaigner for BUST, a breast cancer charity based at Frenchay Hospital, where she talks to patients about her experience. “There is a high rate of hairdressers getting breast and other forms of cancer and I think it is because they have to use ammonia products for many years.” Her salon is bright and welcoming, much like many other hairdressers in the city, but hers is the only one that sources truly green products to lather and colour their customers’ hair. The products they use are all certified organic by the Soil Association, and their main supplier, Herb UK, is also endorsed by the Vegan Society. The Green Room sell shampoos, conditioners, hair supplements, curling lotions and 60 intermixable colours. “We love these products, and know how to use them,” Jo-Ann says. “They don’t smell bad either. Hairdressers normally smell of ammonia but not here! It’s much healthier for our staff.” Jo-Ann and Karen rate their main supplier, Hampshire-based Herb UK, extremely highly. They think the products match other comparable ones for quality, with the added bonus of being low impact. “I think eventually the bigger companies in the beauty industry will produce products without all these nasty chemicals in them. Consumer pressure will make them. That starts here,” says Jo-Ann. The Green Room are also dedicated recyclers. The salon is offering a discounted refill service for all the products they sell and are trying to reduce water and electricity usage wherever possible. Says Karen: “We’ve both worked in the hairdressing industry for 25 years and can’t understand why everyone isn’t using these natural products! So many people are really surprised that the hair colours, in particular, work so well. I have clients who have followed me from other places I’ve worked, and say they now won’t use anything else!” The Green Room, 15 The Promenade, Gloucester Road Bristol, tel 0117 942 7575 BUST Bristol (Breast Cancer Support Trust) www.bustbristol.co.uk (free breast check posters available) Herb UK organic hair products www.organiccoloursystems.com/salon.asp
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Techno activism Chris Mitchell on how blogging, tweeting and networking can radically change your campaign… and change the world, a little bit at a time
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o longer the preserve of nerds and techies, the web is a tool for social change the world over. The past few years have seen a huge shift, with more userfriendly networking devices available online making it easier than ever to share information and co-ordinate campaigns. Many groups now recognise the benefits of having their own website: it’s a great way to publicise what you do to a wide audience; it can be very cheap (or even free) and it’s a way of having a permanent location where people know where to find you. This last point is particularly useful if you don’t have a physical base ‘in the real world’, or, like the Black Cat Social Centre in Bath, your base moves around. The Black Cat is a collective which squats empty buildings and puts them to use for the local community. Since they can get evicted at short notice, having a permanent web presence means that people can easily find out the location of the current space being occupied. The Black Cat collective, like many groups these days, chose not to build their own website from scratch, or pay someone else to build one for them, but instead used a free ‘blogging’ platform. A ‘blog’ is short for ‘Web Log’ and is basically an online journal or diary that is much easier to build – and manage – than a website. Services like Blogger and WordPress.com enable you to create and manage your own blog very easily, without having to spend time understanding what’s under the bonnet. Blogs are a great way to keep your readers abreast of new developments, too, because your latest article stays at the top, and a handy system called ‘Really Simple Syndication’ (RSS) means that if readers ‘subscribe’, your blog will let them know when something new goes up.
“The Trafigura scandal demonstrated that Internet tools such as Twitter can enable people to affect real change… best of all is that these tools are in the hands of ordinary people” If you want to interact with your readers more, then there are other tools to consider. You might want to try setting up a ‘wiki’, which can enable readers to become editors, or even writers. This can be particularly useful when you want to share the process of publishing amongst a large group of people. There are also blogs which enable you to be even more responsive. ‘Microblogs’ are very useful for quick missives, Twitter being the most famous one. Twitter limits your posts to 140 characters. Likewise, ‘Tumblelogs’ like Tumblr are useful for quickly posting pictures or links. These tools, which can also be accessed from a mobile phone, enable you to augment more detailed blog posts with very short but timely messages. This is especially useful when you are, for example, reporting live from a demonstration, as was shown at the G20 protests in both London and Pittsburgh last year. You can now easily publish photographs, artwork, video, audio and even documents onto blogs, all using free software. If you need help in producing content for your website, and you don’t have the resources or expertise in your group to achieve that, then consider ‘crowdsourcing’ it: that means sharing the load of a big project by splitting it up into smaller bits and getting other people to work on different bits. The excellent website Help Me Investigate was set up to do precisely that. For finding out what your local council or MP are up to, there are resources like Openly Local and They Work For You, and What Do They Know which helps you to make Freedom of Information requests incredibly easily. (See Essential Info Box).
Do’s and Don’ts
• DO listen to feedback. Don’t just broadcast
your own message, hear what other people have got to say, and respond accordingly. The social web is perfect for interactivity, because it connects millions of people otherwise separated by geography. Make use of that connection. • DO use the right tool for the job. Sometimes you need to reach a small number of users
Have a ball, boys
Glossary •Blog: a ‘weblog’, or online journal; an easy-
to-set-up (and often free) method of having a website •Bulletin boards/internet forums: websites which enable users to register accounts and discuss topics with each other •Crowdsourcing: sharing out small tasks online to help build something big •Hashtag: a way of labelling a ‘tweet’ so that similar posts may be grouped together for ease of searching; they can be made up of any letters or numbers but must not contain spaces, and are preceded by the # symbol, eg #spark •Microblog: these are services which work like blogs but place size restrictions on each message; the best known microblog is Twitter, where you are limited to 140 characters per ‘tweet’ •Picture sharing: services like Flickr enable you to host pictures with them, and then republish them elsewhere on the web • Social network: this is a site or service where users can create their own profiles and interact with other users, like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Bebo • Tweet: the individual posts you make on Twitter • Vlog: a video blog post • Wiki: a wiki is a type of web page users can edit themselves; the best known example is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia
The G20 in London, April 2009
with a specialist or niche interest; other times
you may want the biggest, broadest audience possible. • DON’T get weighed down by brand loyalty! Use a service as long as it enables you to achieve your goals but if a better service comes along, use that one instead. • DON’T get complacent when you’re campaigning online. Remember that just because you can set up accounts with pseudonyms on the Web, this does not mean that you are anonymous. You can still be traced by the police and other agencies, so think carefully before posting messages which could be interpreted as inciting illegal actions, (even if that is not your intention) especially if you are co-ordinating activism from your home or work computer.
Success stories Trafigura is a multinational company
identified the facts of the case, Twitter came into play and spread the story via ‘tweets’. The mainstream media was free to report on this massive Twitter campaign, if not the details of what was now an open secret. Within a week Carter-Ruck gave up on the original super-injunction, and the Ivory Coast tragedy became international front page news. What the Trafigura scandal demonstrated is that internet tools such as Twitter can help small numbers of people to spread information very quickly to very large numbers of people, and real change can happen through that. Best of all, these tools are in the hands of more and more ordinary people. Twitter also helped spread the news of the shooting dead of Greek schoolboy Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police in December 2008, an event which led to massive civil unrest in Greece. (The Twitter hashtag ‘#griots’ was widely used to identify messages). The London G20 protests in April 2009 were also widely tweeted, with real-time reporting of protests by participants, casual observers and professional journalists meaning that there could be far greater scrutiny of police actions than there had ever been before.
which deals in natural resources. In 2006 toxic waste unloaded in Ivory Coast from a ship leased by Trafigura was illegally dumped, causing a number of deaths and thousands to fall sick. Fast forward to the end of 2009, and the company was attempting, through a ‘super-injunction’ obtained by its lawyers Carter-Ruck, to prevent the British media from reporting an upcoming Parliamentary question about Trafigura and the Ivory Coast dumping. While it was forbidden from mentioning the exact nature of the injunction or on whose behalf it had been got, The Guardian newspaper published the few facts not covered by the injunction. Within minutes of the story going up on its website, the scandal started to break on the internet and people started digging for more detail. The mention of a forthcoming question in the House of Commons prompted web detectives to pore over the order papers published on the Hansard website looking for likely candidates; mention in the Guardian’s story of the solicitors CarterRuck sealed the deal. Now bloggers had
Essential Info
following Twitter easier) www.tweetdeck.com Twitterrific (similar to Tweetdeck) www.twitterific.com
BLOG PLATFORMS & WEBSITE CREATION TOOLS Blogger www.blogger.com Wetpaint www.wetpaint.com WordPress www.wordpress.com
RESEARCH TOOLS Google Maps (maps, satellite photography and ‘Street View’) www.maps.google.com Google Translate (handy for rough translations in a range of languages) www.translate.google.com Help Me Investigate (crowdsourcing project, enabling you to find assistance investigating something) www.helpmeinvestigate.com Openly Local (providing useful contact details and other information on your local area and council) www.openlylocal.com They Work For You (information on your MP) www.theyworkforyou.com What Do They Know (user-friendly way of putting in Freedom of Information requests) www.whatdotheyknow.com WikiLeaks (repository for leaked documents made available by whistleblowers) www.wikileaks.org
MICROBLOGGING & TUMBLELOGGING Jaiku www.jaiku.com Plurk www.plurk.com Tumblr www.tumblr.com Twitter www.twitter.com SHARING CONTENT Flickr (picture sharing service) www.flickr.com PodOmatic (podcasting or audioblogging site) www.podomatic.com Scribd (social publishing site where you can share documents) www.scribd.com WikiDot (build your own wiki site) www.wikidot.com YouTube (the biggest video sharing site) www.youtube.com EXTR A TWITTER TOOLS Tweetdeck (desktop application to make
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The Easton Cowboys/Kiptic crew in Mexico
Will Simpson
Happy 10th birthday to Kiptic, the charitable arm of the Easton Cowboys football team. Charities and NGOs don’t usually emerge out of Sunday league teams. But then, Kiptik aren’t your everyday charity and the Easton Cowboys are certainly not any old sports club. The team are semi-legendary in their native Bristol for their unusual exploits around the world. They’ve played cricket in the ganglands of South Central Los Angeles and in 2007 became the first British football team to tour the West Bank. But before all that in 1999 they embarked on a football tour to Chiapas in South East Mexico as an act of solidarity with the Zapatistas, the ski-masked rebels who in 1994 rose up against 500 years of oppression against indigenous peoples and quickly became a global cause celebre. “It was an amazing tour,” remembers centre back Roger Wilson. “For myself and some of the others who went there, it changed our lives.” All 25 Cowboys (and girls) were profoundly moved by what they had seen: ordinary men and women
“In May 2000 we put on a benefit night at the Thekla. Music was provided by an unknown drum ‘n’ bass face DJ Suv, and the decor was done by an unknown artist named Banksy” with limited resources working incredibly hard to improve their lives.” It was one of the girls who had gone on the trip who said ‘we’ve got a lot out of this, we should give something back’,” says Wilson. “I had already decided to go back out there and work on a water project but there was a feeling that we didn’t just want to work on this project, we wanted to raise money for it too.” So it was that in May 2000 the Cowboys hired the Thekla floating nightclub in Bristol and threw a benefit night to raise money for a water system in Mexico. Music was provided by local drum ‘n’ bass face DJ Suv, and the decor came courtesy of a thenunknown artist named Banksy. The night raised over £1400. Shortly afterwards a separate group was formed to specifically raise funds for the Zapatistas, christening itself ‘Kiptik’, an indigenous word that translates as ‘inner strength’. In the last decade, a succession of volunteers from the West Country have gone out to Chiapas and got their hands dirty, helping the Zapatista communities dig trenches, build water tanks and construct water systems. Back in Britain the group has raised over £95,000, money that has provided fresh water for over 5000 people. Unlike many other charities, Kiptik is an entirely voluntary organisation: no members are paid. “It’s small scale so all the resources that we’ve collected goes straight into supplying materials,” says Wilson. “All the way through the process there is a policy of trying to make it sustainable, passing on knowledge and skills, to make the technology accessible to people. We’ve come a long way now: there are now teams of Zapatistas who can now do surveying and design water tanks.” For such a small group of people it’s some achievement. Roger is unsure whether Kiptik will be still here in ten years time, but in a way, that hardly matters. “I’m proud that despite having no experience in doing anything like this, we have had a go. And we’ve created a relationship between two very different groups of people that is unmediated. “It’s not just about delivering material resources, it’s about the interaction that goes on and the fun we’ve had with the people out there. They are communities in resistance, which is not an easy thing to be for 16 years. To have just had some level of involvement in that is great.” email kiptik@kiptik.org
“Simply stunning” Circomedia’s new home in Portland Square, Bristol, is a breathtaking and inspirational space available for hire. Suitable for a variety of uses including workshops, meetings, performances, training, etc etc. Small meeting room and café/kitchen area also available.
For further information or to arrange a visit. please contact Jo telephone: 0117 924 7615 joanna@circomedia.com www.circomedia.com
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food
Breaking the codex
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In Brief…
Darryl Bullock debunks the myths and rumours surrounding ‘Codex Alimentarius’ and looks at the real issue: new legislation for herbal medicines in April 2011
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ver the last couple of years various prescribe that all animals around the world must rumours have been circulating around be treated with such drugs.” Incidentally, not the internet, and in wholefood and one of the websites reporting on the French natural health industry circles about the evil that woman arrested for selling vitamin C has been is the ‘Codex Alimentarius’, a set of international able to verify the spurious claim. standards relating to food production and food Herbalist Max Drake, a member of the safety. National Institute of Medical Herbalists and Developed and maintained by the Codex founder of Bristol’s Urban Fringe Dispensary, Alimentarius Commission, established in 1963 tells me: “This whole thing started as an internet by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the scam. The British Holistic Medical Association United Nations (FAO) and the World Health know that it’s a load of tosh and DEFR A (the Organization (WHO), its stated aims are “to Department for Environment, Food and Rural protect the health of consumers and ensure fair Affairs) are as perplexed as anyone.” practices in the international food trade”. A Latin phrase that translates as ‘food code’, there has been an enormous amount of controversy about the Codex, primarily because it is seen as a mandatory standard for food, vitamin and mineral supplement safety. So what are the concerns? Firstly, opponents are worried that the Codex is recognised by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and used in the resolution of disputes such as those over food safety and consumer protection, and therefore will be adopted internationally irrespective of its ‘voluntary’ status. Yet supporters maintain that the Codex is a voluntary reference standard only and there is no obligation to adopt it. There have been fears that Codex will make all nutritional supplements available by prescription only, that it could lead to the banning of Max Drake of Bristol’s Urban Fringe Pharmacy supplements and even that it could make vitamins illegal. The stories are that the Codex will support major pharmaceutical companies and drive alternative health practitioners, herbalists and the like out of business. Websites So it would seem that the controversy over such as www.natural-health-information-centre. Codex is manufactured and unfounded. com accuse the Codex Commission of being However, as Max explains, the furore over the a ‘shady, secretive organisation: the thinly Codex is distracting attention from some very veiled propaganda arm of the international real legislation that comes into force next year pharmaceutical industry’ and claim that Codex and will have dramatic implications for herbal Alimentarius is ‘a set of regulations that aim to medicines sold over the counter. Max tells me: outlaw any health information in connection “A European directive, the Traditional Herbal with vitamins and limit free access to natural Medicinal Products Directive, comes into therapies on a worldwide scale’. force in April 2011 and basically says that any People have been claiming that the WTO prepared herbal product must be licensed in will impose crippling trade sanctions should order to be sold.” countries refuse to adhere to the Codex. Currently many herbal products sold in the UK Others state with certainty that all of our food are exempt from licensing; these new regulations will be irradiated, that cattle, sheep, pigs and mean that manufacturers will have to apply for chickens will be treated with growth hormones a licence for every single product. The cost of and antibiotics, that licensing an individual herbal the introduction of product will be so prohibitively “The whole Codex thing started GM foods will be high that some popular as an Internet scam. The British mandatory and that it products may disappear from will be illegal to give sale because it is not worth Holistic Medical Association know advice on nutrition the expense of getting them it’s a load of tosh…” unless you are a certified. qualified doctor. Originally, herbalists were Last summer a excluded from this pending legislation, since newsletter from the Parallel Community – a work was underway to regulate the herbal network where ‘people can express and develop profession (currently, anyone can set themselves their positive contribution for change: human, up in business as a professional herbalist). But social, ecological and spiritual’ – repeated an that regulation has since been derailed and as oft-cited claim that ‘the architects (of the Codex) long as the profession remains unregulated, the are the same people who built the rail tracks to new laws will affect herbalists after April 2011. Auschwitz’. Dozens of websites state, with utter Max says: “The licensing process involves conviction that, in France, a woman was arrested showing proof that what you are selling has been for selling 500mg vitamin C tablets. in use in the EU for the last 30 years – which All pretty major stuff, and understandably of makes it impossible to introduce new and huge concern to anyone who wants to manage innovative herbal preparations – and the average their health naturally and/or eat organically. cost of a licence is £50,000 anyway. We’re left The problem is, almost all of this is untrue, and with a situation where herbal medicines may sensible people are being suckered in. So what is no longer reach the shelves because the smaller the truth? producers cannot afford the licences. It’s barmy.” The Codex Commission’s Guidelines for Traditional medicinal herbs will still be legal to Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements, sell as separate ingredients: it is mixtures of herbs adopted in 2005, do not deal with natural that present a problem. herbs and remedies at all. They are only “The motivation behind all this is patient concerned with herbs and vitamins used as food safety, and that is an important issue, but I’m ingredients, such as the packets of cereal which not convinced that the solution they’ve come proudly announce that they are ‘fortified with up with is workable,” says Max. “As far as the iron and vitamins’. consumer goes, it’s really bad news. There are According to the Food Standards Agency going to be a lot of products that you just won’t (FSA), UK food legislation is already consistent be able to buy after next April.” with Codex, and some measures go further. The Max is one of many herbalists worried about much repeated claim that the Codex was due to the implementation of the Directive. The Herb become law at the end of 2009 is unfounded as Society, however, say: “Some medical herbalists Codex texts are voluntary, and do not therefore believe the Directive will have a beneficial effect contain implementation deadlines or dates. overall, both for practitioners and consumers, The FSA also state that “the Codex seeks because it provides a secure legal basis for herbal to ensure that when animals are treated with medicinal products and the practice of herbal antibiotics or growth hormones that treatment medicine. The MHR A (the UK Medicines does not compromise food safety and human and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) health. It is clearly not the role of Codex to have declared their intention to implement the
Directive in a sensitive manner, interpreting it to allow the continuance of systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.” These are changing times, and we wait to see what effect the new legislation will have in practice, after it comes into force next year. www.codexalimentarius.net www.urbanfringe.org www.herbsociety.org.uk
Future food
Back in March The Spark attended an important conference where Bristol’s food producers and policy-makers sought to wrestle with the big issue of the city’s future food supply in the face of dwindling natural resources and Peak Oil. ‘Feeding Bristol in the Future’ brought together experts from across the region, including local food pioneers Phil Haughton of the Better Food Company, Sid Sharma of the Thali Cafe chain and Mike Hennessey of Somerset Food and Drink. They met with the leader of Bristol City Council, Barbara Janke; independent food consultant Joy Carey and Kevin Morgan of Cardiff University, professor of governance and development, former government advisor and expert in global food politics. “Bristol is a pioneering city,” said Professor Morgan. “… but we need to set the role of food in the city within a global context. Urban planning worldwide has, for years, addressed all of the basics for life except for one. Air, water and shelter are all global, political issues but food has been a complete stranger in the planning field.” Professor Morgan feels that it is time to wrest the control of food supply away from the supermarkets and major food manufacturers and put it back in the hands of the consumers. “For 25 years now low cost has masqueraded as good value. Supermarkets are selling cheap, imported meat raised to animal welfare standards that would be illegal in this country. Supermarkets, branded manufacturers and food supply businesses are driving the food chain, not the consumers.” As Joy Carey, formerly of the Soil Association but now working with the Council to help build a local food strategy, said: “Food and farming represents 30 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, but a switch to organic farming would cut those emissions to 5 per cent. It can’t happen overnight, but we can start to make changes now. Everybody votes three times a day for the food system they support with the food they chose to eat. We need to support local producers and show them that they can find a loyal market within this city.” The Government has already set out its vision for the future of food in Britain in its Food 2030 report. This states that consumers need to be informed about, and must have access to, affordable, healthy food from sustainable sources. This needs to be produced, processed and distributed sustainably, and any waste reused, recycled or used for energy generation. Feeding Bristol in the Future will involve more local growing initiatives, the formation of buyer’s co-operatives, and more investment in local food production and education programmes to show people how to produce, and prepare, their own healthy meals. The first phase of the ongoing research needed into solutions for Bristol’s future will be completed by September this year. “I can’t imagine that any city in the UK will be able to fully support itself in food production,” says Professor Morgan. “But we can make massive improvements. It is possible for cities to do more in terms of local food.”
herbal lows
www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/strategy For information of Bristol’s food strategy go to www.bristol.gov.uk/food
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The Wrington Greens team
Goodbye to Wrington Greens The Spark wishes a fond farewell to Wrington Greens, the organic farm and veg box scheme which won Best Local Food Retailer in the South West 2008 AND came tops in our own quest to find the ‘best box scheme in the West’. Sadly Wrington Greens has been forced to close after a harsh winter and various staff changes. The Spark wishes former head gardener Eliza, who has moved to the Scilly Isles, box scheme manager Rebecca, who is now on maternity leave, and the rest of the team all the best for the future. Their organic fruit & veg deliveries have been taken over by Better Food Company. www.betterfood.co.uk
FoodCycle A new charity recently launched in Bristol to cook and distribute hot meals to people in the city, made from surplus food donated from local businesses. Started in London in 2008, FoodCycle brings together young volunteers, surplus food and a free kitchen space to create nutritious meals for people affected by food poverty. Stephen Beckett, of FoodCycle Bristol, tells me: “The launch event went really well. Our aim was to promote FoodCycle and get some volunteers and we got loads!” FoodCycle are now providing meals every Sunday afternoon at Easton Community Centre. Volunteers collect food every Saturday, using bicycle trailers, from Sainsbury’s, the Bristol Fruit and Veg wholesale market in St Phillips and from other smaller businesses. They then meet early on Sunday to prepare delicious and nutritious meals, which are served from 2pm. “We’re getting as many as 100 people coming to the centre during the afternoon,” Stephen says. To help fund the project, the group also collect food on a Tuesday, which is then cooked and sold at Bristol University Student’s Union (on Queen’s Rd) on Wednesday evenings. To volunteer, contact Katie at kc6074@bristol.ac.uk Stephen at sb7421@bristol.ac.uk or join the Facebook group at http://tinyurl.com/foodcycle
Size of a cow Well done to everyone who voiced their opposition to plans for a giant new intensive dairy utility in Lincolnshire. Nocton Dairies Ltd planned to house more than 8,000 cows in the facility, to produce up to 250,000 litres of milk a day for the East Midlands milk market. Dubbed “the equivalent of a battery chicken farm for cows” by its opponents, the plans sparked widespread outrage. The company has since withdrawn its planning application. Spud U (Don’t) Like The EU has approved the growing of a genetically modified potato, the Amflora, in Germany by the BASF corporation. It’s the first GM foodstuff to be given the green light by the EU for 12 years. In Britain, the University of Leeds has applied to Defra to conduct trials of GM potatoes engineered to resist two types of pest. The Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre, Norwich has also applied to Defra to trial GM potatoes. The EU has also approved the use of three GM corn products from US giant Monsanto for food and feed purposes. John Dalli, the EU’s Public Health Commissioner, said that the Amflora potato will be used to produce starch for paper production rather than for food, however some reports have claimed that BASF may use the potato in animal feed. Pete Riley of campaign group GM Freeze says: “The approval of the GM potatoes is a bad and ill-informed decision by the EC. Gaps in the GM labelling regulations mean that EU consumers will not be able to tell if their meat or milk comes from stock fed on GM potato pulp when they make their purchases.” Get involved! For the campaign to stop GM testing in the UK go to www.gmfreeze.org https://secure.avaaz.org/en/eu_health_and_biodiversity
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family
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Beccy Golding looks at some innovative products for switched-on parents, while Ken Edmonds gives us one dad’s story… Family support
Are you a family with a disabled child (0-19) living in Gloucestershire? We may have the key to something rather interesting… The Key is a free service which delivers information packs at key stages of your child’s life, tailored to their age, disability and the area you live in. Information is included on support groups, services, leisure activities and benefits. You get an introductory pack on registering, free leisure passes, regular newsletters, access to a helpline and a dedicated website for young people with disabilities. The website for parents lists providers who have taken part in the Inclusion Needs You programme, which trains out-of-school activity providers wishing to work with disabled children. They include theatres, dance, drama, music and art groups, sports clubs, nurseries, children’s and youth centres, breakfast and after-school clubs. The list is updated regularly as more providers take part in the training. Over 700 families in Gloucestershire have already registered. To register with The Key call the Helpline number 0845 658 3857 or check out www.keywords.org.uk Activity providers who would like to join the training programme and be included on the website, call Sarah Mansion or Sarah Hopkins on 0845 658 3857
Appy talk
A dad of a child with communication difficulties has created an iphone
Father figures I
Talking about sex
Martin and Mia
application (app) to help, and he’s sharing it with other families for free. Martin Brooks’ five-year-old daughter Mia was deprived of oxygen at birth, leaving her with disabilities which prevent her from talking. Having found available communication systems to be expensive, bulky or impersonal, he developed his own! The iComm uses written and spoken words, and you can add your own content, meaning your child is more engaged and motivated to communicate because the pictures and sounds you add are relevant and recognizable. Mike told me “The iComm has given Mia a voice, enabling her to communicate with the world, and have fun at the same time. It can also be used for toddlers to aid communication before they can speak properly.” Might alleviate some of those frustrations and tantrums! iComm can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store. More info, including a video demo, on www.miasapps.com An upgrade to a full version with additional features is available for only £15.99
We know we should be open, honest and un-flappable when it comes to talking to our children and young people about sex. But it can still be difficult. And we might feel that we need to know all the answers to every possible question. And that’s just not possible. But there is a new website that might help give us confidence in our own ability, and top us up with some facts and advice should we need it. www.4ypbristol.co.uk/for-parents has advice on when and how parents and carers should talk about sex with their kids; from under 5s through to teenagers, there’s sections on puberty, sexual identity, the law and what our children are being taught in school. Its part of a bigger site by 4yp – all about sexual services for young people – based in Bristol, with details of lots of local services, but because it’s a website there’s plenty of info that’s going to be useful wherever you live and whatever your age. 4yp was developed by Bristol City Council, the local NHS, Connexions service and Brook. The programme offers services such as contraception advice for young mums, widespread access to free condoms, training for teachers in delivering better sex education, school sexual health drop-in services, as well as the website to help us parents along. Teenage pregnancy rates in Bristol fell by 4.5% from 1998 to 2008.
Can the bomb
Bristol CND want to know what nuclear disarmament means to young people today and is offering young film-makers the chance to tell them by entering a short film competition. The prize is £1,000 for a 30 second-1 minute live action or animated short film which must feature the CND symbol at some point, and will be judged on originality and creativity rather than high production. Entrants will be able to contact a forum of media professionals for advice and feedback on their project, via the website. The competition is open now and closes September 30. Winners will be shown at the Encounters Short Film Festival in November. 2 age groups: 12-16 and 17-25. Contact Bill Braddick, Bristol CND Chair, 0117 971 5451 or bristolcnd@blueyonder.co.uk, www.thechanceofalifetime.org
LandTime
Last issue we reported on LandTime, an environmental initiative which seeks to reconnects young people to the land. LandTime is co-ordinated by Jeremy Thres, whose email we printed incorrectly. The correct email address is ojl1@btconnect.com (that’s oh-jay-el-one@btconnect.com spelt phonetically). Many apologies to Jeremy for this inaccuracy last time…
www.4ypbristol.co.uk
Ken Edmonds gives us a dad’s perspective on acting as a birth partner
n years gone by, us blokes were relegated to nervously pacing up and down outside the birth room waiting for news of the mystery within. Times are changing, though and many of us are choosing to be at the birth of our kids, either because we want to or because our partners have asked us to get involved. It’s not necessarily the right choice for every man, either. Many experts question whether all fathers have the right temperament or skills to make good birth partners, and some birth practitioners think it’s more beneficial for labouring women to be surrounded by experienced mothers, (as happens in more traditional societies). Ultimately, it’s a personal choice for each Ken and Kailan woman to make. She might want a combination of independent midwife, plus mum, or partner, best friend or doula. Ultimately, she could have her whole Facebook fan club if she wanted, but while they were in labour. Some wanted massage whatever the choice, if that doesn’t involve you and physical pressure on their back; some needed – or if you only want to take on a limited role hot or cold flannels on their face, and for some, in the birth – then that’s absolutely fine. Take simply having someone to hold on to was a big credit for your honesty! help. Susana says: “Being able to lean against Personally, I always expected to be there: it just you, grab hold of you, squeeze your hand, was a seemed the natural thing to do and my partner big support both physically and psychologically”. Susana wouldn’t have accepted my absence After hearing lots of birth stories I realised anyway. But what could I actually do to help? As that a really important role I could take on was the due date crept closer I struggled with what that of guardian of the birth space. Someone role I would play. needs to protect the Would I be the privacy and quiet “We were adamant that this was our ship to sail. cheerleader, team of the room, adjust player, manager or Susanna was the captain, me the first lieutenant, the the warmth and coach?! I had no redirect midwife the navigator and everyone else the crew…” lighting, direct experience unwanted intrusions, of childbirth so sort out food and I couldn’t see drink, change the myself being taken seriously as I told Susana to music, question or clarify medical advice and “breathe” through a pain I knew nothing about. generally make sure that the woman’s wishes Fortunately, advice was at hand. I read books, are respected. Having these needs taken care of went to pre-natal classes and spoke to friends enables the woman to get on with the important who were new parents. Susana and I decided work of childbirth. that the best thing I could do for her would Susana and I worked out a detailed birth plan be to offer support, love and reassurance. in advance. We knew it was a philosophical guide My colleague Rob, who is father to Jake, a rather than a definitive path. We saw childbirth sprightly 4-year-old, advised me: “Better to as a natural process but we were grateful that make suggestions, not orders, and to follow and medical help was an ambulance ride away if we encourage rather than to lead. This approach needed it. The most important thing for us was meant that my wife felt in control throughout that we took the decisions. We were adamant the birth process…” that this journey was our ship to sail. Susana was Female friends I’ve spoken to say there were the captain, me the first lieutenant, the midwife lots of useful things their partners did for them the navigator and everyone else the crew.
In terms of acting as a protective barrier between some of the medical staff and Susana, I used BR AIN to ascertain what was in her best interests. BR AIN stands for B: What are the Benefits of doing this? R: What are the Risks? A: What are the Alternatives? I: What does my Intuition say? N: What happens if we do Nothing? I think positive language is important too. Our first midwife at home was very good, but she was quite blunt in giving Susana the bad news that the labour wasn’t progressing well. As a result I asked her to give me all future updates so that I could pass them onto Susana in a more sensitive and positive fashion. In the end, our birth experience was long and tiring, but generally positive. To cut a long story short, we started the labour at home but finally transferred to hospital because the baby was stuck back-to-back and Susana was exhausted and dehydrated. The hospital recommended taking oxytocin to help the baby turn and an epidural to ease the added pain. After a lot of discussion, Susana and I agreed that this was the best course of action. After a much needed sleep, Susana awoke, the baby had turned, and she finally gave birth naturally to our baby boy. We are eternally grateful to the midwife assigned to us at the hospital because she acted as a protective barrier between us and medical staff. She kept the birth space a safe, private zone and made sure that we were left alone to make decisions with no pressure from the doctors. She also made sure that no-one came into the room unless we specifically requested it. Men are not renowned for talking about their feelings but for me it was great to talk to other dads and dads-to-be. Forewarned, I found it easier to believe in Susana’s natural ability as a woman to go through the pain and give birth to our son. I learnt that labour, as the name suggests, is hard work and can go on for a long time. Men need to take care of themselves so that they can take care of their partner: take breaks, get some rest, eat a meal, go for a walk if need be. It’s funny that Susana saw me as a tower of strength because at times I felt like a nervous wreck. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, though. The explosion of emotion I felt seeing our son at the moment he was born will live with me forever…
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Bright Spark
Will Baker, aged 16 Have you ever wondered why you’re not supposed to swallow your toothpaste? Or why you’re only supposed to put a pea-sized amount on your brush? The simple answer is fluoride. Unfortunately, fluoride itself is not so simple. It’s a confusing, mostly unknown and dangerous chemical, and it could end up in Bristol’s water supply. I got to hear about fluoridation by getting in contact with a group dedicated to stopping this development, known as Bristolians Against Fluoride (BAF), a community-run group. Through them, I learnt that Bristol Primary Care Trust and SW Strategic Health Authority are planning to routinely fluoridate the water supply of BANES, Bristol, N.Somerset and S.Glos. Fluoride is a chemical with some dental benefits; it encourages your teeth to revitalize minerals after eating sugar, strengthens teeth and helps to kill bacteria. So a helpful and harmless chemical, right? You’d be surprised. Fluoride has many adverse affects on health all over the human body, even your teeth, the area where it’s supposed to be beneficial. Dental Fluorosis is a condition characterised by staining of the teeth (nearly 30% of children drinking fluoridated water in one study developed dental fluorosis), with spots ranging from yellow to black. It can affect skeletal structure as well: skeletal fluorosis is a condition affecting bone movement, which in its mildest form can cause chronic joint pain, similar to arthritis, but at its most severe can physically cripple people, preventing them from moving. The chemical also disrupts hormone and thyroid activity within the body, with it being often used as a treatment for over-active thyroid. Fluoride may also affect healthy thyroids, slowing down people’s activity
“Fluoride is a chemical with some dental benefits but it also has adverse effects on health all over the human body”
which can lead to obesity. Fluoride also disrupts your body’s distribution of the hormone melatonin, which we need to sleep. Fluoride has been linked to Alzheimer’s. It has also, in 18 international studies (America, Iran, India), been linked with IQ deficiencies in children and further four international studies have found that fluoride can enter the brain of an unborn child. All these conditions are only relevant if you are in contact with a lot of fluoride, so if you spit out your toothpaste, everything should be fine. Unfortunately that was true only until our local health authorities decided that it might be a good idea to put it into our water, to benefit children’s dental health in the area. Now not only is this obviously a dangerous idea and a breach of human rights (mass medication), but it will also be very difficult and expensive to correct if adverse health effects in the population appear. If I (at 16) can access such worrying information about Fluoride, what is wrong with the people making this ludicrous decision? So what can we do to make sure this doesn’t happen? The NHS have not yet made a decision about the move to fluoridate. Before they do they must conduct a feasibility test. If the scheme passes this test then it must undergo a “rigorous and transparent public consultation”, with the people of Bristol. So if you disagree with what’s going on, make your voice heard. (*Sources: All Medical information taken from the findings of Hileman (1988) and www.fluoridealert.org/health*) If you feel the same way as Will does, make sure the NHS knows your views on the subject. Contact them at www.southwest.nhs.uk/contact.asp Keep track of the situation, check out Bristolians Against Fluoridation. Find their Blogspot by googling Bristolians Against Fluoridation or searching the same phrase on Facebook. You can also email campaign coordinator Robin Whitlock at robinwhitlock@hotmail.co.uk
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mind body & spirit
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Hannah Latham discovers a pioneering project for menopausal women in the region while Jo Middleton hears how holistic healing can work wonders for your animals… so she researched diet, exercise, psychology and complementary medicine. Her “integrated approach,” workshop programme has been independently assessed and accredited by various healthcare professionals. The nutrition and supplement sections were reviewed by a well known nutritionalist; the physiology and HRT sections were checked by the lead menopause nurse at an NHS menopause clinic and the psychology sections have been reviewed by a NHS psychology consultant. Positive feedback from pilot workshops have meant that they are planning to expand and Heather is currently training six women to deliver workshops in Cornwall, Plymouth, Exeter, Cheltenham and Bristol. “It’s really about helping women live their lives in a better way,” says Heather. “It also creates a support network within the group and women can talk to eachother via the website forum.” The workshops don’t dictate one particular approach, but offer many options, including practical motivational support tools for diet, supplements, exercise and lifestyle. “We are non-judgemental and non-partisan in our approach,” says Heather. “Our priority is that women should have the information to make their own choices.” Heather feels that although women are more open now about menstruation and fertility, menopause is still taboo. “I think it’s tied up in our obsession with youth culture in the West. A lot of women don’t want to look at what menopause is, and what it means. We’re terribly worried about how we look as older women. There are some fantastic role models like Joanna Lumley and Julie Walters but on a day-to-day basis you’re bombarded with anti-ageing products and
Menopause for thought
“The menopause is NOT a disease! It’s a totally natural process and every woman goes through it,” says Heather Fairbairn, founder of Menopause Support. Heather went through menopause in her mid-forties and had none of her close girlfriends living nearby at the time. She looked for support groups in Devon, where she was based, and found none. Her research background prompted her to look further afield but the search was fruitless. “I couldn’t believe there was nothing in place for women dealing with menopause,” she says. She had a “lightbulb” moment in the summer of 2009 when she was out walking with a friend, and the idea for Menopause Support was born. “I wanted to create an organisation that would help lots of menopausal women and which would have a knock on effect and help their families too,” she says. As rites of passage go, the menopause is chronically overlooked in Western culture. During her research Heather found hardly any support networks available across the UK and she was surprised at the lack of access to alternative treatments or information about the pros and cons of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that many GPs prescribe. The transition phase which leads up to menopause (when women stop ovulating completely) is called the perimenopause and can be difficult on lots of levels. Physically, women’s bodies go through a massive transition as menstruation ends and production of oestrogen drops, bringing side effects such as erratic/ heavy periods, hot flushes, urinary problems, mood swings, loss of libido, vaginal dryness, sleep problems
Heather Fairbairn (centre) with her six trainee workshop co-ordinators
and depression. Mentally, it can be stressful because feelings of self-worth linked to ageing, weight gain and perceived “attractiveness” may emerge. Some women find their concentration and memory are affected. Some perimenopausal women find they experience a resurgence of emotions connected to past losses. Some find they get angry more easily or frequently. All this change can be hard for families to understand, and intimate relationships come under pressure too, particularly if sex becomes uncomfortable. “Women don’t want to acknowledge what they’re going through and some push their partners away,” says Heather. “A lot of relationships fail because the women aren’t talking about their menopause symptoms.” With a science degree and an MA in complementary health, Heather was interested in a rounded and holistic approach to pre and post-menopausal care,
botox, while what we should be concentrating on is taking care of our bodies. In terms of cosmetics, for example, there’s actually quite a lot of junk out there. Women approaching or experiencing menopause need to be aware of what’s in beauty products and make sure, for example, that they don’t use anything containing parabens.” Heather views menopause as an enriching time. “You’re only halfway through your adult life. It’s an opportunity to really work out how you want to live. There’s loads of energy to be gained. Lots of post-menopausal women do fantastic things. The Chinese have a lovely way of looking at it – they call Menopause ‘Heavenly Water’: a rejuvenation of energy into your true life purpose. Post-menopausal time is known as ‘Second Spring’ which they see as a rejuvenation of energy to help women find their true purpose in life.” Menopause Support weekend workshop £95-125. See www.menopausesupport.org.uk or call Heather on 01392 876122, or email info@menopausesupport.org.uk
Mad hatters
There’s a new service in Bath providing community support for people who suffer from mental health issues. The Mad Hatters of Bath have a networking and information sharing meeting in the city every Thursday from 12-2pm. They publish a magazine, are in touch with support groups around the country and organise events such as street theatre, debates and discussions. There’s a £1 donation at every meeting. Call Clare on 01225 337787 email bathmadhatters@hotmail.com
Creature comforts Jo Middleton meets some healers with a remarkable success rate in treating animals using gentle, non-invasive therapies
D
espite spending millions of pounds on our pets each year, relatively few people even consider alternative therapies for animal ailments. Homeopathy, acupuncture and reiki, in particular, can be really useful tools in treating a whole range of physical and emotional health problems in animals. Any obvious physical problems in your animal should be referred initially to a vet, but that doesn’t mean you have to forget about alternative therapies altogether. There are a growing number of vets in the UK who practise holistic therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture, as well as conventional veterinary medicines. Mica May is a reiki master, and uses reiki on her own dog, a rescue animal who was initially very stressed and anxious. Mica also uses a homeopathic vet. She says: “I really appreciate the high level of attention which alternative therapists are able to give my animal. It makes a huge difference. You get a whole hour’s consultation the first time, which makes you feel like someone is in the situation with you. Homeopathic vets are also trained as conventional vets, so you know that they’re giving you a balanced opinion. The treatments are also much cheaper than conventional treatments, which was a surprise, and I can administer the treatments myself.” Jenny Moir is an animal healer who treats a range of animals, including her own cat, Rosie. “Recently my cat had problems with her mouth,” she says. “She was struggling to eat although she seemed hungry so I assumed it was tooth problems and took her to the vet. They told me they thought there was a tumour on her tongue, and booked her in for a biopsy the following week. Despite being distraught, I gave Rosie concentrated healing on her mouth every day for that week. I took her in for her biopsy but when they examined her the swelling and ulceration had completely disappeared! They had no explanation for it, but I did!” Jenny finds the animals she works with are normally more than happy to receive treatment. “I have found that the animals I have treated really enjoy the healing,” says Jenny, “and will often help to guide me through the treatment, offering whichever part of the body they want treated first. Animal healing is non-invasive and gentle, and will support the animal’s own
resources to deal with any physical injury or illness in the best way.” And it isn’t just dogs and cats that can be treated using alternative therapies. All kinds of animals, with all sorts of conditions, may benefit from natural health treatments. Nikki Button has been using a rosehip supplement with Nikki Button with Sid her 18-year-old event horse, Sid, for the past few months with great results. “As Sid has got older he often pulls out stiff from the stable and takes a while for his joints to warm up,” says Nikki. “This would often make him grumpy to tack up too, and I was thinking I would have to retire him. “However since taking the LitoVet rosehip supplement I have noticed a vast improvement. He’s more supple, is much more flexible in his movements and doesn’t become as tense as he used to. I am positive that this is because his aging joints are not causing him as much pain as they used to. His retirement plans are now on hold, as he recently came second in a novice dressage competition!” It is now widely recognised that animals can experience emotional and behavioural problems in the same way that humans can. You can even buy a canine version of the antidepressant drug Prozac (which apparently tastes of beef), to address psychological disorders in dogs associated with trauma, depression and separation anxiety. Holistic therapies are particularly useful in treating these difficulties. Ruth Staple is an animal healer who has treated both wild and domesticated animals, from dogs and cats, to ferrets, hedgehogs and even a llama! Ruth offers healing to complement
traditional medicine and finds her treatments particularly useful to animals with behavioural or psychological problems, which can result from trauma such as an illness or house move. “I offer very hands-on healing,” says Ruth, “basically reiki for animals. The interesting thing with animals is that they are completely open: they don’t have any of the psychological blocks that humans do. They don’t go into it thinking ‘this isn’t going to work’. They are also not susceptible to the placebo effect.” Often people will come to Ruth with what they think is a physical problem, but which actually turns out to be an emotional one. “I visited one woman who was worried about her cat,” says Ruth, “When I arrived and spent some time with the family and the cat, it was clearly quite anxious. It turned out they had recently moved house, and the cat was simply feeling left out. The family were caught up in moving, they weren’t paying any attention to how the cat was feeling. As soon as they made it feel part of the family again, that reduced the trauma it felt from the house move.” Treating your pet naturally doesn’t always have to be expensive either, as Suzie Grogan, a charity consultant from Wellington, found out. “Our dog Barnaby was a medical mystery,” explains Suzie. “He came out in strange, itchy rashes and had an upset tummy. Numerous trips to the vet ensued, he had lots of tests, antibiotics and steroids and he was put on a special, and very expensive, diet. We ended up spending over £500. Eventually I took him off the diet and decided to try starflower oil [an extract of the herb borage] instead, which I’d been told was good for itchy skin. Within a short period of time his itching had gone, his tummy was better, and his coat was lovely and soft and shiny – and all for £4.50!” If you want to lessen your pet’s environmental footprint, you might want to try some of the natural pet care products and foods on the market. ‘Dog For Life’ is a pet care company based in Devon that makes a range of doggy shampoos, conditioners and grooming products using essential oils, herbal extracts and other natural ingredients. They also do a flea spray – Insecticute – which uses natural active ingredients instead of potentially harmful pyrethrins. There are also lots of options when it comes to feeding. Designed by a veterinary
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Ruth Staple with a wild rabbi she gave healing to
surgeon who wanted to take a holistic approach to animal nutrition, Burns Real Pet Food, based in Wales, is modelled on a home-made diet, using natural ingredients, with no artificial additives. The British Veterinary Association stresses that it is important to always consult a vet if you suspect your pet has a health problem. The quality of alternative treatments can vary widely, so always look for a therapist with the appropriate qualifications and experience, or talk to your vet about the options available. Animal healers in the region: • Ruth Staple 07968 984522 • Suzy Chiazzari www.iriscolour.co.uk • Janet North 01761 241650 www.janetnorth.com • Margrit Coates (horse specialist) www.theanimalhealer.com • Dianne Bradshaw 01453 751565, Stroud www.bowen-mctimoney4backs.co.uk • Joscelyne Beazley, Horse Healer Corsham 07920 095609 Homeopathic vets: Find your nearest practitioner at the British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons see www.bahvs.com • Holly Mash at the Chiron Centre, Bristol: www.hollymashvet.co.uk 07875 767403 • Nick Thompson, Bath www.holisticvet.co.uk 01225 487778 • Geoff Johnson, Somerset 01984 624999 www.vethomeopath.co.uk Products: • www.dogforlife.com/store/index.php • www.burnspet.co.uk
The Clifton Practice Classroom courses in Bristol Diploma in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy for future practitioners.
The Clifton Practice (CPHT) Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma Course is a comprehensive ten month course part-time. Two-day weekend courses or small group weekday courses are available. The course is approximately 150 hours of classroom study. After successfully graduating the practitioner course you will be awarded a Diploma in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy (DHP) and the hypnotherapy practitioners diploma (HPD) accredited by the NCFE(NVQIV). Designed and written by practising professionals the course will give you a thorough and sound knowledge of the application of ethical clinical hypnosis enabling you to become an effective practitioner. Students travelling from outside the Bristol area may be helped with travel and accommodation expenses. For a brochure and details of forthcoming courses please telephone The Clifton Practice on 0117 973 3260 or simply visit our comprehensive website www.thecliftonpractice.co.uk
Training for Beginner and Practising Hypnotherapists Enrol now for 2010 Courses
Become a Hypnotherapist Hypnotherapy and NLP Training
taught locally in a dynamic, interactive way in small classes by a qualified and accredited teacher and full time hypnotherapy practitioner.
Plus, short courses for practising hypnotherapists in NLP Self Esteem and Confidence and helping problem gamblers. Evening, weekday and weekend classes available.
For course details and interviews contact Hilary Norris-Evans on 01249 740506 or via www.getmindfit.co.uk To download a brochure go to www.hypno-nlp.org Course accredited by the National Council For Hypnotherapy (UK) and the National Guild Of Hypnotists (USA) and NCFE (UK)
We are currently recruiting for:
Listening and Communication Skills 10 weeks part-time
Foundation Course in Counselling Skills One year (part-time), Wednesdays 5.30-9.30pm
We have been providing Psychodynamic Counselling Training, accredited by Westminster Pastoral Foundation, since 1983.
Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling Two years (part-time), Mondays 2.00-7.30pm If you would like to know more please telephone 01373 453355 or you can email office@wessexcounsellingservice.co.uk
Wessex Counselling Service, Fairfield House, King Street, Frome BA11 1BH www.wessexcounsellingservice.co.uk
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marketplace marketplace 20
art
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design
• Arts • Crafts • Gifts Open to all
All of Artrageous’s profits are gift aided to Children’s Scrapstore.
herbs
design and illustration for print and web
OPEN: Mon-Sat: 10am-5pm
Artrageous at The Childrens Scrapstore The Proving House, Sevier Street, St Werburghs, Bristol BS2 9LB Tel: 0117 914 3025 Reg. Charity No 2624238
café
email:
will@spaice.eu
www.spaice.eu
furniture
shops one caring world
gift shop Trading in a peaceful environment in the heart of Bristol's busy shopping centre, we offer gifts and homeware, 3/4 of which are bought direct from developing countries and small suppliers. We work with the communities who supply our goods, providing them with access to larger markets and asking them where they need support. Our profits go to fund Buddhist projects internationally and community projects amongst our suppliers. Visit us on the first floor of the Galleries, Broadmead (next to Waterstones) Tel: 0117 922 5877 E-mail: bristol@evolutiongifts.co.uk For details of our ethical trading policy visit our website www.evolutiongifts.co.uk or pick up a leaflet in our shop.
green Natural Bathing & Skincare Products Made Locally • From the finest Organic and Natural ingredients, sourced locally where possible. • Made with 100% Peace, Love and Respect for Mother Nature. • No Parabens, SLS or Artificial Colours / Fragrance. Recycled containers • Please see our website for new products and details of Events and Markets. • On-line shop at www.happyholistics.co.uk • email happyholistics@hotmail.co.uk
Ethical Trading Centre, Weavers Walk 33 Silver Street, Bradford-on-Avon
BISHOPSTON TRADING COMPANY
Beautiful clothes for women and children Fair Trading and Fair Prices 01225 867485 www.bishopstontrading.co.uk
THE COTTAGE WHOLEFOODS
Organic • fairly-traded vegetarian foods • Supplements • Remedies • Essential Oils & Toiletries • Organic Wines, Beers & Lagers • Freshly baked bread and pizzas 01225 866590
THE COTTAGE CO-OPERATIVE ORGANIC VEGETARIAN CAFE Fair Trade • Homemade Food 01225 867444
clothing Celebrating our 30 year anniversary! 55 Gloucester Road Bishopston Bristol BS7 8AD Tel: 0117 942 5625
Jewellery, Gifts and Curiosities from around the World. Watches, Silver, Costume and Body Jewellery. Watch Batteries and Straps fitted Free. Aromatherapy Oils, Crystals, Music Tarot and Meditation Cards. Candles Woodcarvings Furniture, Soft Furnishings and more. 18 St Marys Street, Thornbury, Bristol BS35 2AB Tel &Fax: 01454 415303 E-mail: bibelotuk@hotmail.co.uk www.mythornbury.co.uk/bibelot
Open Tues-Sat 10:00-5:30 Fairtrade clothes • Bags • Gifts • Funky Tights Comprehensive range of Jewellery • Body Jewellery Scarves • Cards • Knitting yarns • Haberdashery and other Fantastic Stuff
The Alternative Department Store
spark seasonal special marketplace is the perfect place to advertise your unique products, gifts, shops and websites. Grab our autumn issue deal and be seen by more than 99,000 readers for just £300 for the year. 32
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letters • comps
Obituaries
Chris Hutt
It’s sad to have to report that on March 20 Chris Hutt – cycling campaigner, plumber and Bristol’s Green Blogger – passed away peacefully at his home. The passionate campaigner, and selfconfessed grumpy old man, had been instrumental in bringing about changes to transport in Bristol since the 1980s. Even though he had recently been diagnosed as suffering from angina Chris was still campaigning to the end, to keep buses off the Railway Path and for a riverside cycle route from the city out to Hanham. Paul Smith, a long time friend of Chris’s, writes: “Always with a twinkle in his eye and an endearing grin, Chris Hutt moved in Bristol’s political circles without being entrapped by them. A radical supporter of cycling, a supporter of free markets and a jobbing plumber, Chris never quite fitted into anyone’s stereotypes. When he came to my house to fix my cistern, the 20-minute job was supplemented by two hours of tea and chat. Chris’s company and conversation was always enjoyable, challenging and thought-provoking. He is greatly missed by all that knew him, including those he effectively harried.” For now, you can still read Chris’s blog at www.greenbristolblog.blogspot.com
Alan Peck
Founder of the Natural Way Tai Chi School, Alan Peck died on March 3, aged 62. Here, a group of his friends and colleagues write about his passing. “It is with the most profound sadness that we have to tell you about the death of our dear friend and teacher Alan Peck. As the founder of the Natural Way Tai Chi School in Bristol, Alan opened the door to the wonders of tai chi for many hundreds of students. And all those who had the privilege to study and push hands with Alan had no doubt of the depth of his commitment and the level of his understanding and achievements. Having been the top student at the British Tai Chi Chuan Association, Alan was recommended by personal invitation to study with Dr. Chi Chiang Tao in Vancouver, after which he moved to Bristol to establish his own school where he developed very great skill in softness and yielding, a legacy which will live on in the teaching of the school. A serious practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, Alan became a trustee of the Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, going on to become a very accomplished acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist and healer. The premature passing of such a gentle man, sincere practitioner and lineage holder is an immense loss, but we are all thankful for the time we shared with him and the teaching we received from him. You can find out much more about Alan in a wonderful tribute lovingly put together by his wife Paula, at www.alanpeck.blogspot.com”
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Letters
Write to: The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol BS1 5BB. Also see p19 for details of our five fabulous festival competitions…
WIN! A luxury Cotswolds break
Dear Spark, I was impressed by Nathan Eisenstadt’s explanation of anarchism (‘A is for Anarchy’, Spring Spark, p18) until his final paragraph, when his true agenda emerged: the rehabilitation of violent, direct action. How on earth does Nathan marry anarchy with the violence of throwing stones and breaking windows? A stone thrown in violence is simply the Stone Age equivalent of a bullet or bomb. All the ills Nathan reviles in other systems are predicated on such violence, so violent direct action simply does not belong in the anarchist arsenal. Apart from the social implications, the consequences of any such violence places an extra burden on the earth’s resources and contradicts a basic tenet of green, peaceful anarchism. Nathan is mistaken if he thinks violence is complementary to peaceful strategies, such as vegetable growing. It, in fact, alienates the majority of peaceful anarchists as, by definition, it contradicts the freedom and equality we hope to achieve. It also affords the opponents of anarchism the opportunity to repress it ever more violently. The means are the end and, in this case, I hope Nathan comes to realise the real struggle lies in bringing about humanity’s peaceful transition to sustainability and the rebuilding of community after its estrangement from self and planet. Yours sincerely, Jan
How do you fancy a night away, complete with dinner and breakfast, in the heart of the gorgeous Cotswolds? You do? Well, The Spark has teamed up with The Green Dragon Inn, situated in the hamlet of Cockleford, between Cheltenham and Cirencester, to offer you the chance of winning a superb break for two. The 17th century Green Dragon Inn epitomises quintessential England: inside you’ve got roaring log fires, beamed ceilings and stone-flagged floors. There are wonderful walks starting right from the front door, and it’s the perfect base to use for vists to Regency Cheltenham and numerous picturesque villages. The restaurant at The Green Dragon has an award-winning menu, and each of the nine bedrooms guarantees a blissful night’s sleep away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. To win a mid-week overnight stay, including dinner and breakfast (booking dates subject to availability) just answer this simple question: What is the real name of the Mouse Man of Kilburn, who crafted most of the furniture at
The Green Dragon? (You’ll find the answer at www.green-dragon-inn.co.uk) Send your answers on a postcard to Green Dragon Competition, The Spark, 86 Colston St, Bristol BS1 5BB by July 22. Please include your name, address AND phone number. The Green Dragon Inn, Cockleford, Nr Cowley, Glos GL53 9NW tel 01242 870271 www.green-dragon-inn.co.uk
WIN! A VegiVenture in the Lake District
We have put Jan in contact with Nathan so that he can respond to her letter personally…
The Spark has teamed up with vegetarian holiday specialists VegiVentures, to offer one lucky reader a truly fabulous prize: a one-week walking holiday in the English Lake District (September 11-18, 2010) worth a cool £335! It’s the perfect holiday for anyone who enjoys being in magnificent, unspoilt countryside with a bunch of friendly, like-minded souls. The walking is medium-paced, covering 7-10 miles daily, and will be lead by Heather Read, renowned for her sense of fun and excellent local knowledge. An experienced leader, Heather has trekked in the Himalayas and China. Later in the week Chris Bristow, a trained mountain leader, will offer a choice of harder, higher walks. Based at Dalegarth Guest House, in the Western Fells, nothing much can compare to the early morning yoga and stretch sessions on the shore of Buttermere lake, looking at 2000ft high mountains and enjoying one of the few places in England where you can still see red squirrels. Everything on the holiday is optional; you can join the walks and other activities or you may choose to make up your own programme. Delicious meals are prepared by Swiss-trained chef Nigel Walker, who founded VegiVentures in 1989 and has run holidays in 16 countries.
Books
“Building with straw bales: a practical guide to the UK & Ireland” by Barbara Jones
reviewd by Vicki West Barbara Jones is the founder of Amazonails, the pioneering straw bale building company based in West Yorkshire. Amazonails have a passion for low impact, beautiful, buildings that don’t cost the earth. Their vision is to put the building process back into the hands of the people who live in them. They talk about “liberating people’s imagination” and working to everybody’s individual strengths so that each person’s individual talent is put to best use. Straw bales were first used for building in the US in the 1800s but only regained popularity over here in the 1990s. Straw bales are wind and rain-proof, nonflammable, load-bearing, warm, good smelling and non-toxic. They have a negative carbon footprint and are easy to work with. This book offers an inspiring and practical guide to the whole process, from getting planning permission to laying the foundations, fitting your roof and rendering the building. Amazonails use various natural building materials suited to the UK climate, including traditional lime and clay plasters. The company has also pioneered the use of cementfree foundations in various builds – not just straw bale ones – and won numerous awards for their achievements over the years. For anyone interested in getting involved in a low impact building project, this is an enlightening read and excellent practical guide.
Nigel’s menus reflect the local environment and where possible the food is organic. To win this fantastic prize, simply answer the following question: What is the name of VegiVentures’ main holiday venue in Turkey? (See www.vegiventures.com for the answer) Get your answer down on a postcard and send it to VegiVentures Competition, The Spark, 86 Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5BB by July 22, including your full name, address AND phone number on your entry. www.vegiventures.com
Tester Review Lomi Lomi Massage with Carrie Rowell By Emma Lewis Last month I left Bristol and excitedly headed down to sunny Glastonbury to meet 11 others for a 4-day residential intensive course in Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage, led by Carrie Rowell, one of the most internationally revered teachers in this ancient art. I’d also booked myself onto the two-day advanced course which followed straight after. A whole week of learning, giving and receiving wonderful treatments, being cooked for, meeting new friends and lounging around in the indoor sauna and pool: bliss! After several years away from my former practice of massage, due to burn out, I was attracted to the course as a way of re-awakening my former passion and dormant skills. One of the principal theories underlying Lomi Lomi is the respect the practitioner has for the recipient to be able to heal themselves through entering a deep state of relaxation, bringing clarity to the mind and awareness to limiting beliefs and emotions that can cause illness in the body. The 4-day course covered an introduction to the principles, a full body massage routine as well as the history of Lomi Lomi and how it is integrated with the other healing traditions in Hawaii and the connection to the Spirit of Aloha. The 2-day advanced course focused on
Published by Green Books, Devon, £14.95 www.greenbooks.co.uk www.amazonails.org.uk For more book reviews, go to www.thespark.co.uk
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Rocket Gardens: Susan Joseph (Mediterranean garden), Dominique Pahud (Mediterranean garden), Mrs V G Mackenzie (vegetable garden), Polly Hall (vegetable garden), Ms M Pegden (patio container), Mark Roberts (patio container), Gemma Hewson (herb garden), Kate Hewitt (herb garden), Creative Glass Guild: Kevin McGarry, Jackie Gilbert; SIGG water bottle: Liz Burton, Lorraine Crisp, Liz Crow, Ella Sutch, Sara McGavin, Peter Handiman, Jennifer Mills, Isobel Michael, Dave Osborn, Heather Baker, Kathryn Jefferson, Angi Margolin, Melissa Curry, Ms Meleeshka, J Watson, Mrs J A Sinclair, Frank Milum, Alex Maggs-White
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joint mobilisation and passive stretching. What makes it so unique is the extensive use of long, continuously flowing forearm strokes giving the feeling of many hands on the body at once, which makes it both gentle and very deep, like waves Emma Lewis washing away the old and renewing you. What Carrie strongly conveyed to us is that Lomi Lomi is a flow, not a routine. Through incorporating movement, breath, chants and self-care exercises (including Auhea: calling in the elements to harness their power) with the specific massage techniques, Carrie enabled us to tap into our inner strength and guidance to use our tools to heal ourselves and other people. Having spent her childhood in Hawaii, Carrie is returning to the Big Island to establish a retreat centre opening early 2011. Carrie is running Lomi Lomi courses in London and Glastonbury over the summer. See website for details www.carrierowell.com For Lomi Lomi treatment in Bristol call Emma Lewis on 07886 356358
rear view
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“Piltonite” by Kate Evans
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changemakers
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Once Arts & Ceremonies Interview by Fiona McClymont • photo by Jo Halladey Once Arts & Ceremonies is a notfor-profit organisation and creative partnership formed in 2003 by three artists, Refkah ACourt, Amy Creech and Bec Gee. They describe themselves as “creators of poetic happenings and magical events” and their work as “marking the day-to-day and the extraordinary of our lives.” All three are secular celebrants who work with people to create unique ceremonies, whether that be babynaming, weddings or opening a new community building. They are based in Bristol (Refkah was on a sabbatical in Mexico and so was not present for this interview).
Amy (left) and Bec from Once Arts & Ceremonies
a funeral without having really felt able to say what you wanted about the person. When we work with someone, we help them take control of those moments when their lives have changed and help them create something that reflects how they really feel about it.
Our work is all about change. Bec: We help people to find a way, unique to them, to mark those rites of passage that we all go through in life. We are secular celebrants, which means we work alongside individuals or groups to help them create ceremonies and events to mark particular milestones in their lives. So some examples would be a marriage, the birth or naming of a child, adoption, divorce, funeral and memorials, illness and recovery, birthdays, whatever event people would like marked and remembered.
Marking the changes in your life in some way, shape or form, is part of what it is to be human. Amy: We all try and create meaning from the things we do and make sense of what has happened in our lives, and I think we have an impulse inside us to make that a shared experience. It’s really important to have something, an event or gathering of some kind, to remember and look back on. Taking part in a ceremony is a way of drawing a circle round an experience: it gives you a framework that enables you to really consider the change that has taken place in your life.
Everyone has a story to tell. Amy: We call ourselves Once because of the connection with “Once upon a time”. We like the whole idea that life is a journey and everyone has a story to tell. The word “once” has a certain meaning and potential: it’s a word that can take you somewhere. It also reflects the fact that there is a bespokeness in what we do. Each ceremony is unique to the participants.
Ask the bigger questions. Bec: There’s a lot of commercialism geared up around ceremonies, particularly weddings. People get swept up into a whole bubble of the perfect dress, the cake, the invites etc. but they may have been putting off the bigger questions, like why they’re getting married! When we work with a couple, we meet them a few times and we often set them writing exercises, to try to get them to express themselves about their relationship. We don’t just focus on the ceremony itself. I think weddings are my favourite to do because you get a really clear sense, that you’ve really made a difference to their relationship and that the work you’ve done with them sets up the marriage afterwards. Amy: I like doing weddings too, because it is such an agreement, a pact you make together for life. To bring two people together, working through the differences, and helping them find what they are agreeing to can be quite tricky and challenging, but ultimately very rewarding.
What is the role for artists in society? Amy: How can we, as artists, contribute and be involved in making the world a better place? Trying to find answers to that question is how we find our inspiration, it’s what drives us, because what we are really interested in is people. We are not the sort of artists who sit alone in the studio and create things out of our own heads; we need to be engaged in the world. Art can be a way for people to work out who they are and what things mean to them. Amy: Religion has always used art – there’s a reason why there are beautiful stained glass windows in church and wonderful organ music. Religion has always been aware that those things open up spaces in your head. Bec: We’re living in an increasingly secular society and in some ways that has left a hole in people’s lives. Religion can give you a structure and a way to understand your life and reflect on life changes. Once is non-religious and we really wanted to explore how people get that sense of meaning in their lives without the God factor, because without any kind of ritual or ceremony, I think people do end up feeling alienated and a bit lost.
Ask yourself why. Amy: If you are planning to have a ceremony of some kind ask yourself, why now? Why am I doing this? What is this really about? Why am I doing it publicly? What am I trying to say? Really take time to think all of those questions through. And that’s the difficult bit to do for yourself, much harder than dealing with all the surface stuff. We obviously advocate working with independent celebrants because they can give you that objectivity and push those harder questions, that actually are what it’s all about.
The rites of passage of life and death can often be taken out of your control: our work is about enabling people to take back that control. Bec: Your mother-in-law might hijack your registry office wedding, or you may arrange 54
As artists we see the opportunities for creative expression in ceremonies. Amy: Participatory activities are a really big thing for us. We like to get everybody up doing something because as soon as you stand up and do something you are much more ‘in it’ as an experience. Bec: For example, my own wedding was by the sea and in the morning all the guests went for a swim and collected a bagful of sand and later, in the marquee space, everybody made a line of sand for us and me and my husband stepped over that line, to mark our point of marriage. It was a really powerful day. I’ve reflected on that day many times, and thought about the ceremony that we wrote together. We both feel really supported by it. Amy: I had a naming ceremony for both of my children which gave me an insight into how powerful it really is, which I wasn’t expecting. I was quite blasé about it and thought ‘I know how this works, it will just be a really nice day”. I had no idea of the emotional impact it was going to have on me. I assumed that because I work in that field that it wouldn’t affect me in the same way as I see it affecting other people but it completely did. It’s an honour to work with people in the way we do. Bec: I did an adoption ceremony for a little boy and the realisation that I could support him through art and performance skills to mark this huge change in his life, and to get him and his whole community around him, engaged and involved in it all, not just sitting and watching something happen to him, that was a great feeling. They all participated in putting something special into the ceremony and supporting and holding him through this fantastic change. It was wonderful to be part of that. Amy: It’s so incredible and inspiring to hear people’s stories. We all have such a deep, human need to communicate, and once people open up and share their experiences, it’s amazing. Exhausting sometimes, but amazing! www.once.uk.com info.once@gmail.com 07969 746720
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