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Lozzie
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Bugs
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Beckyess
Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Posts: 1076
Location: Worcestershire
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wishus
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 777
Location: Northampton, East Midlands
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Lozzie
Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595
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Lozzie
Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595
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 Posted: Sun May 14, 06 8:49 am Post subject: |
 
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Did "Get Green Bournemouth" yesterday. I had three half-hour sessions, the first at 11.30 am and the final at 4.30pm, so it felt like a long day because of all the hanging around. I had hoped to meet loads and loads of like-minded people there, but it seemed to be mainly local families taking advantage of the free nature of the event, and a large core of less-than-savouries; all matted dreadlocks, battered djembes, tins of Special Brew, mongrel dogs on string leashes and the faintly rank aromas of patchouli and hash about them. They eventually took over the whole event in the afternoon by monopolising the stage (the sound system was ingeniously powered by 2 car batteries re-charged by a couple of specially adapted bicycles). Several of them had brought their drums with them and they proceeded to ply us all with their own particular brand of rhythmic facism, belting out two traditional African rhythms with faces stony with concentration. They were very "tight", but rather boring in the end. No one else joined in, apart from one happy soul with Downs Syndrome who danced merrily in front of the steeldeck stage. The drummers left no space for anyone else to take part, and the volume they generated meant that other events taking place had to struggle to compete, including the other storyteller.
My outraged reaction to this - "How f'ing RUDE!" - made me feel rather old and fuddy-duddy. But this was supposed to be a family event to promote a greener lifestyle in Bournemouth, and the drummers ruined the last half of the day with their utter lack of repsect for what everyone else there was trying to do. They were just a bunch of kids having fun and expressing themselves creatively, but at other people's expense? Sorry, that IS just rude.
Kids like that give the rest of us drummers a bad name. I had been told by the organisers that they were trying to angle away from the free-hippy-do-as-you-please atmosphere of many festivals, and as such they didn't want an organised drum circle. Fair enough! But this meant that for me personally, these anarchist drummers were even more irritating, because I could have laid on something that EVERYONE could have had a go at.
So, our efforts to promote a more sustainable, lower-impact syle of life to suburban Bournemouth-ites were hampered. Which was a shame. My composting friends (!!) from Dorset County Council were there, as were the Bournemouth Energy Advice Centre, Wessex LETS (cash-free skills trading, for the uninitiated); DEFRA were there promoting Make A Promise for World Environment Day (there wasn't a single category of pledge I could make though. I am already doing all the things they suggested). There was a company selling smoothies that you blended yourself, using more specially adapted bicycles. They were rather expensive. An artist who specialises in making... er, well, I'm not too sure WHAT they were ... out of recycled glass bottles was there, as were traders selling fantastically expensive organic cotton t-shirts and hand-made wooden toys. The Green Party were there, but the man in charge of their stall appeared to have taken too many drugs in the '60's and was now incapable of coherent speech or of answering any of my questions. I mean no personal offence to the man, who may have been quite ill for all I know, but I felt that it was a shame that they were unable or unwilling to field someone a little more able to deal with the day.
I suppose the highlight of the day's activities was seeing Professor Chaos and His Bicycle-Powered Answer to Everything https://www.savetheworldclub.org/kayoss.htm
It was a great piece of street theatre, one man and a machine that looked like a cross between things from Heath Robinson, The Wombles and Douglas Adams. He entertained us all hugely, and managed to deliver a serious environmental message at the same time. I had enormous respect for what he did. You can catch him at the Kingston Green Fair on 29th May 2006.
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45683
Location: Essex
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