no big green gathering this year

which will be no loss to me. I am, of course, biased, narky even,  due to being excluded. more on that later.

If you are at all interested in the BGG (the festival, not the activity going on in my pond!) then you will probably know that it hit financial trouble. The festival had to pay for security, and the cost was more than it had. There were appeals, previous festival goers bought shares.. still not enough money was raised, until a ‘white knight’ arrived, saving the day. This white knight turned out to be Stuart Galbraith. This has been met with some unease in some quarters, particularly as he talks of ‘branding’ and his association with AEG etc. If you are a share holder.. you will be privy to more information than me, including mutterings about a shareholders only gathering.

The problem with all festivals is that if they are successful, they get bigger, need more security, lots more people attend, and the atmosphere is lost. So in a way, I hope the little bash goes on this year, because it will probably be more like ‘the good old days’. that and these people paid out.. would be nice if they got what they wanted.

Now onto my gripe, and us being excluded.

Last year, I thought it would be excellent to go to the BGG, meet up with some people from the self sufficientish forum, but more importantly, gleen some useful info on things green. I had in mind having a good look at solar power/heating, and there were some workshops on wool processing, etc.

But on investigation, it turns out that they do not do weekend tickets because:

It’s our policy to sell 5 day tickets as we are a five day event.  All the planning and pricing is based on this. We want to preserve the feeling that people come for a week of participation rather than a weekend of hedonism (such puritans we are!).

So people like us, on the road to a greener life, with sheep, chickens and a large vegetable garden, who cannot go away for five days, or the sheep may die of flystrike, the chickens wont be fed and watered and the vegetables will go to waste.. We just might be able to go for a day or two, if we asked favours so someone else can come and tend our animals at least, but apparently that would make us hedonists!

anyone who is self employed.. and that would include a lot of craft-workers, cottage industry etc, who would have trouble affording the time, would also be excluded.

Oh give over. Let’s not mess about here.. there are two reasons why people attend the BGG, either they are stallholders.. selling their goods, or they are having a holiday. hedonism. We used to attend a lot of festivals, the three of us, before we settled down with our new semi small holding life. We went for fun. We cannot go anymore. The people who can go… are not leading the same life !! Hey, why not. have some fun - but don’t call me a hedonist because I am trying to be green!!

I guess you can be green, and not self sufficient..but I am yet to be convinced how green it is to encourage people to travel (albeit with lift shares and special buses… but travel still) for a five day jolly.

ah but here is some irony.. they did issue day tickets (what was that about paying for the whole five days and hedonism?) but they were only offered locally, from local shops. OK well maybe fair enough.. if the local people have to put up with a sudden rush of festival goers, all those buses, and the hassle it will bring, they should at least be able to attend.

but…. the website gives a list of those local shops.. and most offer mail order… I know of someone who came all the way from Kent.. for the day…(sigh)

OK, now I have wound up all the BGG fans, I might as well do my ‘and finally..’:-

Himself walked up the the car park with a box full of bottles for the recycling. There were two vehicles, both  with their engines running, the van owner was not in the van, but chatting happily to the car owner. It would seem they had both driven to deliver their recycling, and left their engines running whilst having a catch up. On the van was a BGG sticker..

can anyone else spot the irony?