Wednesday, 1 August
I dream of an ideal community where people are aware of and really care for the well-being of our planet – but it’s just a dream. I often feel frustrated by the ignorance of people at large with regard to their impact on the environment. I am concerned about litter, pollution and waste.
Passing through the gates of any festival always feels like entering into a different dimension. Inside is a different world of experience. The Big Green Gathering is
special because its theme is “green” – a gathering of about 20,000 people together as one, living a lifestyle in harmony with each other and with nature in a location powered by wind, the sun and the people. It is intended as an ideal camping community – alas for just five days!
The Big Green Gathering, the eleventh since 1994, is being held for the fourth time at Fernhill Farm in the Mendip Hills near Bristol, England. I am invited by some friends to help out at their stall – my favourite way of participating in festivals. I do like to wander and absorb all a festival has to offer, but I prefer to have a purpose and make a contribution in some way.
A blue wrist band declares that I am staff, and I make my way to the ESP, the Ethics, Spirituality and Philosophy, field at the far end of the area. When I locate our spot I find several beaming smiles despite the fact that the place looks like a cyclone has just hit it! There is little time for welcome beyond a few heart-warming hugs – there is so much preparation to be done.
Anyway, by now I feel like I travel from home to home, since the ever-growing network of meaningful connections along the way make me feel part of a much bigger family. Home is so much less about a place than the way a person is made to feel he belongs.
Meanwhile, during the wettest summer England has ever had, the sun is out for the first time in weeks. Gosh, am I glad! I have only just arrived from sunny Malta and hated the idea that wellies are a must for any summer festival in England, but the forecast promises that we will do without the three feet of mud experienced at previous festivals this year!
Thursday 02 August
I roam into the Earth Energies field searching for the showers. I wander through the painted tents and colourful marquees advertising Shamanic practices, alternative meditation, dancing or singing techniques, talks regarding various topics and a multitude of other things weird and wonderful.
No showers to be found here so I roam into the next field called the Healing Area. Here I discover a fantastic array of natural healing methods, including medical herbalists and homeopaths, a variety of massage treatments, Reiki, healing by sound vibration, acupressure and reflexology. And I finally find my solar-
powered hot showers and sauna tent!
I step inside the huge tent into a large front room. Peeking through one doorway I see people of all shapes and sizes in their pink birthday-suits hanging around the area outside the sauna. The other doorway reveals an extremely long queue for the outdoor private hot showers. A young woman running the place suggests that the sauna is less busy and just as cleansing without the need for soap, and I decide to take her advice.
This is no place for prudes, since men and women mingle uninhibited. I almost feel out of place wearing just a thin sarong, but I am grateful for it considering how wet the sauna surfaces are, while it is hard to distinguish between steam and sweat! Oh dear, somebody needs to tell these people that they should sit on a towel, at least!
The sauna is tiny, yet somehow 18 naked people end up almost sitting on top of each other, quite hilarious if you can imagine the scene: everybody is genuinely relaxed and smiling, cracking jokes about fat men’s bums getting too close to your face for comfort – what a lovely festival experience!
Once I feel sufficiently hot and sweaty, I feel no need to prolong the experience however, and I head outside towards the open cold shower. I notice the queue for the private hot showers has only moved forward by about two people, and I feel glad to have spent the time laughing in the sauna rather than standing miserably in a queue that promises at least an hour’s wait. A cold jet from the hose-pipe cools me off and leaves me clean and grinning.
Friday, 3 August
I was content to serve at our tent for the rest of the day yesterday, after my little morning wander, but today I feel a far more intense mood of exploration. For a few hours I want to delve into this alternative world that surrounds me.
Stalls with vegan food and drink (not a sausage for sale in sight!), clothing and accessories line both sides of a main street. In large expanses such as the Tepee Field nearby, people display their hand-made crafts and authentic ethnic artifacts for sale on colourful rugs laid out on the grass. Performers such as jugglers and acrobats display their skills, hoping for a penny in their hat. The scene is busy yet serene.
In this ethereal dimension people look like pixies, elves or fairies, dressed in bright colours with pointy hoods, bell-bottom trousers and sleeves, and decorated with flowers and bells. They wear bright smiles to match, and often dance as they walk, hugging strangers they meet. They mingle and play in a child-like way and sometimes make music.
The spirit of creativity reaches its zenith in the Crafts Area, with wood-carvers, glass-blowers, blacksmiths, weavers, knitters, silver-smiths, stone-carvers, painters, felt-makers – you name it, it is there! All of them organise workshops on how to do-it-yourself as well as selling their creations.
I continue to wander around the festival noticing a general absence of exploiting spirit; the unwritten rule of any festival is to share – positive energy, skills and knowledge.
Saturday 04 August
The sharing mood prevails in our ESP field, through continuous discussions, lectures and practices pertaining to Buddhist, Gaudya Vaishnava, Advaita Vedanta, Shamanic and Greek philosophy.
We run a Bhakti Yoga tent, belonging to the same organisation I visited so many times while in India. It is probably the most multi-
cultural tent at the festival, since the people running it are from Singapore, Sweden, the USA, Holland, Wales, Ireland and Malta, with only one English person!
At our tent, we engage in the chanting of mantras and bhajans, hold informal discussions about spirituality in the modern world and sell books from the ancient knowledge of India. Part of the scheme is also to distribute prasadam for free, although most people give a donation.
The Vedic scriptures claim that pure vegetarian food that has been ritualistically offered to the Supreme is purifying for the soul. Many people at this “green” festival are vegan so we comply, while the spiritual element of prasadam is a bonus to so many people who are particularly keen to get in touch with themselves and with the Divine. A little taste of India!
After sunset, while chatting around a fire (specially contained in a brazier to save the soil from an imbalance of nutrients due to the high phosphates and potash), I become distracted by a different yet familiar kind of music approaching in the darkness. I am about to experience a re-enactment of the Jagannath Ratha Yatra festival of Puri in Orissa, India, that is held around July every year!
I remain gob-smacked as a colourful cart approaches with the now-familiar figures of Jagannath, Subhadra and Baladev inside, drawn by a few Westerners clad in Indian dhotis and saris, chanting “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna!” to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals. This is too wonderful! It turns out that they have a tent in the Earth Energies field.
Mesmerised by the transcendental music, I follow the party till it pauses beside a drumming circle, where the percussionists seem delighted to adapt the beat of their djembes and darbucas to fit in with the tempo. Within minutes, people start to gather and dance, arms in the air!
One half-naked lady, a typical hippy with a joint in her hand, starts to dance around one of the brahmacharis (monks), who remains unmoved by the temptress, maintaining his smile and shining eyes while leading the kirttan – a song of glorification of God!
Indeed it is a small world, experiencing India in these hills near Bristol. Coincidentally, I later end up in a venue called the Small World, one of the six live venues scattered around the area. There I jig to the folk music created by Lewellyn pipes, a mandolin and a bass till late.
From fairy-lit, open-air cinemas showing documentaries, unusual films and even a preview, to live performances of all kinds; from relaxed gatherings in tepees to wild gigs and jigs; from quiet processions holding candle-lit paper lanterns to transcendental street-parties, every night offers something to suit any mood. It is all here, at the Big Green Gathering.
Sunday, 5 August
I finally find the time to delve into the Campaigns Area to discover more about the real scope of this festival – awareness about renewable energy by solar, wind or even human pedal-power; the proper use of fire and non-wastage of water, the effects of chemicals and detergents on our bodies, in our food and our environment; how to respect land and people; information about Indy media, the alternative, international, news media run by common people – and so much more.
In addition, I find an entire area dedicated to food and farming, permaculture and sustainable homes. It is now clear that The Big Green Gathering is not just about having a good time, but about assuming social responsibility for the world we live in and for each other.
Monday, 6 August
It hardly feels like its all over – there are still so many people about! But the tents are slowly being packed away, and the general feeling is a tad more relaxed, once the buzz is officially over. In between packing away our stuff (a big job even for 10 people!) we allow ourselves a few cups of chai here and there with some of the new friends made at neighbouring tents.
A large van and two cars finally roll us away, leaving the festival dimension behind, and a new chapter begins as we drive through the spectacular Cheddar Gorge, with its jagged sides towering several metres on either side of the road.
The scene changes most dramatically when, in less than four hours, we begin to drive through London. We are back in Babylon!
Information regarding The Big Green Gathering may be found online on www.big-green-gathering.com
www.melaniedrury.com
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