Several members of South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth were involved in the “Engage 2007: Festival of Culture” event that was held on Saturday 17th November at the Bradley Stoke Community School. The event was organized by South Gloucestershire Council with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In celebrating cultural freedom the event was aimed at providing an opportunity for families to discover and experience new cultures. There was a wide range of activities including: music, dance and drama from India, China, Africa, South America and Europe; performances from local schools and groups; “Have a Go” workshops; Youth Zone dedicated to 11-25 year olds to demonstrate projects they are involved in; an Eco Active Zone with a wide variety of environmental themes and a Food Zone which offered the chance to discover favours and cookery from around the world. The event was very well attended and offered an excellent opportunity for us to interact with the community.

Val Harding and Margaret Pinder were involved in the Local Food Partnership demonstration that was held in the Food Zone. Throughout the day the Food Zone was crowded with visitors and had a wonderful and appetizing aroma of all the different foods on offer!

The South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth stand was manned by Denise Thompson, Jerry Harding, Alan Pinder and Stuart Shales. It was located in the Marquee Zone together with a large number of other stalls (60 or more!) covering a wide range of community activities, renewable energy demonstrations, recycling, home energy efficiency, ethnic clothing and Forest of Avon wood products. We had a large number of visitors to the FoE stand particularly in the afternoon. The only downside was that the marquee was not heated and it was a particularly chilly day! We distributed a large number of our membership leaflets so hopefully that will result in some new members for our group.

One observation that was made on the day was that our stand is a static display and it would be greatly beneficial to have something dynamic to attract people especially younger members of the community. If you have any ideas for a dynamic display please do let us know!

Stuart

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