On 30th September from 11am til 6pm, the first manchester Alternative Freshers Fair will be held at The Basement, 24 Lever Street, City Centre.
Featuring many diverse groups doing stalls, talks, workshops, films and demonstrations, with freebies and giveaways and music and all sorts of other fantastic and fun stuff.
Stalls and space for showing films, workshops, putting flyers etc are still available, and help from anyone wanting to do promotional work for the event, flyering, postering, ads etc is much appreciated.
Email
mancaltfreshers@riseup.net for more details.
See you there!
“Why an alternative freshers fair?” you may ask.
Well the reasons are many and varied…. But basically we don’t believe the present freshers fair does justice to the many inspiring and diverse things that go on within this city. Students arriving in Manchester for the first time and wanting to throw themselves into local life are not welcomed at the university by community groups, campaign organisations, volunteer groups of exciting arts and music collectives, but by Barclaycard trying to immerse them into debt as soon as they walk through the door, the Telegraph with its prejudiced views and misinformation, and other people offering supposed “services” that are more about exploiting the student market than actually doing anything to make life an exciting and fulfilling thing for these newcomers to our city.
So an alternative needs to be made. People need to know about all the things that they can get involved with here, all the groups that are willing to help and guide them, to meet likeminded people with similar interests and get access to services that will genuinely help them and enhance student life for them.
This is what we are aiming to do. We want to bring together a variety of Manchester based groups and organisations under one roof to show students what goes on outside of the mainstream student body. To introduce them to a side of our city they don’t get to experience through the main university societies, and to help them integrate into the wider local community and make the most of their time here.
We want a showcase of the best Manchester has to offer, including environmental groups, social campaign groups, community initiatives, alternative health care, food suppliers, arts groups, alternative media, volunteer organisations, music shops and venues, LGBT groups, and loads more that will help them see that there is more to Manchester than the shiny corporate exterior suggests.
We are in the process of contacting many groups across Manchester to ask them if they will send representatives to the event. We want students at the event to be able to get involved in local campaign groups, to learn about nutrition and health in what for many will be their first time away from home looking after themselves, to find likeminded artists, musicians and media heads to collaborate creatively with, to help students from minority groups integrate themselves into the wider communities in the city, to let people find out how to help local community groups and volunteer for things they are interested in.
We want to event to be vibrant and colourful, with workshops and demonstrations going on all day, people giving out flyers for upcoming events, music, and all sorts of other stuff to make it a fun alternative to the mainstream officially sanctioned event.
Featuring many diverse groups doing stalls, talks, workshops, films and demonstrations, with freebies and giveaways and music and all sorts of other fantastic and fun stuff.
Stalls and space for showing films, workshops, putting flyers etc are still available, and help from anyone wanting to do promotional work for the event, flyering, postering, ads etc is much appreciated.
mancaltfreshers@riseup.net for more details. See you there!
“Why an alternative freshers fair?” you may ask.
Well the reasons are many and varied…. But basically we don’t believe the present freshers fair does justice to the many inspiring and diverse things that go on within this city. Students arriving in Manchester for the first time and wanting to throw themselves into local life are not welcomed at the university by community groups, campaign organisations, volunteer groups of exciting arts and music collectives, but by Barclaycard trying to immerse them into debt as soon as they walk through the door, the Telegraph with its prejudiced views and misinformation, and other people offering supposed “services” that are more about exploiting the student market than actually doing anything to make life an exciting and fulfilling thing for these newcomers to our city.
So an alternative needs to be made. People need to know about all the things that they can get involved with here, all the groups that are willing to help and guide them, to meet likeminded people with similar interests and get access to services that will genuinely help them and enhance student life for them.
This is what we are aiming to do. We want to bring together a variety of Manchester based groups and organisations under one roof to show students what goes on outside of the mainstream student body. To introduce them to a side of our city they don’t get to experience through the main university societies, and to help them integrate into the wider local community and make the most of their time here.
We want a showcase of the best Manchester has to offer, including environmental groups, social campaign groups, community initiatives, alternative health care, food suppliers, arts groups, alternative media, volunteer organisations, music shops and venues, LGBT groups, and loads more that will help them see that there is more to Manchester than the shiny corporate exterior suggests.
We are in the process of contacting many groups across Manchester to ask them if they will send representatives to the event. We want students at the event to be able to get involved in local campaign groups, to learn about nutrition and health in what for many will be their first time away from home looking after themselves, to find likeminded artists, musicians and media heads to collaborate creatively with, to help students from minority groups integrate themselves into the wider communities in the city, to let people find out how to help local community groups and volunteer for things they are interested in.
We want to event to be vibrant and colourful, with workshops and demonstrations going on all day, people giving out flyers for upcoming events, music, and all sorts of other stuff to make it a fun alternative to the mainstream officially sanctioned event.
e-mail:
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
hooray
14.09.2005 13:13
and glad to see it finishes just in time for this month's critical mass..all those new freshers come on bikes and come for a nice bike ride round the city afterwards innit..
cm
logistics
14.09.2005 13:28
* whilst it's good for students to be involved in their city locale, is it not really the student union societies who should be seeking people? eg how do the MUSU People & Planet group feel about this?
* students are more likely to join something if it's near them - so why hold something somewhere that many non-student activists have never been to?
* if the 'problem' is multinationals at the Freshers Fair, then why not do something to tackle this rather than hold something else?
* given many non-student campaign groups are made up of working people would it not be better to hold something in the evening (of the first day of Freshers) (in the students' union!)?
* why is it a week later than Freshers?
and before anybody jumps on me - I'm just trying to raise *helpful* questions!
The Student of Life and for Life
studious
Answers...
15.09.2005 11:23
“whilst it's good for students to be involved in their city locale, is it not really the student union societies who should be seeking people? eg how do the MUSU People & Planet group feel about this?”
Student union societies are free to “seek people”, but what happens when people are interested in things that aren’t covered by the student societies and don’t want to set up their own society to cater for it? A lot of activists who are students (ie me) do not necessarily want to work with soley other students and would prefer to work with a broader spectrum of people, this will enable them to do that whereas the main student societies wont.
“if the 'problem' is multinationals at the Freshers Fair, then why not do something to tackle this rather than hold something else?”
Because multinationals at the freshers fair is only part of the wider problem of the intrusion of multinationals into education as a whole, and is not something that can be solved easily. Setting up an alternative that embodies our ideals is far better than just slightly reforming the existing one.
“given many non-student campaign groups are made up of working people would it not be better to hold something in the evening (of the first day of Freshers) (in the students' union!)?
* why is it a week later than Freshers?”
Have you ever tried finding a venue, during freshers week, that can hold this amount of people, will allow you to do whatever you want in the space, adheres to your anti-corporate ideals, is free, and can be booked on whatever day you want at whatever time? I suspect not! Surprisingly there aren’t many places in Manchester that will turn round and say “Here, use us during one of the busiest times of the year for free on whatever night you like!” Besides most students are busy enough as it is in freshers week, we want to give them time to adjust to their surroundings and sort basic stuff out before bombarding them with yet more information.
Hope you find the answers to your “helpful” questions a lot more helpful than we found your questions!
If you have any more "helpful questions" please feel free to come down to the fair and ask us in person x
Manc_Alt_Freshers
e-mail:
mancaltfreshers@riseup.net
Alternative Fair Appreciated
28.09.2005 15:26
Quiddity