Sunrise Off Grid Transition Gathering 20-23rd Aug, Somerset

Might be off grid, but still loads of capitalist enterprise here. Another money making idea passed off as being green, me thinks.

" Combined offer of Sunrise 2010 and Sunrise Off grid: £130 "

Putting a festival on costs money,its an inescapable fact... I have seen that they have a low wage ticket price and I suspect if they were contacted you could exchange some labour for entry.
We should all be aware of they way in which our festivals have been commodified by the state over the years.



Skint former festival promoter

This is nothing but an advert for a festival.

If you check out the programme you will see that there is no campaigns area at Sunrise Off-Grid but there is a lot of mysticism and conspiracy theory. This festival is not supporting protesters, activists or campaigners other than the green capitalists of the transition 'movement'. Why is this on the newswire of IndyMedia?

Putting on a green festival, or doing anything else in life for that matter, only ever costs money when you lack skills that you need, and have to buy them from capitalists. Everyone, even the most "back to nature" people have become intensely dependent on "high technology" products from an increasingly sophisticated (complicated), globalized and corporatiszed economy, and all over the past twenty years or so.

Putting on a green festival now requires thousands of mobile phone calls, a web site, lots of demonstration "techno-fix" energy solutions, an insurance policy etc. Twenty years ago no one had a mobile, no one had ever herd of the interweb thing, there would probably be no need for electricity with no i-gadgets to charge, and insurance...?

I know someone will pick an argument with me, but don't be pedantic, you know what I'm getting at.

Technology has become our master no longer our slave.

Workshops by a load of charlatans going on about eco-spiritual nonsense where you as a eco-spiritual consumer can choose to camp or take advantage of the 'luxury accomodation' zone and pay a shedload for a tippee or a yurt. A nice little service economy they got going there. Just like the on-grid capitalist world. Strictly for the permanent smiley happy liberal hippies who think something might change in the world if we all just do something 'positive'.

I think the key is in the meaning of the word 'transition'; Sunrise Off Grid does not claim to be an answer but one of the potential paths to the solution (excuse my idealism, it's hard to separate from myself). If we don't learn the skills we need to be truly independent from a consumer capitalist society then we will just dig ourselves into holes, splitting off into factions of who is against what and who wants that?
Sunrise does support protesters activists and campaigners, there is a large campaign area at Sunrise Celebration, but Off Grid is indeed offering a positive, productive approach to sustainable living, I don't think that growing your own vegetables is any less revolutionary than chaining yourself to a railing, and anyway, who among us can truly say that we are not capitalists? We are making the transition towards a self-responsible, local, community sharing capitalism, not denying capitalism.
Sunrise is run by 'Natural Communities' a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, with 100% Renewable Power. The money made at the event covers ridiculous security costs, without which we would not be able to have a licensed event or get shut down, along with water, compost toilets, site cost and structure. The organizers are not making a profit and are lucky if they cover all the costs. The event promotes and implements a post-economix exchange using the SOL as a local currency working towards its preferred monetary system.

Many groups in the south west will converge at Off Grid including experts in the fields of Permaculture, Off grid living, Eco building, Land and Food, Renewable Energy and Earth Energies, all wrapped up with some movement, games, meditation, song and great music. It happens so we, personally, can get access to the kind of information we need to start living the way we want to.
There will be an in depth course in living off grid with four modules available each day including how to harvest rain water, process gray water, work a 12volt battery system, make herbal medicine or build yourself a low impact home. The Off Grid course will take place in the Transition Tin Village, a micro transition community that powers itself and collects and processes its own water.

The theme of the event is self-responsibility, and organizers hope to inspire and empower participants into reclaiming responsibility for their lives and their own communities. Surely this is an essential part of politics and stepping back into our role as demos in democracy.