overview

While most of the festival-goers this month are traipsing off to the wonderfully predictable V and Carling festivals, it is nice to find that a festival is happening that goes back to it’s roots. What we used to call the Ackworth Festival, or our parents called the hippy hangout near the water tower, is back in full force this year.

The main purpose of this event is to spend four days promoting sustainable living through a range of workshops and campaign stalls. There are no generators onsite; all the power is supplied using wind turbines and solar panels.



The festival has grown over the years; the stages have become more established and the kid’s area is huge now. It is very much a family festival, with the main ‘arena’ area a hug open space.

The main stage sits at the top of the hill, and overlooks the valley between the two water towers in this area. There are not many people here, like the title suggests it is a gathering of like minded people and those willing to learn.

Due to the lack of a fence and the fact that it sits on many public footpaths, the festival can be entered for free, meaning a few people turn up who are not about the same vibe as the regulars, but no trouble breaks out. The stewards and staff are volunteers, and the whole feeling is very relaxed.



This is a very rare weekend too; as it hasn’t rained! Surely this prompts a celebration on its own! The festival is not over powered with food stalls; just the odd one serving vegetarian food and a nice chilled out atmosphere like Weirdigan's Organic Travelling Cafe.

One of the best ideas that help out the lazy campers among us is the helping hand from Gremlin Cycles. If you take in your old bike they will guide you into making a working cycle. The best bit is they will transport your camping tackle from the car park to the camping area on their adapted cycles!

The stalls vary from recycled clothes through to hand made crafts, henna body art and even reusable organic nappies. The stand out shop for a lot of people is the Swap Shop, where you can trade in anything and gain anything back.


The campaigns area is fighting for many causes like Friends of The Earth, Mutatoes and Camp For Climate Change, as well as bringing it more close to home with the No Widening M1 campaign.

The mind boggling list of workshops include many things to make us live more of an aware life, like design and build a rocket stove, flat pack compost toilet building and grey water recycling.

The toilets are similar to the latrine design at Glastonbury’s Stone Circle. The hole is a little bigger but there is light in there to see. Apparently after the festival the farmer has allowed trees to be planted in the place where the toilets stand.

With only two stages you would think that there would be little to do, but there is plenty, with the Main Stage producing many a dancing person with bands like Weird String Band, Electric Mud Generator and Gaia. The smaller but just as lively Sunny Jim’s Solar-Powered Cabaret Stage stays open the longest, with open mic sessions, light shows, comedy and a whole range of entertainment and music.

This is a festival to feel good about going to; not only are you learning more ways to improve your life and the planet, but it is friendly and relaxed and completely un-commercial. With more and more festivals relying on big names to pull more money, which in turn leads to more travelling to festivals and consuming crap overpriced food in too much packaging, it is nice to see these smaller events can take place off their own back. The sun isn’t shining for no reason!

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