Big Green Gathering 2009

[petethewaggon]

Well said. I just came on to the net to see if I could find any info on all this as a friend who has worked in the Green Craft field has just read me the email from Nick and Marie explaining why they have had to withdraw Green Crafts and they said that there was a distinct lack of respect from the directors.

I'm so upset about this. To me, the Big Green Gathering and even Glastonbury Festival IS Green Crafts! Green Crafts to me was the heart and soul of these festivals! The very first Big Green I attended back around 2002 I think and then every successive year untill now was magical for me for it was like the best bits of Glastobury ie. The Green Crafts area but bigger! - . These areas were real and hearty and I loved talking to the diverse skilled craftspeople and looked on enviously at how their own camps were cosy and imaginative and some an alternate lifestyle that I was fascinated with.

The vibe of the Green Crafts was so alluring I would always end up there! I'd venture to other parts of the festival but get drawn back. I met Nick and Marie too and thought it was wonderful how the area was set up and organized, I felt they were wonderful to attract such great crafters and people, everyone contributing in their own way.

I can picture the area so clearly... I loved seeing the Gypsy Caravan and talking to Pete who had crafted it so beautifully and had fascinating stories. I loved watching the guys who crafted the unusual wooden chairs, wooden mushrooms, the basket makers, the wood turners. The entertainments in the wooden barn that was built especially, and I loved seeing some of their live in classic converted buses or their awnings and how everything looked like a real home making you never want to camp in a nylon tent again. It was INSPIRING! and it's want makes me want to go back this year. so to hear that Nick and Marie who run green crafts and have in my mind been the crux of my 2 favourite festivals, the big green gathering AND glastonbury.. to hear they are withdrawing from the big green makes me not want to go! I can't bare to go and NOT see the green crafts field! I even would recognize all the signs, all painted by the same sign writer Tim and get excited as I approached the Green Craft Area! I can't imagine how it will be without them and their legacy is too great to think the crafts lot will come anyway. The whole link is what created the atmosphere I am sure and I feel honoured to have been welcomed by many of them as they recognized my attendance year after year.

I really do hope that the rumours I have heard about this being about money on the directors part is not true. I don't know the details and not sure this is even the reason for the upset but I've heard that if you are not selling something then the directors are not as interested in giving away the pitches. Again I'm not sure if this is behind it but its worth thinking about anyway, about what we deem as 'VALUE'. I'm sure it's easy for the noodle sellers and the food guys to make cash but what the crafters do is add value in a different way. Even just exhibiting something they have built adds value. I LOVE looking at something beautiful and handcrafted and talking to the crafter, that is entertainment and value in so many different ways and it can't be measured in a monetary sense. I know it costs alot of money to just transport their goods to the festival let alone be pressured in other ways once they are there. - I am only speculating on this, Lets hope it is not about that anyway. Whatever the reason, it must be a big one for Nick and Marie to be upset enough to pull out of something they have been devoted to.

PLEASE DIRECTORS IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO GET GREEN CRAFTS AND NICK AND MARIE BACK ON BOARD. THIS IS THE MAIN PART OF THE BIG GREEN GATHERING FOR MANY OF US FESTY GOERS. Don't let the heart and soul of Green living be gone.

Really Sad about this.

LoveFest x

[petethewaggon]

Open letter to the directors of the Big Green Gathering 2009 July 5 2009

I am writing to express enormous shock and sadness that due to their differences with you the directors, Nic and Marie Piper have withdrawn from the Big Green Gathering and from the organisation and running of the Green Crafts field. They have worked cheerfully and tirelessly over the years to create a field that it has been a joy to have been part of. For a long time the BGG was my favourite festival – I was at the one on Adam’s farm in 1994 and have been at most since – always in the Green Craft field and always green blacksmithing.

But I have been aware in latter years of a certain green elitism creeping into the BGG and that the Green Craft field, well down the pecking order, has not been given the respect I would have thought its due – reflected in the comment on the BGG website: The Big Green Gathering is a great environment for learning. We have a Green Crafts area for you arty types and a Permaculture and Sustainable Homes Area for the more practical minded. As a working blacksmith, there was I thinking that crafts were practical – silly me! It would seem that you directors see green crafts as just frills on the edge of the movement – it makes me wonder who you will come to, when the apocalypse comes, for clothes, baskets, cooking pots, tools, stone work, wood craft etc.

But back to Nic and Marie – what a real loss. They have run the Green Craft field with such a light touch that they made it seem easy and effortless. They have created a site crew second to none and encouraged, welcomed and nurtured craftspeople over a broad spectrum of skills who give back in spades the respect and trust given them – witness the fact that their Green Craft field at Glastonbury this year was the only one of the green fields up and running on the Wednesday when the public arrived, and the procession and fire labyrinth that night was glorious – while much of the rest of the farm was still a construction site. Their BGG field, busy with practical crafts and enticing, interesting workshops, was always full of life, light, fun, colour and space, promoting and sharing many skills that had been dying and giving eager gathering goers a chance to try their hand – and succeed at something they may never have considered, let alone considered possible.

I am sure you will continue to have a craft field of some sort at the BGG – I just hope that you recognise the legacy you have been given. I would like to use this letter as a chance to give Nic and Marie a huge thank you for the opportunities they have given so many of us, the lasting friendships we have made on the field, the exchanges of skills between craftspeople (it’s not just the public who get a chance to try out new crafts) and the extraordinary inspiration and creativity that the field has engendered. What they created for the Big Green Gathering was really special - I am aware of many lives being changed through what people have tried out on the BGG Green Crafts field – and my life for one will certainly be the poorer without it.

I hope that you too are able to give them both the thanks that they deserve.

Yours,

Kate Doody

Kate the Blacksmith

cc: Nic & Marie Piper

eFestivals: festival forums

[petethewaggon]

Hi, Thanks for your support for my Gypsy Waggon and all the art & craft skills, I struggle to keep my display up and running and taking it about the country in a normal world of rising prices but when so called top dogs of festivals are only interested in high paying pitch sales then I am affraid I have to take my display to smaller new festivals, I get the feeling over the past few years that entertainers and me alike are not wanted because we take up valuable space.....but thwe feedback I get from the public is that they want extra entertainment which they do not have to dig into their pockets for.

Don't worry I am still appreciated by some of the festivals who realise what I can give . Take care Pete "the Waggon"

[Seem Silly]

Hello All,

I am totally gutted about all this arguement blowing up too. I don't know what went on with Nic and Marie and what bits I have heard I don't think it's that helpful to repeat.

However, it is absolute nonsense that BGG directors are trying to extort more money out of crafts people. This is not about trying to get people to pay for their tickets, their pitch or anything else. The crafts field is valued immensely in itself. In fact there is even talk of abandoning the 10% "tax" that I believe many craft people used to pay - to the field co-ordinators' budget, not to the BGG.

It's a shame the directors aren't answering in person. I don't think this is so much a lack of respect as it being two weeks till the event and them not being on efestivals.

Kate - I have trogged the BGG website to find that "arty" comment and get it sorted, but I can't find it. I don't know who wrote it or failed to correct it, but that is not the first word that springs to mind when describing the crafts field (awesome, inspiring, skilled, necessary... would be a few of mine).

Pete - we would sore miss you and your lovely Waggon. It's awful that you feel this way, but I hope some of it might be as a result of misunderstandings and that if you do go you will know the regret we are bound to feel.

Many people are going to feel the loss of Nic and Marie, and that things will not ever be the same again. They have been around for a long time and have shaped a wonderful field. However, I feel strongly, it must not be the end. Crafts are fundamental to our future and to our physical, emotional and environmental wellbeing. AFAIK Nic and Marie put it around at Glastonbury that though they were going they did not expect other people to follow them. (I am sorry if I have got that wrong, it came second hand from someone who had spoken with them.)

We need to be fighting together, against climate change, for the things we love and value. Not with each other where we can help it. There are many great things at BGG and part of the magic of it is that all these people can get together and share.

To all the craftspeople out there -

We want you. You are immensely valued. We love you. You are going to get the same terms or better.

There is a new craft co-ordinator (I don't know what to call it other than the "craft field" for now as Nic and Marie have the name Greencrafts). His name is Simon, but I don't want to put his email out on a public forum. If you haven't been approached personally by him or by a director yet, please don't feel ignored and maybe get in touch via the BGG office (email on the BGG website).

shock and sadness from me too,

a total newbie - BGG steering group member but speaking on my own behalf here

[Vicki Purple]

I can't comment on the BGG Crafts Field situation, I simply don't know enough about it. However, I'm helping Sunrise Celebration put on 'Sunrise Off-Grid' a small sustainably powered event from 20th-23rd August 2009, the focus of the event will be hands-on workshops for people seeking to live a Greener lifestyle, for further details please look at http://www.sunrise-offgrid.com/.

We are looking for workshop providers (crafts, LED lighting, willow weaving, converting your campervan, strawbale building etc) and would be delighted to receive applications from anyone interested, please email me at off-grid@sunrisecelebration.com for an application form.

This isn't an attempt to 'compete' with the BGG, this is a 500 person maximum camp style event.

[Sawdusty surfer]

hi there,

what an excellent post from Kate The Blacksmith.

I have known Nick and Marie for many years, having been booked by them numerous times for both The Big Green Gathering and Glastonbury. Nick and Marie built up the Green Crafts Field from nothing and turned it in to a field of fun , spectacle, friendlyness, inspiration and learning.

The loyalty of the craft folk to Nick and Marie and vice versa really is second to none in the festival circuit and with good reason. i think the new conditions laid down by the directors of the bgg have made Nick and Maries job unworkable. If any BGG directors are reading this, SHAME ON YOU. Losing Nick and Marie will have a huge negative impact on the BGG which is sure to be in evidence this year.

best wishes to all the Green Crafts people,

and huge respect to Nick and Marie

James

and one other point,

the 10% tax charged on profits made in the Green Crafts Field was, i think fair and good. The Green Crafts Field has ALWAYS been underfunded and the proceeds from the 10% wasn always put backm into the field through extra expenses for people, extra equipment of as an emergency fund. It did not go into Nick and Maries pocket.

[flabberghasted]

Re: nic & marie & craft field future

As a long standing participant of the b.g.g. as well as a shareholder I have seen the green crafts area develop from a few pitches set in a dark field with no decorations to an intense lively and beautiful field crammed with a huge variety of crafts amazing creations and even at night when the pitches are closed it is lit making the area magical and inviting .all this and more has been due to the foresight and hard work of Nic and Marie –they have actively encouraged new groups ,they quietly promote crafts and argue our cause –artists are encouraged and when problems have occurred they will listen to concerns and quietly find a solution. So that even if you’re not able to get what you want you know that your concerns have been considered.

The crafts field is unique in that each craft has its own needs with regards to space and facilities, health and safety issues are more relevant on this field than perhaps anywhere else on the site – Nic and Marie have worked tirelessly to “pull” it all together. for instance at the last B.G.G two crafts people on different pitches, one a blacksmith and one a carver were threatened with eviction by security for not wearing their wristbands (with fire and sharp tools there are obvious hazards associated with wristbands) Nic and Marie spoke with the health and safety exec who supported the crafts people and so stopped security. I for one would not have known how to deal with such a problem and yet these types of issues are constantly raised and dealt with quietly and efficiently.

I’ve heard it said that the 10% ‘tax’ could be abolished this was introduced as a way of offsetting complaints by others because we sell our own crafts, partly it has supported crew and artists who attend and support the field but also but also a percentage goes back to B.G.G as a means of financial support for the cause, nobody on the crafts field is paid but some expenses are covered does the abolition of the 10% mean the budget (which is minuscule compared to some area’s) would be increased to cover these costs, without the 10% would we still be allowed to sell our goods or charge for workshops (for most people this is the only way of covering expenses incurred by attending B.G.G) I have already been told by one friend that they have been asked to provide free workshops to offset the price of tickets, these are not free tickets they are worked for.

Nic and Marie have fought our corner for years (I could rant on with different arguments) anyone who knows them must realise how easy working for them has been and if they can’t carry on there must be very serious problems. whilst no-one should feel compelled to withdraw I feel a huge amount of loyalty towards Nic and Marie for the years of hard work they have put in on our behalf and yet never have I heard a word of appreciation from any director, with regards to the field or crafts people, most of whom work to produce an incredibly busy field done on ‘good will’ without any hope of remuneration, and its nice to fell noticed and appreciated, in fact except for one director, I wouldn’t even know who they are.

I think this shows a lack of understanding and appreciation of what happens on the crafts field by B.G.G. I’m sure the crafts field will continue but never with the same foresight, imagination and hard work as provided by Nic and Marie.

I will be supporting Nic and Marie and with much regret withdrawing from B.G.G

Have a good rest of year sue

[milly the bike]

Hi Kate............Well said, I am asked more and more about "what can I do when one has no electricity and how does one build a fire........All I can say is do we want all these hundreds of money minded people who organise big festivals, I don't think so ! when the world goes into melt down I want to be able to teach the ones who want to learn !

I would like to have the Names, Emails ,contact No.& craft of all thoe's who would like to get involved with starting a New small "Green Meeting" I have a venue in mind which has a licence .

Good to talk Pete " The Waggon"

[mr_bizarre]

I just received this email from Green Stewards:

We have just been informed by The Big Green Gathering that there is considerable doubt about next week's festival going ahead. We are really sorry to give you this news and are working hard to get the BGG to give us their decision asap. In the meantime we strongly recommend that you postpone travelling or making any other arrangements with regard to the BGG until further notice. Please do not respond to this email - we will send out further news to you as soon as we have it.

Thank you

Green Stewards

[Sawdusty surfer]

Im with you for getting involved text me on 07984737090 and I will get back dont ring and leave a message as am transfering to a new phone and am not putting credit on it.

regards

Milly

[shedder]

I just received this email from Green Stewards:

We have just been informed by The Big Green Gathering that there is considerable doubt about next week's festival going ahead. We are really sorry to give you this news and are working hard to get the BGG to give us their decision asap. In the meantime we strongly recommend that you postpone travelling or making any other arrangements with regard to the BGG until further notice. Please do not respond to this email - we will send out further news to you as soon as we have it.

Thank you

Green Stewards

[Sawdusty surfer]

No no no, how can they do that so close to the event. Just checked out the site and they are telling people not to go and that the event has been posponed!!! It is such a beautiful, peaceful festival, gutted, absolutly gutted

[shedder]

NO NO NO

the site does NOT say the event has been postponed. we will know what is happening on monday after BGG vs MDC/Old Bill happens in the High Court

[kate the blacksmith]

Hi Seem Silly,

Well well well - the BGG website appears to have been updated and the quote I used and the links have disappeared - but believe me, they were there when I wrote my original letter in early July. I have gone back my copy, and I had cut and pasted the quote so that the links were in place, but it no longer works! I am aware that when I posted the letter onto the efestivals forum the links didn't connect, but they were there on the emailed letter that the directors will have received and the quote was lifted directly from source.

And while I didn't expect a the directors to make a reasoned response so soon before the festival, I have have not even had an acknowledgment of its receipt - though I guess they have other things on their minds right now.

All the best,

Kate the Blacksmith

[mr_bizarre]

Every green stewards I've spoken to (including All at Secret Garden Party) have been told not to attend..........

No stewards no festival

Edited July 26, 2009 by mr_bizarre

[Deeva]

ADDED: Today 12:59 Police are warning people planning to attend the 'Big Green Gathering' 2009, that the event has been cancelled due to a number of contributing factors that could not be overcome.

Today (Sunday July 26) organisers of the 'Big Green Gathering' surrendered their licence to Mendip Council.

Avon and Somerset Police worked with the event organisers as well as our multi agent partners, and subsequently went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure this event took place. However to due a number of issues including road and fire safety that could not be resolved the event organisers surrendered their licence.

Police would now like to advise any persons planning on travelling to the area for this event not to, they will be turned away. More information will follow in the next 24 hours and a statement from event organisers below:

Following threatened injunction proceedings in the High Court by Mendip District Council supported by Avon and Somerset Police, and having taken extensive legal advice from a prominent QC and other eminent lawyers, the directors of the Big Green Gathering have been left with no option other than to voluntarily surrender the licence for the Big Green Gathering 2009.

The event will now not take place and the directors advise and request that no one who was intending to attend the event should attempt to do so as the site is now closed and it is likely that they will be turned away by the Police.

It is our intention to avoid any confrontation or public disorder in regards to this and it is our earnest hope that all of those involved will follow this advice. It is with great sadness that we have been forced into this position and we express our profound apologies to all concerned.

The Directors of the Big Green Gathering

Taken from the page http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/Local...p;t=1&lid=4

Edited July 26, 2009 by Deeva

[Toast]

This is a complete pisstake,I was looking forward to a nice 5 day chill with a bunch of friends and a great atmosphere. I genuinely feel that the councils motives for shutting down bgg were less than honourable.Issues like fire and road safety cant have been that bad else why pick that specific site?I will be ringing the council tomorrow for reasons and I also expect a refund or at least some form of compensation.

[steveziggy101]

can see this turning nasty ppl on uk hippy saying mass demo at high court hearing in london on monday ...no hearing no cancellation,

[Toast]

Steve, its definitely cancelled mate.

[steveziggy101]

cheers for that toast,where you going instead?there got to be a party somewhere,im gutted for evryone m8.

[steveziggy101]

where,s ppl going to now kate??

[Flounder]

where,s ppl going to now kate??

[steveziggy101]

what a reassuring gesture to many,fingers crossed you can work your magic..thanks.

[mudmonkey]

BBC West tv news has just reported that its cancelled, apparently due to "serious concerns about crime and disorder" WTF?! No idea what has happened but gutted for all of you planning to go, hope you get something else sorted.

[Toast]

To be honest Steve, I reckon I may just sleep and get ready for eiid - is going to be my festy of the summer I think, holding out for no mud!And yeah mudmonkey, Im with you - since when was bgg a hotbed of crime?I still stand by the council and the police have stitched the festival.