Generator X Wonky Weather Tour

-Events visited so far
-Future Tour dates
-Wish list
-Contact details
 
 
Events visited so far:
 
Newcastle Green Fair, 4&5th May 2002
The Generator X truck started this summer's Wonky Weather Tour in Newcastle, emerging from a long winter into a weekend of sunshine. With the new scaffold awning on the side of the truck, we set up displays on renewable energy, and climate change, the library, and decorated ourselves in banners.

The solar panels and wind generators powered a dub stage and projections over the weekend, as well as our own TV & audio set up. We were busy with visitors from the thousands who came to the Fair, asking about fitting solar water heating and electrics at home, whether climate change is happening, asking us to do more events and lots of children asking what we were.
 
There were five of us working, and lots of Rising Tide materials were taken by people, and videos watched. Thanks to people in Newcastle who looked after us, and fed us!
 
Northern Permaculture Convergence
Calderdale, 10-12th May
Somehow the truck managed to get up the steep, windy track to the venue, a renovated barn up on the tops, on the edge of the moors. There was loads of sun all weekend, and enough wind to keep the Air and the Rutland happy. We powered a cinema, showing kid's movies, permaculture videos, a laptop
presentation, and videos about Bougainville (Permaculture with guns?) and the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee.
 
There was a workshop about Rising Tide, discussing how the network operates and talking about what motivates people to take action on climate chaos. There was a tour of the truck, with a history of Generator X as a project. There was great food, and a handy bar. After a nasty, but eventually OK, fire-in-a-dome incident, the weekend was relaxed, with about 80 people there. We have since stocked up on lots more fire extinguishers...
 
York Rising Tide
19th May
"You won't get that down there", greets us once again as the
truck negotiates a horse chestnut tree on its way to boaters' moorings south of York. But once again we managed it. Right on the edge of a footpath, the displays an Rising Tide information got out to dog walkers and ramblers, as well as people who had come down especially. With York the scene of massive
flooding in November 2000, there was plenty of interest in what we had to offer, and once again people wanted to know about what changes they could make to their homes to reduce
energy use.
 
In the afternoon there was a productive planning meeting where York Rising Tide was given a boost in numbers and enthusiasm. Among things discussed were using the new Rising Tide videos, soon to be ready, at an open meeting
to introduce people to Rising Tide; preparing for the Johannesburg Rio+10 summit in September; keeping a climate-themed critical mass going; what to do when the Ouse bursts its banks next time; keeping the connections in residents' minds between flooding, climate change and their own impacts on all of it.
 
A yurt was set up, kid's made paper windmills (when not watching Bod or the Flumps on our telly) and much hospitality was offered by our hosts... we thank you!
 
Maidstone Green Fair
25th June
We powered a band stage all day, in damn fine fashion, with wind generators and panels pumping out the power.
 
Halifax Green Fair
1st June
Gorgeous sunshine and the first opportunity to put up the Rising Tide display banners - 3 large screen printed banners taking people through climate justice issues, corporate greenwash, what climate chaos is, and about rising tide as a network. Also, Kate Evan's "Funny Weather" cartoon guide to climate change made it out for the first time with it's new coliur cover.
 
The day was the annual Green Fair put on by Calderdale FoE, and although we weren't overwhelmed with visitors, it gave us a chance to catch up with people met over the winter in Calderdale, and show them what we do. We left as preparations began for the evening's royal jubilee thing...
 
Strawberry Fair
Cambridge 8th June
Wow, what a busy day! This felt like our first big and hectic gig of the year. We powered sw@rm's cinema and lovely fairy lights, and the redbrick's cafe. At the entrance of the green field, our wind generators and panels were visible from a lot of the site, and we had a load of visitors. About 500 climate cartoons were taken, Rising Tide videos playing all day, and lots of "engaging" conversations. We got to chat with other people interested in biodiesel, and recruited some help with this project. And we
survived...

Dulwich Green Fair
London 22-23 June
More brilliant sunshine, camped out in a London park. We were part of a group of renewable energy displays organised by South London Energy Action, which felt a bit on the edge of things, but people did eventually come and visit - especially when the children's dancing started on the stage we were powering.
We experimented with our displays and information, giving people the chance to browse without having to come too close to the truck, which seemed to work well. Truck fear? Not with the new silver wheel rims!

It was a good opportunity to meet with renewable energy installers, such as Solar Energy Alliance - we'll try and get a link to their website up. They have a good range of solar panels and solar-powered devices.

Woodcraft Folk UK Annual Gathering
Wortley Hall, nr Sheffield 29-30 June
We couldn't get inside the walled garden where the main focus of the gathering was, but over the weekend we were visited by most of the Folk there. Together with Totally 12 Volt, we powered the main marquee for the conference in the day (projections, PA, etc) and entertainment in the evening. One of the Woodcraft Folk's projects, „Sust and Able„, is focused on sustainability, and running the event as off grid as possible contributed to people's understanding of energy and renewables.

The weekend was mainly for group leaders, and this gave us a chance to chat directly with people running Woodcraft Folk groups about Rising Tide, and ways of using Rising Tide resources with younger people.

Also a chance to talk with 7 of the young people going out to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10) in Johannesburg to represent the Woodcraft Folk. They knew about carbon trading, and were interested to find out more about the role of corporate lobby groups at the summit.

We were invited to speak at the conference, during a motion calling on the Woodcraft Folk to carry their education through into more action - everyone there got a copy of the Cartoon Guide to climate change and were pointed to the ideas for action in the middle. Using the 90% for 90% train cards was popular with a lot of people there!

Next stop, Devon...

 
Next dates
 
July
10-14 Earth First! Summer Gathering, Devon
16-18 Groundswell Gathering, Sheffield
20 Community Renewables Intiative Launch, Norwich
24-28 Big Green Gathering
 
August
10-20 Ecotopia, Dingle, Eire
23-27 Northern Green Gathering (Sustain up North!),
29-31 Eastern Green Gathering
 
Wish List
projection unit, digital camera, a trailer possibly for biodiesel production, money, silver and blue paint, biodiesel experiences!, t-shirts and clothing for stencilling onto, energy books for library, low-energy monitor (LCD), tyres, PV panels, a base for the winter... you never know!
 
Contact Details
Come and visit us!
Email: mail@generatorx.co.uk
Phone: 07946 353173
Web: www.generatorx.co.uk and soon on
www.risingtide.org.uk/generatorx
We have many photos if you want 'em
 
We can't promise to respond prompty to emails, as days on the road fly by and we're very tired a lot of the time!

More pictures from the tour can be found on the York Rising Tide webpage:
www.risingtide.org.uk/york