We’re really excited to bring you a brand spanking new venue and programme for this year’s festival – The Hothouse. Thanks to the generous support of the good people from the Pickwell Foundation, whose work supports people and planet, we’re able to bring you a festival-long bill of inspirational, provocative, fun, daring environmental programming. Plus, there’s a twist every night…
The Hothouse is here to help each of us think and care more deeply about our relationship with the planet, and to give us the tools and ideas that we need to make a difference for the planet in our everyday lives.
Who’s who
In residence all weekend will be members of Extinction Rebellion, offering daily workshops, together with the third-age activists The Nanas, fighting climate injustice on behalf of their grandchildren, armed only with their oven gloves and aprons.
These two groups will be present alongside a handful of other faith-based environmental agencies to engage you with their work on climate change across the weekend, including Arocha UK, Creature Kind, Climate Stewards, Christian Climate Action and Green Christian.
In addition, The Hothouse programme will feature the guys from the Sustainababble podcast. Dave and Ol (pictured above) are professional tree-huggers who don’t mind admitting that they find it all a little bit confusing sometimes. Every week they sift through the egregious eco-guff from naughty companies and politicians that promise green action and then do the opposite. And they have fun doing it.
Dr Anna Fisk is a lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow and an activist with Extinction Rebellion Scotland, who will lead daily reflections on the theology of our relationship with, and the response to, the good earth that sustains us.
Former BBC Environment Correspondent and founder and director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) Richard Black will be with us to share the findings from his book, Denied: The Rise and Fall of Climate Contrarianism.
Sailor, carpenter, director and author on eco-living, Mukti Mitchell, will encourage us to adopt a low carbon lifestyle and find joy in enough.
Mike Berners-Lee is the author of There Is No Planet B and The Burning Question – the former a practical and holistic tour of the 21st century’s biggest challenges and the latter winning this endorsement from Al Gore, no less: “Fascinating, important and highly recommended.”
Greenbelt Quaker Bob Gilbert‘s latest book won widespread acclaim as, in Ghost Trees: Nature and People in a London Parish, Bob continued his patient work in the quiet art of noticing. A long-standing campaigner for inner city conservation, Bob returns to the festival to encourage us to notice what the natural world is telling us.
But that’s not all…
The Hothouse is where discussion meets the dancefloor. So every evening, The Hothouse will transform itself into a brand new indoor-outdoor location for great tunes and dancing, complete with pop-up bar and night-time lighting and art installations, courtesy of Creative Giants. Join us as we celebrate the beauty of our festival site and dance under the stars ’til late each night.