overview

Earthwise was the first festival I’ve been to apart from two ‘People & Planet’ student-only festivals I went to whilst at Uni. I’d originally fancied the Green Gathering, but decided to try this after finding out the GG is off for 2004 to allow the site to recover. To save some money, I decided to volunteer as a steward, getting free food, admission, parking, camping and a T-shirt in return for 4 8-hour shifts. This is the first time the Earthwise festival has happened, so we did a fair amount of making it up as we went along.

As I negotiated the rocky and slippery road down to the site near Weymouth on the Dorset coast, my first reaction was ‘Wow’. (Well, actually it was, “Oh bugger, I hope I haven’t just worn out the car’s shock absorbers”, but you get the idea.) The site was great, green fields spread out along the coastline with stunning views of the countryside and sea. Facilities onsite were pretty good, with Sam’s Sauna providing hot and cold showers as well as a sauna with cold tub, and lots of food providers onsite. The food was vegetarian/vegan, with cakes and hot drinks being provided. On the whole it was great – reasonably priced and tasty – although a wider variety would have been nice (I don’t want to see another vegetable curry for some time). There was no alcohol officially on sale on the site, although judging by the number of beer cans in the recycling bins everyone brought their own anyway. The toilets were chemical, and the less said about them the better.

The site was five minutes’ walk from the beach, which was pebbly and down a steep cliff. The sea itself was great for swimming in, deep and surprisingly pleasant. As the beach was off site, the stewards spent a lot of time trying to stop people gatecrashing and enforce the wristband system for children, which was supposed to ensure that no tiny tots wandered down to the beach and got lost.

Highlights of the festival: the gorgeous site, doing Tai Chi & Chi Gung for the first time, watching Undercurrents’ latest videos (including some incredible footage of people being helped to escape from an Australian refugee camp), sitting outside the Chai Chapel slurping warm chai and watching tiny children getting to grips with African drums nearly as big as they were, being given free coffee and food in the middle of the night shift by a friendly café-owner, watching the sun rise over the sea, sitting naked in Sam’s Sauna later that day with three total strangers and watching the sun set over the hills through the sauna window, dancing to Seize the Day & Nick Turner’s Allstars, swimming in the sea on three beautiful sunny days, watching people of every age from very small babies to aging hippies having a good time.

Lowlights: getting soaked on the Sunday, trying to fit everything in, having the music officially stop at twelve and no alcohol on sale to comply with the terms of the festival’s licence, the difficult road down to the site which was a nightmare to get up again at the festival’s end, spending midnight to eight am on the Saturday stood in a howling gale near the beach gate trying to stop people from gatecrashing, blocked chemical toilets. Having to stand near five blocked chemical toilets and tell desperate punters not to use them is truly the definition of a crappy job.

Best quote of the event:
Seize the Day band member: “I must admit… sometimes I go into Tesco for a paper. And we stopped at an Esso garage once ‘cos the van was running out of fuel.”
Heckler: “Quick! Sanctimoniously lynch ‘im!”

Would I go there again? Yes indeed. Even though it was aimed at families and I’m 23 and single, it was still a fun event, with lots on offer - though if you’re looking to get out of your head and party the night away, this probably isn’t what you’re after. If, however, you’re interested in alternative therapies and sustainable ways of living, and fancy a few days camping near the seashore, this is definitely worth checking out.

review by Louise Reeve

Latest Updates