Greenpop’s 2019 Eden Festival of Action is fast approaching; we’re hosting our first Youth Week from the 22nd – 29th June, the second Youth Week from the 30th June – 7th July and our Adult Week from the 7th – 14th July.
This will be the eighth year that we’ve hosted the Festival of Action, and it’s the second year that we’ll be hosting it in the Garden Route, in response to the 2017 fires which devastated the area. It will be hosted at Wild Spirit Lodge, located near Plettenberg Bay in Nature’s Valley: a beautiful and biologically diverse environment, surrounded by the indigenous forests, pristine beaches and mountains that make up the Tsitsikamma National Park. We’re on a mission to help reforest the region through planting over 4500 indigenous trees and clearing invasive alien plants.
Reforestation is a huge part of the festival, but it’s only one of the Eight Pillars of The Festival of Action, the others being: Wellness, Plant-Based Eating, Permaculture, Personal Growth, Connection, Arts and Creation and Sustainability. We aim to facilitate a space where people from around the world can come together and learn, connect, give back and unite in getting active (not anxious!) about the future of our planet. It’s also the perfect environment for people to reconnect with nature, and with themselves.
We’re also excited to have a couple of well-renowned faces joining us at the festival this year:
Chinese American ecosystem restoration researcher, filmmaker and educator John D. Liu and professional interspecies communicator, Anna Breytenbach.
We hope that people will leave the festival feeling energised, educated and empowered as custodians of the natural world. The programme has been designed with this in mind and will include the following:
Restoration Ecology with John D. Liu
John D. Liu’s life has been dedicated to documenting and sharing examples of restoring once degraded land to their original fertile and biodiverse glory. He has produced, filmed, written, directed and presented numerous films on Environment and Ecology for the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and PBS – including the inspiring “Jane Goodall – China Diary” and “Lessons of the Loess Plateau.”. In January 2015 he was also named Visiting Fellow at Netherlands Institute of Ecology of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He will be sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience within the field of restoration ecology with our attendees. (Week 3)
Talk On The Wild Side with Anna Breytenbach
Professional interspecies communicator Anna Breytenbach will be sharing an introduction to the principles and practice of telepathic interspecies communication. This will include fun exercises based on using our natural intuition to connect with our animal relatives, the land and trees.
Introduction to Herbalism and Natural Medicine Making with Skye Mallac Writer, traveller, and budding permaculturist Skye Mallac will be hosting an introductory workshop to Herbal Medicine Making and Fermentation. As the festival falls in winter, the workshop will be mostly focused on immune boosters and gut health. Participants will be able to taste, experience and make simple, natural medicine. (Week 1 and 2)
A Conversation with the Bees
We are excited to host Layla Staegemann for A Conversation with the Bees. Layla is a food systems designer, educator and active artist. Layla is ready to have a discussion about the impact honeybees have on our ecosystem. She will provide insight to how complex the diversity of this special pollinator is through conversations, art and passion. Most importantly, she’ll help us learn what we can do to take action to protect them.
Eco Brick Bench Building and Modular Furniture Building with Waste-Ed
Candice Mostert of Waste-Ed will be facilitating a workshop focused on eco and natural building methods at Crags Primary School. She will be demonstrating how to use earth and eco-bricks (plastic bottles stuffed with non-recyclable materials), how to utilise waste and how to use traditional cob methods to create much-needed structures.
Plant-Based Diet Workshops
Due to the negative impact of the meat and dairy industries on the environment, more and more environmentally-conscious people are turning to plant-based diets. In light of this, all the food that we’ll be serving at the festival will be plant-based and we’ll be running some workshops around the subject.
Mycology Workshop
Francois Bekker also known as Scone, will be running a workshop about fungi, mycelium and mushrooms – their role in the biosphere, how to propagate them and their practical applications.
The aim is to show our attendees how incredible and diverse fungi are and to put the living planet
into perspective.
Learning About Camera Traps and Monitoring Wildlife with The Landmark Foundation Landmark Leopard & Predator Project, South Africa will be joining us again this year and showing our participants how to set up camera traps and how to monitor wildlife.
Tree Planting at the Heartland School of Self Sufficiency
We will be planting 1500 indigenous trees at the Heartland School of Self Sufficiency (a permaculture farm and self-sufficiency school near Sedgefield) to help them restore a large part of their land to indigenous forest. Their land was severely impacted by the 2017 Knysna fires, with 80% of their land being burned and subsequently invaded by alien plants.
Windbreak Planting with Raphaeli Waldorf School
There will be a day of planting with Raphaeli Waldorf School, in Plettenberg Bay. Their property was directly impacted by the 2017 fires. Our goal is to help plant windbreak trees to encourage a green, healthy and protective environment for the children. In-keeping with our “Bees and Trees” theme, we hope to create a wholesome, biodiverse environment for bees, butterflies and birds!
Environmental Mural Painting with Chris Auret South African artist, maker, activator and environmentalist Chris Auret will be joining us to paint three murals throughout the festival. The murals will be focused on protecting and celebrating the natural beauty and biodiversity of the Garden Route. We have three sites lined up: Buffelsbaai Caravan Park, Crags Primary School and the Garden Route Botanical Garden in George Beach Plastic Surveys and Beach Cleanups with Natures Valley Trust We will be hosting beach cleanups and sifting for micro-plastics on local beaches in the Natures Valley area to assist Natures Valley Trust with their research.
Forest Ecology Walks
Local experts will be taking attendees on guided walks in the stunning Tsitsikamma Forest where they can reconnect with nature and learn about the indigenous vegetation.
Yoga and Movement with Emerge
Yanna Romano of Emerge, will be offering Slow Yoga and Dance Awake at the festival; activities designed to encourage self-awareness and awaken inner freedom. Slow Yoga is a poetic form of yoga that encourages the experience of meditation in motion. In the Dance Awake sessions, Yanna shares inspiring music to move freely with and offers gentle guidance. (Week 3) Quiz Night and the Talent Show We’ll be hosting a quiz night and a talent show as fun ways for attendees to get to know each other.
Speaker Evening
We’ll invite all attendees to take part in a Pecha Kucha-style speaker evening, where they can communicate their passions with other attendees, in the form of a short speech/presentation.
Open Days
We are also opening up the Festival of Action 2019 programme and offering Open Days, where locals are welcome to join us during our activations. Open Days may include tree planting, beach clean-ups, alien vegetation clearings and more. If people would like to attend an Open Day they should RSVP and confirm their space by filling in the following form: http://bit.ly/EdenOpenDay2019
Dates:
22 – 29 June 2019 – Youth Week 1
30 June – 7 July 2019 – Youth Week 2
7 – 14 July 2019 – Adult Week
See More:
Book here – http://bit.ly/GPEden19Apply
Event Page – Youth Weeks – http://bit.ly/2P7HFUd
Event Page – Adult Week – http://bit.ly/2D2VNqk
Website – www.festivalofaction.com
Who is Greenpop?
Greenpop is a social enterprise on a mission to (re)connect people with the planet. They plant trees through urban greening and reforestation projects, spread environmental education, and activate people through green workshops and events.
Greenpop was founded in 2010 and has since planted over 100 000 indigenous and fruit trees at schools and other urban sites, community farms as well as forests across South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania.
More than the number of trees, Greenpop is inspired by the hands that have helped to plant the trees and the further thousands that have joined Greenpop’s eco-education programmes and made a commitment to be custodians of our beautiful planet.
Website: www.greenpop.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Greenpop
Twitter: @Greenpop
Instagram: @GreenpopSA
Phone: +27(0)21 461 9265
Email: info@greenpop.org
