Browsing: Festivals

The founder, designer and director of Fifi Bijoux, Vivien Johnston, is a leading light in the world of ethical jewellery production – she believes in setting a gold standard through her choice of Fairly Trading suppliers and the eco-friendly and sustainable manner of production. What’s all the more significant is that she’s been creating such a stir that in recent months she’s been invited to speak with and spread her wisdom to some of the biggest names in the gold and diamond mining industry. Fifi Bijoux is working on getting the word out on ethical jewellery production; how it should be done and the undeniably beneficial consequences. In this post Vivien writes about her  experiences during 2008 and what’s been happening in the world of ethical jewellery.

“This New Year, my resolution is to find those little spaces in the hectic pace of life. Those moments when you feel nothing but sheer delight and catch precious times with friends from afar or family you wish you could see more of.”

Technorati Profile

Read the rest of A New Year’s Resolution from Vivien Johnston of Fifi Bijoux »

See photo credit at the bottom of this post.

With London Fashion Week kicking off today, the beautiful, the big, the brash and the bold will be amassing in the capital, ready to strut their stuff.

Read the rest of Ethical fashion, fashionable ethics… »

Newcastle Green Gathering is back, bigger, better and, erm, greener than ever! It aims to raise awareness of environmental issues and living ethically by providing a creative and educational environmental at an arts and music based event.

There’s a Kids Area and Healing Zone as well as a plethora of local and national bands performing - ensuring there’s something for everone to be entertained by. As well as this there will be a whole host of stalls and pitches around the site in Exhibition Park inspiring the ethical consumer and green living enthusiast in all of us.

 As the official site says;

‘The festival will be taking place in Exhibition Park, Newcastle Upon Tyne on the 30th & 31st August. Featuring 5 stages of local and national music, arts, community groups, alternative therapies, stalls, food, drink (please note – no alcohol to be brought onto the site - drinks available through event bars) and much more. All dedicated to making sure that everyone in the city and beyond can make small but practical steps to change the environment we live in for the better; and have a great time while learning a bit as well.’

For more information check out the Green Gathering website

Photo: BBC

Something that came to my attention about a month ago (and which I have successfully managed to block out since) has resurfaced thanks to our friends over at TreeHugger. The aptly named Shit Box is supposed to be the answer to all of your festival toilet troubles.

The creator, who also founded the footwear retailer Office, is Richard Wharton who has since set up the Brown Corporation to manufacturer his little brown brain child. It is a portable, flatpack, lightweight cardboard toilet designed for outdoor use when you need it most. It’s designed to be reused with the use of degradable poop bags – 10 of which come with the Shit Box.

So next time your kids are desperate for the loo in the car, or you’re at a festival and are dreading the long drop – just think – you could be sitting comfortably on a cardboard box, in the comfort of your own tent, emptying your bowels in style!

Seriously though, it’s quite impressive and its eco-friendly credentials aren’t bad either. Made with 70% recycled cardboard, with all of the components degradable, this novel idea might just prove to be popular, not least with eco-conscious festival goers.

We already have self contained solar showers, biodegradable tent pegs, and floatable dinner sets! 

So why not add a Shit Box into the mix?

Have a look at other innovative uses for the humble cardboard box over at Ethical Superstore.

I wonder what’s next . . .
 

(Image via LittleJackShit)

 Image via www.olympic.org

It would be hard not to have noticed that the greatest show on earth commences this week. That’s right – it’s the Olympic Games 2008.

China was awarded the games back in July 2001, but during the intervening seven years many questions were asked on the suitability of the choice, and whether Beijing would get themselves organised in time. However, with only hours to go til showdown, they seem to have pulled the proverbial cat out of the bag (and dog off the menu!). The city has been transformed, with new architecture and various bilingual facilities.

You can check out the official Beijing 2008 website for the full run-down of events, however if your Chinese is about as hot as mine, you’ll probably find the more general Olympic Games site of more use!

More on the Olympics after the jump…

Read the rest of Olympic Fever »

Bamboo can be made into all manner of things these days. You can buy bamboo jewellery and bags, and clothing made from bamboo is becoming less of a phenomenon and more of an accepted production technique with ethical clothing manufacturers. Check back to our article from last June on bamboo bikes for a truly innovative use of the material.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that bamboo bridges were the kind of construction you’d be more likely to come across in deepest Asia, however, in a bid to avoid conventionality, an eighth bridge has been built across the River Tyne in Newcastle over the last fortnight. Measuring 100 meters in length and with two 25 meter towers at either end, it is a formidable structure. Although it’s only a temporary installation, this latest enormous work of public sculpture in the North East has raised almost as many eyebrows as the Angel of the North did.

Find out more about the bridge after the jump…

Read the rest of The Bamboo Bridge »

Upon that night, when fairies light,
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the route is ta’en,
Beneath the moon’s pale beams;
There, up the cove, to stray and rove,
Among the rocks and streams
To sport that night.

UK spending on Halloween is expected to exceed £120m this year, ten times the amount that was spent just five years ago. The pumpkin market alone is worth an estimated £25m now that Hallowe’en has become the third most profitable seasonal push in UK supermarkets after Christmas and Easter.

On the other side of the pond, the National Retail Federation of America estimates over $5 billion was spent in 2006.

Read more about the commercialisation of Halloween in this article, Corporate Halloween Hegemony, over at the Fuel Ghoul.

If you are going out trick-or-treating tonight then make sure you watch out for the ghoul!

Complete text of Robert Burns’ poem Hallowe’en. More Hallowe’en facts.

So, after five days of typically variable British weather, I returned home in the early hours of yesterday morning sunburnt and coated in mud. With Glastonbury Festival over for another year, the only thing left to do is sum it all up.

Read the rest of All the filth, none of the fury »

Well, as I said in my last post, my no mud predication was slightly inaccurate. Yesterday we were mocked by the weather gods for a third festival in a row, as the heavens opened, producing a lovely inch thick layer of fresh mud across the site. Glastonbury being the feel good place that it is though, everyone is taking it in their stride, and having a bloody good time anyway. It helps that most people seem to have heeded the weather warnings, and wellies are the must have fashion accessory this summer.

Glastonbury continues to prove it’s commitment to the environment, with the Green Police on site to ensure recycling facilities are provided, and the litter pickers were definitely earning their free ticket this morning, pulling empty beer cups out of the mud to ensure they didn’t get buried. Top marks all round so far.

The music started yesterday, and highlights were plentiful. Reverend and the Makers made the sun come out on the Other Stage, and I have no problem in saying that they are the best new band in Britain. Arcade Fire played a stormer on the same stage late on, with their neo-biblical eulogising suiting the conditions perfectly, and Lily Allen popped up unannounced on the tiny Park stage to wow a small crowd. Bjork, as always, was hatstand, and the show had to be seen to be believed.

Overall a bloody good day, and everyone is ensuring that we all stay smiling… with the aid of a cider or two.

>>read more Glastonbury posts

We’ve not had our daily update from Our Man at Glastonbury, which means that he’s either:

• been washed away
• got so drunk he’s lost his phone
• he’s dropped his phone down one of the infamous Glastonbury toilets and hasn’t been able to retrieve it
• the wandering Goths have carried him off and held him hostage
• the sun’s gone in and he can’t charge his phone up anymore

Which brings us neatly to gotwind.org

gotwind is a DIY website for renewable energy enthusiasts. For this year’s Glastonbury, Orange have commissioned them to build a working prototype of their portable tent mounted wind charger. Very cool. via New Consumer

How Ethical! thought that we might try and spot Our Man using one of the festival webcams, but it seems that the BBC’s camera is out of order at the minute. Found an alternative here, but it’s only showing an image from the 19th June*. Maybe we’ll have to e-mail the Glasto-PhotoBlog 2007 to see if they can spot him…

*Which I’ve subsequently discovered is using the BBC’s feed, which explains why it’s not working either.