www.NottmGreenFest.org.uk
Meeting of the Nottingham Green Festival Planning Group
Sunday 21st February 2016, 4pm, Sumac Centre
Present: Kenny, Pat, Tash, Lynda, Sally, Pheobe, Ian, Bob, Moby, Jenny (Veggies)
Apologies:
Chis – Ex Libris
Mark – Green Party
Russell – Veggies/Hackspace
Nat – Veggies / Soundbites
Bandstand Ents:
It was agreed that Kenny should confirm his proposed bands & the PA provider, subject to confirmation of the Arboretum booking, which is firmly penciled in, pending technical paperwork which is expected to give no surprises.
– The Cat’s Charis (Facebook – Reverbnation)
– Seven Little Sisters (Website – Facebook)
– Universal Sound of Samba
– Hallouminati
– Bendigo (Facebook – Soundcloud)
It was noted that feedback from 2015 asked for more cultural & ethnic diversity amongst performers. Kenny feels that this is covered.
Kenny will approach Leticia(?) to co-ordinate inter-band poets, possibly with a separate PA. Last year there were 6 poets.
Consideration should be given to the poets being appropriate to the bands that they are between. More ‘political relevance’ was requested, such as provided by Lord Biro!
Kenny suggested Stunt Girls Productions for activities around the wider site.
It was noted that MC Parker, who has provided kids activities for many years, has sent a message of enthusiastic & grateful support.
At the next meeting clarify whether a separate team should coordinate off-stage activities. In 2015 these were Zora Duncan & Cafe Cairo Dancers; Capoeira Cordão de Ouro; and Steve Juggler & Unicycle.
There was a lot of enthusiasm for the Phantom Limbs pop-up performance. Ask Jon Trotsky (via Critical Mass) whether they would like to curate a 12volt or pedal powered 2nd stage in the same area.
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Stewards should be organised separately from bandstand activities.
There role is to marshal stall holder access on the gates before the event begins and then do general site stewarding, including crowd control around the stage, during the event.
It was suggested to find some key people from previous stewards & delegate the recruitment & management of stewards to them.
With thanks for his excellent work so far, Kenny left for other commitments.
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Arboretum booking
The formal Event Booking has to be done on the Council website in one unbroken session, so the text for all the forms needs to be ready to copy & paste before attempting this.
Council has sent Moby copies of the completed documents from last year, but they are large pdfs of scanned handwritten forms so we should share them around for others to help retype.
Sally will retype the Event Management Plan.
– were there / are there any other offers to help?
[Pat has uploaded the documents to the NottmGreenFest google drive from where Moby can share links].
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Stall bookings
It was felt that there was an imbalance between charities/campaigns vs non-charities/traders.
Moby will circulate the numbers of each category from her analysis of booking forms.
A list of the 78 stalls from 2015 can be seen at http://www.NottmGreenFest.org.uk/
The balance may be improved by the opening up 25 – 50 extra stall spaces, as the pool of campaigns is possibly static compared to the growth in ethical & green businesses.
Whilst it is should be noted that the ethos of the Green Festival is to have a very broad definition of ‘green’, dating back to it’s roots in the Peace Festival, we could remind & pursue specifically ‘green’ groups & traders if necessary, but be less pushy with other charities/campaigns.
To accommodate more stalls it is suggested that those booking promptly be invited to set up on usual first-come basis from 8am, with late bookers being held off to arrive after 10am.
As well as opening up the top pathway and the whole slope above the lower path, stalls could if necessary extend beyond the bridge towards the Mansfield Road entrance. The extra stall fees, especially if mainly higher-priced businesses & caterers, would easily fund extra stawards and, if appropriate, more insurance & first aid cover.
This year the booking process will be strictly by email, but we have very few few email addresses.
Moby will circulate a list of stall holders indicating, as a ticked list, which are lacking contact info [or better share a link to a google drive document that can be kept updated]. We can all then track down email addresses [& other contact info] for Moby to update onto a less public document.
[We could ask for email addresses (public & private), twitter, facebook & postal addresses (private), with a request for contacts to indicate which we can publish on a public stallholders list].
[Sally has published a statement on NottmGreenFest Facebook page inviting potential stallholders to send an expression of interest to info@nottmgreenfest.org.uk].
Pat to arrange forwarding of this call-out via NewsList & ask Jeremy to sent out info to NottmCND bulletin / mailing list.
[Pat has rearranged the Booking Advice at http://www.NottmGreenFest.org.uk//booking-advice/ into a more logical order, separating ‘ethos’ requirements from ‘technical’ & ‘statutory’ clauses. Some bits drawn from recent discussions are included in italics. The original version is kept for reference.]
When the stall bookings documents are discussed we should ask for hygiene documentation (for caterers), insurance (company name & policy number), risk assessments etc. We can decide on a case-by-case basis which small groups might be exempted if appropriate.
– Pheobe & Sally will look into what some other organisers ask for.
Pat can arrange for Veggie to provide online payment via paypal or plastic, and arrange forwarding of notifications to Stall Bookings & Finance sub-groups (when established).
Should we review stall fees?
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Green Festival Ethos
Pat noted that Shambala is the first mid-scale commercial festival to declare a meat free policy – a position established by the Green Festival, and the Peace Festival that preceded it, over 30 year ago.
Shambala has eliminated plastic, is 100% renewable powered, has 100% recycling target and has serious transport minimising policies.
They say that “Shambala HQ is a mixed bag, with vegans, veggies and meat eaters co-existing harmoniously together, but the whole team agrees that it is important to be bold with our environmental stance, and encourage this debate.”
They note that “The research available clearly demonstrates that overall, a meat-free diet has about half the carbon impact of a meat diet, and a dairy-free vegan diet has a third of the impact.”
Please, see the full discussion at http://www.shambalafestival.org/meat-and-fish-free-for-2016/
With Shambala taking this stance, and explaining it so eloquently, 30-years after Nottingham Green Festival, Pat suggests that we should take the next logical step (which Sambala aims to take in due course) by having only vegan catering. However it is important that a such a policy should be supported by all the team – not just Veggies.
As Shambala say: “We’re certainly not trying to tell everyone they should become vegan overnight. We are simply not serving meat for 4 days at the festival to reduce the festival’s impacts, take a stance, and to encourage an important debate.”
The conclusion at this planning meeting was to aim for vegan catering and share info for other stall holders to leave other animal products at home on this occasion, if they are happy to do so.
Noting the successful launch of the Sneinton Vegan Market held on the first Saturday of EVERY month, with over 15 all-vegan stall, including 5 busy caterers, it was felt that there would be no shortage of suitable catering, so much so that there should be a separate application process for caterers.
Pheobe will contact Beccy from Sneinton Market to ask if they would like to coordinate catering & even recreate their market within the Green Festival.
Veggies will liaise with any caterers seeking help in providing vegan catering, including Romano’s who have supported the Green Festival for many years.
It was agreed that as the event could accommodate twice as much catering it should be spread around the site, rather than being concentrated around the bandstand.
The potential on-site ice-cream concession falls outside the responsibility of the Green Festival, but Veggies vegan icecream & the Nice Lolly stall were very popular in 2015.
There was specific feedback last time about the need for better tea/coffee provision, especially as Veggies forgot to set up their usual d-i-y self-service flasks.
It was agreed to set up a dedicated tea/coffee stall next to the Info/Registration point, payable by donation to Green Festival funds. Crocus Cafe will provide volunteers & Veggies will arrange equipment and seek donated supplies of a wide range of plant-milks and provide advice to the public on the how & why of different types of non-dairy milks.
It is noted that this will help with requirement for 2 (preferably 3) people at the Info Point at all times for Lost Children.
It was noted that the Council are planning to have a cafe at the Arboretum gate house.
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The current booking advice states:
- No material of a racist, sexist, libellous or offensive nature will be permitted on site. The Organisers reserve the sole right to decide whether any material falls into these categories.
- No Stall, exhibition or demonstration should exploit a dependent, captive or domestic animal.
- Catering Stalls must not sell alcohol, tobacco products, ice cream or any meat or meat-based product.
- It is the stall holder’s responsibility to ensure that no product from any company that is subject to a consumer boycott for violating human or animal rights is supplied from their stall.
Please circulate and discuss updates to this to finalise at the next meeting
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Recycling
Feedback indicated the need more visible recycling.
Lynda recommends that each waste point should have facilities for recycling (clear or orange bag), rubbish (black bag) and food waste.
Someone [who?] to contact the Council for help & advice. Invite them to run an educational stall & help with facilities.
Sally will contact Anna at The Urban Worm at Sneinton Allotments. At Riverside Festival they set up compost bins and might do so at the Green Festival in return for a free stall and all that food waste for their worms.
Sally will speak to Helen to do interactive stiff with papers / crafts.
A requirement for sustainable packaging should be added to booking guidelines.
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Publicity
Tash has provided all his pictures of Green Festivals since 2003, some of which are already shown on the Gallery at http://www.nottmgreenfest.org.uk/green-festival-gallery/
Pat will aim to upload them to the Gallery section of the Green Festival google drive.
Sally gave a review of the range of recent followers (totaling 240) to the Twitter account @NottmGreenFest but the visibility of any particular message may be dependent on their actually watching their timeline as a tweet rolls by.
There are currently 620 ‘likes’ to NottmGreenFest on Facebook, but the nature on FB means that less than 100 might actually be shown any specific posting.
However these media are clearly important so we should maintain a steady trickle of postings, but also get people (especially stall holders) signed up for email news.
For example we should announce each band, each stall holder and any other contributor as an when they sign up. This will create interest and also benefit from their forwarding info to their followers.
A dedicated publicity sub-group is needed soon, to back up the Social Media work being undertaken by Sally.
? Offers ?
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Money matters
The Constitution agreed at the last meeting cannot be ratified until a treasurer and two signatories are found.
There is an urgent need for a treasurer/book-keeper to monitor the simple bank account & budget.
If bookkeepier could not attend meetings they would be able to generate simple account & category reports by email before meetings. They would need to come to first meeting to be introduced but only from time to time thereafter.
– Moby suggests Clare.
– Ask Jeremy for advice from past/retired Green Fest supporters.
– Sally knows a retired accountant to ask
– call out on the AdminList – perhaps someone that is not otherwise able to contribute other support at regular meetings.
EVERYONE is urged to ask around & make suggestions.
Lynda would join a bookkeeping team if backup up with advice & support.
A simple package like Sage, Quicken (that Pat uses) or Gnu Cash.
Check with Unity bank account re online banking? Who will do this?
There is no 2 signature requirement if online banking so we should ensure that any one person making a payment should notify the rest of the finance team by email on each occasion, and others should check in from time-to-time.
We need to step up funding process – who will help a funding sub-group?
Nat is keen to submit a Lush Charity Pot application.
Moby will send previous application.
Sally will contact Good Energy. [Last year Bob approached Ecotricity]
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Insurance
Moby is in touch with Site Rescue (First Aid) & Event Insurance Services. Other options slightly cheaper but she recommends staying with established providers for now, but potential new insurers are being looked for comparison.
– bands, council, caterers, first aid etc should have their own insurance, but some small, volunteer groups may not. Add request for details to stall booking form.
Insurance was based on attendance of 2500 maximum, but we are now aiming for 5000, so we should pay the approx £40 extra to cover this.
We should aim for a better estimate of numbers so that we can use higher figures for publicity & funders.
Other bits & bobs
Better signage needed for toilets.
We need to finalise appendix to constitution, especially the group/event ethos.
[Bits in brackets were added by Pat whilst typing up the minutes after the meeting]
Next Meeting: To be held at 4pm on Sunday 13th March at Sumac Centre.
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