Tag: Social Justice (Page 1 of 3)

Shambala Festival – Rebel Soul 2025

Shambala is a creative, non-commercial, ethical and family-friendly festival with a wild side and completely independent from advertising and sponsorship!

In 2016 Shambala went Meat and fish free, to continue their mission to keep Shambala at the cutting edge of sustainable event organising.

“… we’re setting ourselves a challenge: to provide the most eye-popping, mouthwatering, colourful, hearty array of cuisine at Shambala 2016 without a single bit of meat or fish on sale. Not a sausage. Instead, keep your eyes peeled for … a range of delicious food from around the world, debates, talks and creative exploration of the wonderful world of food.

Shambala HQ is a mixed bag, with vegans, veggies and meat eaters co-existing harmoniously together. However the whole team agrees that it is important to be bold with our environmental stance, and encourage this debate.”

Rebel Soul

Whilst not catering at the event, Veggies will assist again with facilities for the Rebel Soul space. There will be a programme of intellectual stimulation, music and performance that will challenge, inspire and fire you up. Whet your appetite: fresh-baked cake, pasties & samosas, teas & coffees (for donation), and fairtrade tuck shop.

Rebel Soul will be a whole area combining beautiful tents and beautiful people within to celebrate rebellion, resistance and exploring positive futures. Stimulation for your mind with workshop, displays, info and bookstall and, for your aural delectation, a fine line-up of music and poetry.

“Rebel Soul is politics thinly veiled as entertainment. In the day we host workshops and debates on hot topics run by people who know their fields inside out. We host the country’s frontline campaigners. We bring you the people who will ask the big questions, and then help you answer them. Why is Shambala vegetarian? What is sex? What is race?”

By night we celebrate with bangin’ bands and DJs from punk to soca to techno, and from all over the world. We have a store full of books and zines and a tuck shop with hot drinks and delicious vegan 🍰 cake 🎂.

All our proceeds go to support grassroots campaigns.

In 2022 Rebel Soul were supporting Migrants Organise, No More Exclusions and Police Spies Out of Lives.

2023 it was fundraising for @lgsmigrants in solidarity with all migrants & refugees; Dope Magazine: an anarchist alternative to Big Issue and Abortion Support Network: helps people who need to access safe abortions.

In 2024 £600 each went to @RedFlare, , @antiraidssheff, & Energy Embargo for Palestine, and then a little bit towards Ultimate Thunder to help them with their next album.

You’ll hear more about them during the festival and on Twitter at VeggiesNottm

#RebelSoul raised almost £2000 at Shambala Festival this year ✨

£600 each went to @RedFlare, @antiraidssheff & Energy Embargo for Palestine, and then a little bit towards Ultimate Thunder to help them with their next albumhttps://t.co/hAVXTwWAKV https://t.co/tDJJbRRnAF pic.twitter.com/zlzwgoTZ2Y

— Veggies 🌱 Vegan Campaign Catering 💙 🌱 (@veggiesnottm) November 10, 2024

Meat and fish-free Shambala has ‘Gone Off Dairy Milk Too

For 2022 Shambala say:

In 2016, we made the decision to remove meat and fish from our on-site food offering, for both the public and our festival staff.

For us, the decision was an environmental one. If we’re serious about being the most sustainable festival on the planet, we can’t ignore the undisputable evidence that a diet predominantly based on meat and fish is having a devastating effect on this little blue and green marble we call home.

AFTER YEAR ONE OF BEING A VEGGIE PARADISE, 77% OF RESPONDENTS TO OUR 2016 POST-EVENT SURVEY VOTED TO KEEP SHAMBALA MEAT AND FISH FREE. THE FOLLOWING YEAR, THAT FIGURE ROSE TO 94% – A RESULT BEYOND OUR WILDEST IMAGININGS!

Even more incredible was that 33% of you reporting reducing your meat and fish intake since the festival (that’s not counting the 30% of you that were already veggie or vegan).

Follow the debate.-

World Day for Animals In Laboratories 2025 . TBC

World Day for Animals in Laboratories was instituted in 1979 and has been a catalyst for the movement to end the suffering of animals in laboratories around the world and their replacement with advanced scientific non-animal techniques.

When the 2025 march is announced Veggies Vegan Catering Campaign will be there to keep you filled with fabulous food.

In addition, if you can’t make the march, why not join in with a mixture of demonstrations and online events.

Demonstrate outside your own local labs, or shops with links to vivisection, to join the biggest range of demonstrations against animal testing held in one day.

Chesterfield May Day Gala March & Rally 2024

The biggest and best May Day march and rally in the country, Chesterfield May Day 2024 will be marking the 40th anniversary of the Great Miners’ Strike of 1984/85. Organised by Chesterfield and District Trades Union Council.

Assemble 10.30am at Chesterfield Town Hall on Rose Hill S40 1LP. The march will be led off by the Ireland Colliery Band and Derbyshire miners’ banners from the 84/85 strike, as we make our way to the rally in New Square. Samba bands will add a flavour of carnival.

Our great line up of speakers includes:
John Burrows: Derbyshire NUM
Fran Heathcote: General Secretary PCS
Dima Al Shami: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Libby Nolan: President UNISON

Plus May Day campaign stalls & live music in New Square

#FoodByVeggies will be here

Worker Co-op Weekend 2024

Our annual Spring gathering brings together worker cooperators and our wider network of supporters and friends to reconnect, celebrate, get inspiration and learn. There will be great food, music, camping and campfires as well as indoor accommodation and event spaces, and it’s always fun.

Taking place at Thornbridge outdoor pursuits centre near Sheffield, the worker co-op weekend has a 2.5 day programme full of peer learning and business networking opportunities. We’re now co-creating the programme with a mix of planned and open space events, and booking will be open soon so watch this space.

If there are subjects you’d like to see covered, or would be interested in running a session yourself, please add a suggestion to this list. Discussion about the event is in this forum post.

Worker Co-op Weekend is generously supported by domains.coop

World Day for Animals In Laboratories 2024

Come and join us for the 2024 march through Liverpool. The march will kick off at 12:00 and there will be speeches and stops on route. Meeting point and the start and end of the march: St John`s Gardens, St John`s Lane, Liverpool, L1 1JJ, 12pm – 5pm

Veggies Vegan Catering Campaign will be there to keep you filled with fabulous food. In addition, if you can’t make the Liverpool march, why not join in with a mixture of demonstrations and online events.

Demonstrate outside your own local labs, or shops with links to vivisection, and either send us a video in advance or tell us if you are willing to live stream on the day. We want to share each others’ actions and to join the biggest range of demonstrations against animal testing held in one day.

50 Years of Resistance

1968-2018: A Celebration of 50 years of Resistance, Campaigning and Alternatives for A Better World

– despite 50 years of police opposition, spying and repression

1st to 8th July: Week of local events and activities around the UK – please organise!

Sat 7 July, 1-3pm: Roll Call / Rally: Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 2HP

Sun 8 July, 10-4pm: Conference / Exhibition: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

In 1968, following demonstrations against the Vietnam War in London’s Grosvenor Square, the police set up a Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Since that time, 50 years ago, over 1,000 groups campaigning in the UK for a better world have been spied on, infiltrated and targeted by political policing. Their protests and demonstrations are also subjected to ongoing police opposition and control to try to limit their effectiveness.

This targeting has included groups campaigning for equality, justice, the environment and international solidarity, for rights for women, LGBTQ, workers and for animals, for community empowerment, and those campaigning against war, racism, sexism, corporate power, legal repression and police oppression and brutality. Such groups have represented many millions of people throughout the UK who want to make the world a better, fairer and more sustainable place for everyone.

When the SDS was formed they aimed to ‘shut down’ the movements they were spying on. But despite disgusting police tactics, movements for positive change are still here and growing, and have had many successes on the way.

CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF CAMPAIGNS & STRUGGLES, RESILIENCE AND SUCCESSES

The planned events are in support of those campaigning for full exposure and effective action at the Undercover Policing Inquiry, and against police attempts to delay and undermine it. We aim to encourage more groups to find out about the Inquiry and how they can get involved and support each other, and to unite the many different groups and organisations who have been victims of our police state because of their efforts to improve society.

Fossil Free Mischief Festival

We’re excited to announce:

FOSSIL FREE MISCHIEF FESTIVAL, SATURDAY JUNE 16TH 2018

Grab your hat, don your wig, bring your wickedest smile
And come challenge BP in theatrical style
Join us in June to exhibit your ire
At that loathsome, rank, endless and infinite liar…
BP!

On Saturday June 16th, we are delighted to invite you to our 50th rebel performance to kick fossil fuels out of the arts.

Join us in beautiful Stratford-upon-Avon for some serious MISCHIEF against Big Oil!

We’re bringing a festival of guerrilla theatre, disobedient poetry and rebellious music to the doorstep of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to challenge their partnership with oil giant BP. But we need your help to make it a success. Out, damned logo!

Transport from London and Oxford will be provided. If you’re interested, email info@bp-or-not-bp.org and we’ll send you more details on how to take part. Please also share this callout, and the Facebook event!

What’s this all about?

This June, as part of their annual “Mischief Festival”, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) are staging a double bill of plays about ‘freedom of speech and the right to protest’. As with all RSC plays, tickets for young people are sponsored by BP. BP is deeply complicit in the activities of repressive governments around the world who are crushing people’s freedom of speech and protest, from Egypt to Indonesia – often in ways that benefit the oil company. To add insult to injury, BP is sponsoring discount RSC tickets for 16-25 year olds – the same young people whose futures the company is actively trashing through its greenhouse gas emissions and lobbying against climate action.

Enough! No more!

On Saturday June 16th, we’re heading to Stratford-upon-Avon to hold our own “Fossil Free Mischief Festival” at the RSC’s front door, without permission. With your help, we’ll take a creative stand for clean energy and ethical arts funding, and test how committed the RSC really is to freedom of protest…

Now is the summer of our discontent! Will you join us for some serious Mischief on June 16th?

What will happen on the day?

A host of different performers will join BP or not BP? for a family-friendly day of music, theatre and spoken word – all held mischievously outside RSC venues. Think of it as an unofficial “fringe” to the RSC’s own Mischief Festival. We are working with activists from countries directly affected by BP’s operations, and will be sharing their messages and stories with the public. Some of the performances will be lively and cheeky, others will have a more solemn tone to reflect the reality of BP’s operations.

We need your help to:
Be part of the audience, enjoy the show, partake in some Shakespearean dressing-up and help hold the space.
Join us in throwing Shakespearean insults at that smiling damned villain BP.
Help us engage with theatre-goers and the public, to explain why the RSC needs to stop supporting BP and to share the stories of people fighting back against oil and gas extraction around the world.
Be part of our musical flashmob finale! No performance experience is required – email us at info@bp-or-not-bp.org to find out how to take part.
What are the exact times, and how can I get there and back?

The festival will run from 12 noon to around 6.00pm on June 16th. We’re organising cheap transport from London and Oxford – to book a place, please email us as soon as possible at info@bp-or-not-bp.org (ideally before the end of May). If you need help or advice travelling from somewhere else, please let us know that too. Stratford-upon-Avon also has a train station, which is a 15 minute walk from the theatre.

What’s the problem with BP sponsorship?

Oil companies like BP are lobbying hard to prevent meaningful climate action, while burning reserves which will put us into an unprecedented climate emergency.

Sponsoring public and cultural institutions like the RSC help BP cover up these practices, by providing them with a social licence to operate.

With their logo proudly displayed by respected partners, they present themselves as being a caring, responsible company, while committing some of the world’s worst human rights abuses and causing runaway climate change.

As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the plays in the RSC’s Mischief Festival are about the disappearance of activists in Mexico and the imprisonment of journalists in Turkey – both countries where BP’s operations have faced serious criticism. The oil company recently signed a major new offshore drilling contract with the repressive Mexican government, while in Turkey a massive BP-backed pipeline has been linked to serious human rights abuses. It’s time the RSC stopped covering up BP’s bad behaviour.

Who’s organising this?

We are BP or not BP? – a troupe of theatrical actor-vists.

We formed in 2012 to oppose BP’s sponsorship of the Royal Shakespeare Company with a series of Shakespeare-themed stage invasions.

We now create pop-up performances in a range of fossil fuel sponsored spaces, including the RSC, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Opera House. We will not rest until these cultural institutions are freed from the beastly grip of that puke-stocking BP!

Search

Breadcrumb

Veggies Slideshow

Donate