As the world begins to wake up to urgent need to take action on climate change, a group of Woodcraft Folk members are forging ahead with a project aiming to change young people’s attitudes throughout the length and breadth of England.
An exciting programme of events is emerging which will take place around the country from this summer onwards. First up is the launch of a Battle of the Bands competition which will hold its first round online, on the C-Change website, where visitors will be able to listen to the bands competing and vote for their favourite. The most popular bands will play at a live final concert in July.
What has music got to do with climate change? Well, the C-Change steering committee aim to get their message across through the things that young people enjoy – the places they meet and their leisure activities.
“The Battle of the Bands competition online will bring thousands of visitors to our website and once they are there they will not only get to listen to music but will also find lots of ideas for ways in which they can change their lifestyles to make them more climate friendly,” said project worker Kirsti Davies.
“And if they come along to the final concert they will be amazed to find the whole event powered by renewables, demonstrating how reducing your carbon footprint doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stop having fun.”
Later in the year the C-Change crew are planning to run a ‘Party for the Planet’ – a day long festival in a large park, probably in London. “We are still negotiating for the venue but it will be big – we aim to attract thousands of young people along to the event,” said C-Change co-ordinator Julie Thorpe.
‘Face your elephant’ will be a whole range of climate-related fun which will visit a number of the big music festivals this summer and the autumn will see the climate change message getting out after dark with a series of ‘club nights’ where the music will be complimented by climate-awareness video projections.
“We are working with the organisers of the Co-op Young Film Maker’s festival to encourage young people to express their ideas about global warming by making films to be shown at the festival,” Kirsti said.
“There are also plans to hold a ‘Forum Theatre’ event for sixth-form drama students from around the country”.
Rounding off the year of C-Change events will be a young people’s day of action on climate change in January 2007 with a national 24-hour radio programme, ‘C-Cast’ which will stream over the internet and be broadcast on FM in some parts of the country.
“C-Cast is one of our most exciting ideas,” said Julie “because it will have the potential to involve many thousands of young people both in making programmes for the broadcast and in adding their own actions to our online carbon saving totaliser. We will be working with schools, community radio stations, and other media partners to give this day a really high profile.”