Spring Update – Mountains of Rubbish
May 22nd
YES YEEES! Summer is here and Upcycle is hitting the road.
We’ve been working our little socks off at the ground breaking Building Man event this last May. We’ve focused on transforming a Mountain of Rubbish into a series of tire walls, seating areas, some crazy paving and a stair case. Its been brilliant work and we feel we’re learning a great deal.
Yum Yum!
Massive Respect to Marcus and Joe for creating such an inspirational experience. The story will be told for many years to come. Please see the website here: www.buildingman.org
Yeah Yeah Yeah! We build that!
In other news we’ve had our Indiegogo Funding Bid out for a few weeks now and the money is coming in… but extremely slowly. We appreciate that money is not easy for anybody at the moment so here is the alternative to sending us your dinero.
Volunteer for us!
Show your Love and Support for Upcycle by becoming an Eco-Ranger. On the 6th June we’re joining forces with ReJuice to put on a food waste banquet in east London and if you and your friends are around we’re looking for volunteers.
So that Saturday 8th June in Hackney Wick at one of London’s most creative dining experiences. Please get in touch with me (chris@up-cycle.org.uk) or Holly (hollywolfers@hotmail.co.uk) if you’re interested. Here is the facebook invite.
And below is the call our for the summer tour. Please forward this part onto your buddies and spread the word. Places are filling up and teams are taking shape….
Inspire your Summer – Become an Eco-Ranger with Upcycle.
Upcycle are recruiting a crack team of Volunteers for their up and coming festival tour. Known as Eco-Rangers Upcycle volunteers are a powerful, moral and creative force spreading across the UK festival scene.
The aim of Upcycle is to:
to create a small festival culture in the UK that is ecologically harmonious,
where festival goers understand and participate fully in the onsite waste management system,
and where the environment is left more beautiful than before the festival.
As an Eco-Ranger you will be granted Free Entry to your chosen festival, two meals per day and the opportunity to work in an dynamic and creative festival project.
You will be responsible for the setup, stocking and running of a Free Shop, together we will also create and implement a successful recycling policy for our event. You will work three 6 hour shifts over a festival weekend.
Our current festival tour:
Cock and Bull Festival — 25th – 29th July
Cloud Cuckoo Land — 31st July – 6th August
Shambala — 22nd – 26th August
Smugglers Festival – 29th August – 2nd September
At each event we will have a team of between 15 and 20 volunteers. Applications are open but will close at the end of May. Tell your buddies, phone your friends. This is an opportunity not to be missed.
Pleas see here for all the info you need: http://www.up-cycle.org.uk/volunteer_with_us/apply/
Much Love and Respect to you all,
Yours, Chris (chris@up-cycle.org.uk)
Building Man! 2 – 25th May – Volunteers Needed
Apr 22nd
Greetings Eco-Rangers!
I hope this finds you all super well. Two exciting projects we would like to give the big ones to this week.
Firstly the fantastic Break the Cycle.
Congratulations! 21 fearless travellers recently completed the legendary Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride. Camping in snow, swimming in freezing rivers and braving sand storms. What an adventure it was. And as if the 1000 mile bike ride wasn’t enough they’ve also been raising money for Building Man…
and Secondly: Building Man
The cycle ride is a fundraiser for the innovative Building Man project that will be happening at Bodenahm Manor during May. We’re onsite from the 2nd to the 25th May and are looking for volunteers to help create this event.
All the information is on the website.
And please remember our volunteer applications are open for Upcycle’s summer tour. Please see here for more information. We’ll close applications at the end of May so not long left. Places are filling up fast so get yer applications in…
Much Love to you all.
Chris x
Our Funding Bid…
Mar 27th
Yes Yes. Us again. Forgot to pu this in the last post but we’ve just launched our funding bid for this summer. Please see our Indigogo bid below and support us if you can.
http://igg.me/at/upcycle/x/225140
A Summer of Love
Mar 27th
Big T’ing -
Eco-Ranger applications are open!!
We’re ready to open applications for Eco-Ranger positions this coming summer.
WAhoooo!
As you’re one the mailing list you get this information exclusively. We will also be promoting via facebook and twitter so ensure you get your applications in as soon as possible.
Currently THE UPCYCLE SUMMER TOUR OF 2013 looks like this…
Building Man Festival 2 – 27th May
Cock and Bull – 25 – 29 July
Cloud Cuckoo Land - 31st July – 6th August
Shambala (unconfirmed) – 22nd – 26th August
Smugglers Festival - 29th August – 2nd September
We’re excited. Very excited. This summer promises to be wonderful. Building on our success from last year we are looking forward to providing a high quality team of Eco-Rangers to all our events.
Please see this section of our website for all the information you need and e-mail ecorangerranger@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Much Love and Respect,
Chris and Becks x
Spring Spring Spring……
Mar 6th
Yes Yes!
March – welcome. And over here in Ibiza its officially Spring. We’ve been eating foraged spinach and are going swimming this afternoon. Ah. Life is tough.
Please see the video below. This is the most recent work from Maxi Dugnani, creator of the now famous Upcycle at Shambala film. What do you think? Do we want him back this year for some more video making…?
The summer is looking good good good. We’ll let you know as soon as we do when our tour is finalised and applications are open. Here is a sneak preview:
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Cock and Bull, Buddha Field, Pugshole, Shambala….
If you’r around in London on the 23rd March then please come to this event
https://www.facebook.com/events/273396422791212/
Swing Dancing, Food, lots of friendly peole and good good vibes.
A massive shout out for the fantastic OTESHA project. They’re rolling out their summer cycle tours. More information is below – this is a life changing opportunity not to be missed.
SADDLE UP AND CHANGE THE WORLD
We are currently creating teams for an epic adventure, cycling across the UK in summer 2013 – and we want YOU! Inspiring 1000s of young people at schools and festivals with Otesha’s world-changing workshops, you’ll spread the word on how everyone can make the world a greener, fairer place – in particular exploring how our food can be made more planet-friendly and people-friendly.
http://www.otesha.org.uk/programmes/tours/totally-tasty
I would also really recommend a browse of our FAQs before applying…
Our FAQs are helpful too if you want to know more about tour!
Our Eco-Ranger-Ranger is doing a fantastic job getting everybody excited about Upcycle before the spring starts. Here is a little piece from Becks herself.
Hey there Upcyclers!
Becks here, your new Eco-Ranger-Ranger (yes that is an official title!). Just wanted to say hi and let you all know how excited I am to be joining the Upcycle team after a brilliant time at parties and festivals last year. I’ll be working with Chris recruiting and organizing all you lovely volunteers and making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible so we can concentrate on having masses of fun and getting the Upcycle message out there. It may only be March, but the days are already getting lighter, and the summer of festivals will be upon us before you know it.
We’ll be opening applications and releasing Upcycle tour details soon so watch this space and get involved!
I had a fantastic time with the Upcycle crew at Sunrise last year, the site of the invention of the legendary PonBrella (umbrella/poncho, here stylishly modeled by me inside the Upcycle TetraPackShack), and the Water Bottle Poi. No doubt this summer such paltry offerings will be dwarfed by the towering creative genius you guys have to bring to the table- can’t wait for the applications!
In the meantime, I’m running an event on Saturday the 16th March in Peckham called Balloonatic- the first of a monthly series of balloon, face paint and dress-up funky mayhem. See the facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/166317403516400/ . It’d be great to have an Upcycle Free Shop there so if any volunteers are interested in helping out and having some silly fun get in touch… Otherwise, see you in the summer!
Becks x
p.s. – Read this … http://sacred-economics.com/
Festival Festival Festivals!!!!
Feb 2nd
Awoooooooga!
Chris Akabusi - never got down in February!
Did you ever see Chris Akabusi depressed in February? No! Exactly. You know why, because he has a PMA – Positive Mental Attitude.
Here is some positivity and love intended to get us all a little excited about life in general.
Cloud Cuckoo Land is confirmed for the weekend 2,3,4 August.
and Cock and Bull is on the 26,27,28 July.
Please save the dates!
Applications for Eco-Rangers will be out soon. Very excitingly (great word) we’ve recruited an Eco-Ranger-Ranger – think Chuck Norris / Tinker Bell – Her name is Becks and we’ll give her a proper intro next blog. For now this’ll give you the idea.
No more turning up five minutes late for shifts then hey!?
In other news we have some ideas for projects you might like to support. Firstly our friend Fergus Drennan is launching a brilliant challenge – One year on foraged food only. Mark Boyle has written beautifully about this project:
Fergus Drennan is aiming to live for an entire year solely (100%) on Wild food, which even for someone with his extraordinary foraging experience, is quite the daunting task. Because this is, quite literally, the unexplored territory of our age, Fergus could really do with the help and support of the wider community. Not only will his experiences help lay the psychic groundwork for a new way of being in the world, his findings may help us navigate our path forward with a greater depth of knowledge and understanding. Is it possible? How best can we utilise Wild food all year round? How does it effect him personally and socially? What are the ecological implications?
If you can help support this work financially, you can contribute via this crowdfunding page we've set-up for it (feel free to share on social networks etc):
http://www.indiegogo.com/one-year-total-wild-food
If you want to support it in any other way you can, you can email him at:
ferguspd22@hotmail.com
Two awesome opportunities to build skills and feel good about the future:
Course: Woodwork construction course:
Building an outdoor kitchen at Jamie’s Farm
Dates: 8th to 14th April
Cost: Free!
http://www.cherrywoodproject.co.uk/
Permaculture Design Certificate course in London starting on 2 February. This is the full 72-hour accredited course and will take place over 7 weekends at venues in North and East London.
http://permanentcultures.com/workshopscourses/introduction-to-permaculture/
And a final plug for a book that may well be the most important, life changing book you ever read. Written by Mark Boyle The Moneyless Manifesto is a work of our time. Please please read it…
Amazing...
https://www.facebook.com/TheMoneylessManifesto
http://www.moneylessmanifesto.org/
Brap Brap!! Kapow!
Jan 19th
Yes Yes!
Greetings from sunny Ibiza. I hope it makes you feel warm and cozy; here is a little update of activities from the Mediterranean.
TeTra – the tiny creative community I am living in – is going from strength to strength. We’ve had our first two official meetings! Called ‘un reunion’ out here in Spanish, I assume as nothing seems to get done.
We’ve started hosting events on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Monday (5pm) is a creative workshop followed by a meeting of the Northern Ibiza Coop. This weeks workshop involves poetic and informative mapping of Ibiza. Hosted by the fantastic Liz – check out her work here. She is INCREDIBLE!
Then on Tuesday starting at 8pm we’ve got Secret Cinema (yes, I’ve completely ripped off the name from the UK but nobody’s heard of Secret Cinema here..). Sano is our resident Maestro Artist, he selects the films from his repertoir and we don’t need to tell anybody what film we’re watching – hence Secret Cinema.
We’re slightly excited, and a little bit proud, with the invite only tickets we’ve created.
As for me personally I’ll be heading back to the UK in the middle of February to get the summer of Upcycle work properly planned. Official applications will be open soon but in the mean time please let me know if you’re interested to volunteer for the Building Man event we’re taking part in during May (2 – 27).
We’re looking for volunteers for both bank holiday weekends.
And lastly… check out this awesome blog on the website www.housekeeping.org.
Sweet. Peace and Love, Chris x
Building Man and Break the Cycle
Jan 9th
Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you well. Some news about a few fantastic projects happening soon in the UK that we would love you all to be involved with.
- Building Man – 2nd May to 27nd May, Bodenham Manor
The first of its kind in the UK the Building Man event is evolving small festival culture to its apex. Using the energy, creativity and network of those gathered onsite this will be a participatory event during which we build some permanent site infrastructure which remains onsite for the use of the community.
Facebook is here and the website is here.
- Gift Economy day at Hamilton House – 2nd April Hamilton House, Bristol
As the Brake the Cycle tour cycles through Bristol on the 2nd April there will be a full power Gift Economy day hosted at Hamilton Hose. Complete with guest speakers, workshops and live music it’ll be an excellent warm up for the summer. Save the date.
Facebook is here and website here.
And finally we can confirm our first festival of the coming summer. Cloud Cuckoo Land (www.cloudcuckooland.org) is getting us all seriously excited already. Stay tuned for what this brilliant event will bring for us all. Dates are, as always, the first weekend of August – 2,3 and 4.
That is all from me for the time being. Please pass on the information to anybody you think might be interested and get in touch if you would like to help at any of these events.
Yours, Chris
Happy New Everything!
Dec 30th
Happy New Everything!
Happy New Everything!
Ah. Still there? Me too.
It seems the 21st December was not to be the world ending event our conspiracy – theory – crisis-waiting-for friends had predicted. Rather, as the Mayans meant, the beginning of a (lovely) new age. And for us, seeking new ways of living and working that incorporate our values and feelings, this is a hugely significant event, a story that carries tremendous power.
All this year we have been saying ‘Shit, its 2012, gotta do it now or never!’ Now the fabled date is past we can rest assured that action (and therefore change) must come from us, from within – sadly Jesus is not yet back to tell us all how to act.
So lets do it. Our own way.
What change do we want to see in the world? The feeling out here (on the sunny island of Ibiza) seems to be a strong resurgence of love and creativity, of cooperation, gifting and joyful appreciation of the beauty of nature.
This energy, this feeling has been a huge inspiration for me working with Upcycle. I have hired a studio space in a shared warehouse with seven other artists or crafts people. All vastly more skillful and professional than myself it took some time for me to explain the ideas behind my playing with rubbish and rummaging through our recycling bins. Together we go to the weekend markets, sharing stall space we sell a mixture of paintings, leather work, upcycled stoves, and then a miniature Free Shop.
Free Shop - bottom left
I have worked on communicating what it is we are trying to do and have translations in Spanish for people to come and read. And generally the response is good. However, the Free Shop concept is less easy to understand in a remote Spanish market than at a UK festival and so I am constantly telling the story of its origin, the love and energy so many people have put into the project, so much belief and passion, such reassurance and power.
So I want to say Thank You. From my heart, from all my being.
This is but the beginning. And the story already has tremendous power. Let us all start telling new stories about our work and life.
Love Love Love.
Oh, and be ready for an absolute corker of a UK festival summer. We’re lining up the festivals as we speak and you’ll be the first to know when Eco-Ranger applications are out.
Love always,
Chris x
p.s. Interesting video from Charles Eisenstein who’s thinking has inspired this project.
Welcoming the Winter.
Nov 18th
Yup Yup.
Winter is here and it feels like time for introspection and integration.
Where have we been?
Where are we heading?
And how are we going to get there?
We at Upcycle are super happy with how the summer went. Please find here a recent blog on the fantastic A Greener Festival site. Even if you don’t read the article please go to the bottom and ‘like’ it to help spread the word via facebook. Thank you.
There are two fantastic opportunities we wanted to let you know about. Firstly the chance to take part in a transformative cycle tour across the UK next Spring. Break the Cycle are back in town.
For more information check out the Handbook
http://www.brakethecycle.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/End-to-End-2013.pdf
DON’T THINK –> download an application form from the bottom of this page
http://www.brakethecycle.org.uk/end2end/
The Second opportunity is right now. You’ll have to make a decision even quicker on this one. A chance to do an introduction to Permaculture with two of East London’s most beautiful, knowledgable and inspiring teachers. Key info is here:
When: Saturday 24th November to Sunday 25th November 2012 from 9am to 4pm
Cost: £100 (£60 concessions), includes course handouts, morning refreshments, and deliciously nutritious lunch!
Venue: The Russet Cafe, Amhurst Terrace, London, E8 2BT
Intro Flyer Nov 2012
The course will take place at The Russet, an excellent cafe with permaculture gardens bursting out the front and back.
Cool. I think that is it for now. Do get in touch with me (chris@up-cycle.org.uk) if you have an event or project you would like promoting through this blog.
Enjoy. Chris x
Waste food, Pirates, Ibiza… and one more video.
Sep 25th
Yes yes yes!
So much love from us all at Upcycle HQ. We’re feeling warm and lovely after a summer that has blown us all away. Here is a little video of our work at Shambala..
One last festival volunteering opportunity.. Our friends at the atmospheric Coyote Moon cafe are looking for help this coming weekend at The Wild Heart Gathering. If your’e around then get in touch with Jack.
(Jack@coyotemooncafe.co.uk / 07789627121)
We’ve been getting out dirty fingers involved in all kinds of fun since the festival season seems to be finishing. The Beggars Banquet was a huge success and a massive well done to Joe Reid for master minding the whole operation.
Just yesterday we hosted an upcycling workshop with the Hackney Pirates which was entertaining to say the least. The kids displayed genuine skills in their ability to upcycle.
Two more things. Caitlin Shepherd and her team at This is Rubbish are looking for talented individuals to take on various roles. More information is here. Even if your not interested in the jobs check out their website, it is awesome.
It seems a long time ago now but last March we pitched for some funding at an event hosted by The Youth Funding Network. The next event is on the 30th October and applications are now open. Please see here for all the info you need.
- what a fool!?
And for the time being that is all folks. Personally I was to say a HUGE thank you to everybody who has made Upcycle possible this summer. It would not work were it not for the incredible support and love of countless people.
Thank you thank you thank you.
Much Love, Chris x
Events and Jobs
Sep 11th
Oh Yes. The festivals may be coming to a close but there is still plenty of fun to be had.
We’ve got two brilliant events coming up. We would love some help with so please get in touch with me (chris@up-cycle.org.uk) if you’re keen.
The Urban Fair 15 – 16 September
The College Project, BS3 5JJ
Facebook event is here.
We’re still looking for volunteers to help run the Free Shop at this event. If you’re around in Bristol over the weekend then do please get in touch.
The Beggar’s Banquet 22 September
Hackney Wick, East London
Facebook event is here. Get yer tickets here.
It would be more than grand to see some friendly faces. Please spread the word far and wide.
Jobs Jobs Jobs….
We’re looking to build our team at Upcycle over the winter. We’re already looking to next summer and making a plan for which festivals we’ll be at. Roles we’re hiring for are:
Logistics Legend
PR Guru
Free Shop Fanatic
Please get in touch with me if your’e at all keen. I’ll send you the proper job description with all the info by e-mail.
Love always, Chris
