A Festival of Commoning in the UK: Stroud, Gloucestershire, September 13/14/15 2024

The time is right for a Festival of the Commons

A celebration of what is being achieved by commons initiatives, of all kinds.

A collective imagining about how much more could be achieved.

An outpouring of cultural contributions to and about the commons.

Kickstarting a knowledge commons of practice and learning.

A movement-building festival.

In order to bring together a wide range of people…

Commons practitioners of all kinds, seeking to:

• communicate what they are up to (build support, appeal to funders)
• share knowledge with & learn from others – workshops & presentations

People interested in the idea of commons, wanting to:

• learn more
• meet others
• see what other places/groups are up to

Academics, policy types, activists, consultancies, advocates

People simply wanting an interesting/entertaining day/evening out

… we need a range of offers.

Festival Day

Public, open air presence, free to all

• Daytime: stalls – exhibition style, with a small stage for presentations.
• Evening: public event – Keynote, panel, Q&A, ceilidh or some-such afterwards.
• Limited ‘commercial’ – ie paying for stuff – food & drink vendors, clothes stalls etc.

Backbone of cultural events

• Writers, thinkers, comedians, poets, musicians – even politicians!
• Focus on ticketed events in a few venues
• Also ‘open’ spaces, un-conference style on Festival day

Open Conference for all

• Ticketed, with practitioners, workers and activists the focus, but open to academics, writers, policy types, consultants, interested people of all kinds

When? Where? Who?

Stroud, Gloucestershire, September 13/14/15. Just because that’s where we can build most easily. If this takes off, we’d look to move around the country.

The idea for the event came from stroudcommons.org and Mutualcredit.services. Three people have got us this far with p/t work: Tony Dobson – professional events organiser (London), Jozette Khimba – Stroud Commons and many other contexts, Dil Green – Mutual Credit services.

The need is to expand this group – both at governance level with commons activists, and, on the basis of funding, a small working team.

Key venues have been provisionally booked – and there’s an outline programme, too.

How?

First, we need to crowdfund – and fast. Venues need to be secured, they want deposits – key (name-value) speakers/performers/acts, and they need firm bookings. A small team needs to begin to work on all the necessaries – a better website to build interest, marketing too…

Early Crowdfunders become Commoners of the Festival – alongside the core team.

This group, working with the team, will steer the conference, and seek further crowdfunding as things firm up. This will be through early ticket sales, or ‘festival vouchers’ – redeemable for any festival offer.

What you can do now…

Have a look at this basic festival website. There’s more information on there, plus a link to a very short survey.

Could you please take a couple of minutes to fill in the survey on there. It would help us a lot.

And please share this with anyone you think might be interested in the commons.

Thanks,

Stroud Commons and Mutual Credit Services.