The first regional Permaculture gathering for the north east happened on June 2nd and 3rd as part of the 17th Newcastle Community Green Festival. As the first of what we hope to be an annual event this was a great success. It was a small part of and integrated into the well established Green Festival. The plan was simple and worked. We bought a new 5 metre Bell Tent and used that as the focal point for a series of talks and demonstrations on a range of topics, from nappy-free babies to peg rugs, from housing alternatives to sustainable economics. We also had regular green poetry, environmental songs and plenty of flyers and posters from local Permaculture projects. Whilst that bobbed along we heated water using our charcoal burner and kelly kettle to serve up a range of herb teas grown in local permaculture gardens. We were joined by Mark from Vertical Veg, showing folk how to grow veg in small spaces and also Jack built an amazing version of the leaky barrel model using plastic bottles, a couple of old fire doors and some paint.

Next year we plan to do the same again but of course only after a solid evaluation and a few event design tweaks. Next year we would like to have more tent space for display boards, a nice big banner, a leaflet for Permaculture in the north east and of course more demonstrations and presentations. It is always the first weekend of June so see you there.

If you are based in North East England then please do join the North East Permaculture Network. Send an email to Wilf Richards to join. wilf.abundantearth@gmail.com