Special Features
(currently featuring 2009 content, soon to be updated...)
Transition Sunday - Ladybird Project - Sunworshippers - Tibetan Temple - Luxury Camping - Site Art - Woodhenge 2008 - Geometrical Layout 2008
The Alternative Side of Life at the Sunrise Celebration
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From stiltwalking and bizarre performance routines, to fire-juggling and negotiating a full-size labyrinth, there is always something to do at Sunrise.With esoteric cinema and theatrical performance to visionary galleries and mind-bending knowledge, the conscious part of ourself can tune-in to an alternative way of life. Sunrise has a site-wide organic policy and a seriously green focus with compost toilets. solar power and 24 hour 'Eco-Rangers'!
Transition Sunday
As part of our allegiance with Transition Towns in 2009, Sunrise is hosting a whole day of workshops and activities dedicated to this most distinguished of grassroots movements. Since its inception a few years ago, TT has spread from Kinsale in Ireland to Kapiti in New Zealand, Brixton to Boulder, Colorado. Its foremost visionary Rob Hopkins has shot to fame internationally and has become a figurehead for a movement that provides a vision of positivity in a crumbling world paradigm.
Just like Sunrise, TT is positive about the future, full of life and is about bringing communities together. We would like everybody to walk away from Sunrise inspired to get involved in their local Transition Initiative, or, even better, start a new one in a place where it doesn't yet exist. Transition has the capacity to unite our fragmented society with a goal of forging a sustainable, prosperous and abundant future.
Featured Workshops and Speakers
A day of workshops and talks will run from 11am until 7pm in the Natural Be-In Yurt in the Sustainable Living Area. Currently confirmed slots are:-
Shaun Chamberlin - Author of the new book The Transition Timeline - Presenting his new book and the topics covered within it. Transition Timeline was described by Caroline Lucas, MEP as "a hugely valuable manual for anyone committed to turning dreams into reality...use it to change your world."
Dearbhaile Bradley - Bard of Avalon - The Work that Reconnects: A journey into the Heart and Soul of Transition
Patrick Whitefield - One of the UKs leading permaculture experts - The Permaculture Roots of Transition
Jeremy Leggett - Peak Oil and Future Energy Solutions
Others yet to be confirmed will include a talk on How to start a Transition Initiative. The programme will be rounded off with a lively open floor discussion about Transition, including a Q&A with the experts.
Transition Groups
The festival will be attended by various Transition Groups for the duration, as well as many guest attendees from the extensive Somerset in Transition network for the Sunday. These groups will be providing advice on getting involved in your local groups nationally, information and lots of experience of how it all works.
Performance
The Strange Sisters will be providing a unique poetic performance on Transition in the Triban tent at 8pm. There will also be a Wartime Tea Dance in Triban from 4-5pm, playing old time tunes with ol' time dances taking us back to a time of rationing, energy shortages and where the country had to unite in common purpose. There is much to be learnt from this time about community spirit, and it also provides a well intentioned reminder of a potential future of fuel poverty and food shortages, should we choose not to act now. All in the spirit of fun of course!
Film
There will be an extensive program of films into the evening, leading on from the talks and performance into the late hours. We are hoping for an exclusive showing of the newly released Age of Stupid. Currently confirmed films include the excellent Power of Community, a truly inspiring look into the way Cuba dealt with its own oil crisis, A Farm for the Future, a recent BBC documentary presented by Rebecca Hoskins, and The End of Suburbia.
Fashion in Transition
Sunday will see a special and unique fashion show taking place in the Ethical Fashion Area. Following on from the Ethical Fashion show on Friday May 29th in Chai Wallahs, this show will feature YOU as the models and designers. Sunrise attendees are invited to bring along items of unwanted clothing to the Clothes Swap Tent where on the Sunday they can come and get dressed up and take part in a recycled fashion show. The event is open for kids and adults. Make sure you bring along some funky old tat that can be made into Transition Chic for the show! See programme for details of time.
The Ladybird Project
This year the Leeds based Ladybird Project bring a wealth of arts and crafts activities, along with performance and music based workshops from the cold north to the sunny plains of Sunrise Celebration, all housed in our beautiful, custom made Mauritanian marquee- the perfect environment for the imagination to run wild and the spirit to soar.
During the day, expect crafts activities and workshops to enthuse all ages including creative reuse crafts, clothing modification, t-shirt making, 100 things to do with a plastic bottle, gigantic scrap sculptures, puppets both huge and tiny made with recycled materials, clay modelling, lantern making, scrap art and decoration, masks, head-dresses and costumes.
if youre feeling more energetic, stop by and get involved in some fun yet engaging workshops such as creative photography, world percussion, butoh dance, theatrical character workshops, mad science experiments, circus skills, clowning and buffoonery, animalisation, ready steady scrap and deep voyages into the dressing up box.
Our dedicated and energetic workshop leaders will lead you a merry dance, with the audience devising and starring in their own performance, creating their own dance routines and exploring different cultures through dance, music and art.
The Ladybird welcomes all ages, kids, parents, young adults and everyone else- and if you sinply feel like lounging around, drop in and relax in our beautifully decorated garden and watch the world go by.
Sunworshippers - Observing the Sun at the Sunrise Celebration
Ninian Boyle FRAS (Royal Astronomical Society) will be appearing with the Sunworshippers at Sunrise. Ninian will be using the Planetarium to give workshops showing "The Sky Tonight" which will help festival goers locate and identify the celestial objects they can view that night. The Sunworshippers have been around since 2004, you may even have had a look at the Sun through one of our Hydrogen Alpha telescopes,as we set them up at festivals everywhere never charging -just sharing what is an unforgettable experience.
As Sunworshippers evolved we noticed by the reaction to our telescopes how we all take the Sun and its daily appearance for granted. Cultures across the globe have for thousands of years seen the Sun as God, life giver and everlasting light. Throughout Human history the only certainties besides death were that the Sun would rise and the Sun would set. For nearly two thousand years the importance of the Sun has been eroded. Today, unlike our ancestors we spend most of our lives in a regulated climate under artificial lighting. Any need we once had to watch carefully for celestial events has been lost. Who knows what time the Sun rose this morning or the current phase of the Moon?
Sunworshippers aim is to provoke thought, inspire interest, and show the amazing extent of our Ancestors knowledge. Using our Portable Planetarium we will show you how the ancients saw their place in the Universe, seeing the night sky as they knew it, whilst waiting for the life giving Sun to return at dawn and relating this view to their creation myths and legends. We are the only Planetarium in the World specializing in Archaeoastronomy, the extent and practice of astronomy among ancient cultures. As we Sunworshippers like to say, "Everything else is just Dogma".
THE TIBETAN TEMPLE
We are honoured to welcome Lama Ahbay Rinpoche to Sunrise this year. Lama Ahbay Rinpoche became a monk when he was seven years
old, leaving his parents without crying to live in the monastery and was already a monk by the time the two Lama’s who had spent many long years searching for his next reincarnation found him while visiting the monastery to attend teachings. They were delighted to recognise the soul of their old Master in the eyes of a nine year old boy and started the process of his official recognition, he was officially recognised and enthroned as a Rinpoche (High reincarnated lama) by the Dalai Lama when he was 12 years old.
It is the tradition of the Tibetans that once a reincarnation is identified he must complete the same education as his previous incarnations before continuing his work, this education has taken 29 years and he is now a Geshe, a Master of Tibetan Philosophy and ready to start his life’s mission founding Monasteries. He will be responsible for the education and well-being of all the monks living in them (some monasteries have up to 3500 monks), a mammoth task for one poor monk. Any money raised during his tour of Europe will go towards building a monastery where monks will be housed, educated clothed and fed.
For Sunrise, which is the beginning of this tour, a marquee will be transformed into a Tibetan Temple, inside which will be Puja's (rituals) Meditations, Teachings of Philosophy, Blessings of many kinds and Astrology. All the monks attending are musicians and they will be performing regularly. They will also be performing a rare Cham dance, a form of dance which is now illegal in Tibet as part of the Chinese cultural cleansing programme. See Performers page of website for details.
We are honoured to host this great figure at Sunrise this year and thank him for the blessings it bestows upon us!
Alternative & Comfortable Camping at Sunrise
Just imagine a Tipi or Yurt ready and waiting for your arrival at the Sunrise Celebration 2009. An exclusive camping area reserved for you and your friends, close enough to the entertainment, but a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of the markets and stages.
Hearthworks are delighted to be providing the finest Tipis and Yurts for hire at Sunrise Celebration 2009. The Alternative Camping Area includes reception staff to settle you in and a maintenance crew to make sure your Tipi or Yurt is looked after. Of course there are also full campsite facilities such as showers and toilets. All our Tipis and Yurts are handcrafted and installed to a high standard. The structures are complete with frames, canvas covers and flooring. This year we are providing all our Tipis with rain-catchers and waterproof groundsheets.
Treat yourself to our furnishings package which includes rugs, cushions, sheepskins, bolsters, low wooden table, lanterns, firedish/woodburning stove, and firetools. Check out more details here or go to hearthworks website and booking form here www.hearthworks.co.uk
Geomancy Of Sunrise Site 2008 - The Woodhenge
On the northwest hill of our previous site, is a 'woodhenge', aligned to celebrate the Summer Solstice at our first event in 2006. It has many intricate alignments, ley lines and was designed and built by geomancer Shaun Kirwan. It also aligns with a stone circle that Shaun and John Martineau built at The Big Green Gathering site in 2007, and even goes directly through Glastonbury Tor! A new 'Sunrise Circle' is planned for 2009, so watch this space to see how this progresses. See the full article here.
The Geometrical Layout of the Sunrise Site
Over the years the Sunrise Celebration site was devised to have a twelve-fold geometrical layout (thirteen including the central hearth), based upon the principles of ancient cultures, sacred geometry and numerical harmony. Antiquarian author and Philosopher, John Michell (with co-author Christine Rhone) discovered many traditions throughout the ancient world that had social orders divided into twelve tribes, each corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac. From the times of the megaliths, right up to the nineteenth century, and from cultures as obscure as the rural inhabitants of Madagascar and Iceland, the twelve-tribe principle was always associated with a ‘golden age’. The purpose of this twelve-fold division was to represent the differing higher qualities of the practical and spiritual human potential and to maintain the ‘enchantment’ of the landscape and its people. A similar design will be incorporated at the 2009 event, although on a smaller scale. See how we used these principles in the layout of the site in 2008 in an article written by Hugh Newman and Michael Hanby. Read it here
