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A New Era In Eco Festivals
Album Release - Dreadzone - Live At Sunrise
Launching The Waveform Dance Project

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A New Era in Eco Festivals!

The Sunrise Celebration: The Winner of the Shelter Award for Social Responsibility at The UK Festival Awards.

The Sunrise Celebration is set to break new ground this year with even more eco initiatives and innovations. The festival won The Shelter Award for Social Responsibility in 2006, and is returning to the fields of Bearley farm, South Somerset on 31st May – 3rd June 2007, with fresh inspiration.

A specialist Green Team involving the organisers and lead by qualified environmental expert, Aylin Mcnamara, has been for to develop practical solutions to environmental problems. A Sustainability Appraisal, monitoring environmental standards, will take place with Eco-Rangers making on site making checks. Environmental awareness will be a central theme of this festival with the aim of ascertaining the Carbon Footprint and achieving carbon Neutrality at future events. 

“Winning the Social Responsibility Award at the Festival Awards meant more to us than any other as it is recognition of our intention and the positive message that we carry of taking responsibility and acting sustainably, this year we have even more initiatives in place and are show casing many more innovations, we believe we are leading the way for all festivals to become more sustainable!” Sun Bird, Director.

Ten thousand men, women and children will become the temporary residents of the land for four days, and with this brings all the challenges faced by the impact of large numbers of people on our planet.  As the Sunrise Celebration is showing, the negative impact on the environment of similar gatherings can be kept to a very minimal level by considering the effects on the land, and being conscious and sensitive to them. 

The Sunrise Celebration comprises of 13 amazing arenas including a “Permaculture and Sustainable Communities” village, and “Sustainable Technologies” area, along with 13 live music stages, a dance tent, circus space, craft village and tipi, horse drawn, healing and children’s areas, saunas and hot showers and much more. All are run entirely on renewable energy!
             There are many measures that can be taken by festivals to raise the consciousness of the impact people make, and it is our obligation to be the change we want to see and create the vision of a sustainable lifestyle. At Sunrise Local suppliers will be used as much as possible.  There is a site wide organic food policy and Local organic food certificates will be given to all caterers who buy only local foods. Friendly cleaning products and biodegradable cups and plates will be used.  Lift sharing and public transport information will be provided to attendees along with information on calculating your own carbon emissions with suggestions on minimising it and opportunities to offset emissions. For the full environmental policy and information check www.sunrisecelebration.com/sustain.html

One major challenge faced is the disposal of waste. Recycling will of course take place, but minimising rubbish is the most important thing. Sunrise have a waste reduction scheme with policies such as Water fountains will be provided to avoid the mountains of plastic bottle waste. The use of Compost toilets is one big step forward, reducing the pressure on local infrastructure and resources, heavy vehicle traffic on site, risks to public health and safety, water consumption and long term environmental damage that result from the use of chemical port-a-loos. Combined with the benefit of completing a natural cycle by turning our waste into valuable growing medium, and having a far more pleasurable experience when you relieve yourself!

 Family Gathering Director, Daniel Hurring, says: “We are aiming for Sunrise to set new standards in ethical and ecological event production. Dealing with waste in an effective but environmentally friendly way is one of the challenges of our age and we hope that within 12 months, we will be able to offer large festivals with 100% compost toilet cover across the site.”

In 2006, the 8,000 attendee event was the first of its size to offer site-wide compost toilets – over 65 units in all – including female urinals. They accounted for 90% of the facilities available. To come up with some brilliant new designs a unique opportunity was offered to budding compost toilet builders.  Family Gathering, (the team behind the Sunrise Summer Celebration Festival) wanted to find the best Compost Toilet Designs to be used at this year’s festival. The competition has been won by 'The Treebog' which involves waste fertilising willow trees - 1,200 of which have been planted on site by the Festival organisers already.
If you are interested or have any ideas or suggestions or just love talking about the environment then visit Sunrise Forum. More information on this and all the other exciting eco initiatives can be found on the website http://www.sunrisecelebration.com. To contact the crew directly on all eco matters email eco-initiatives@sunrisecelebration.com.

Tickets are on sale now and are priced at £80 at www.gtickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop : 0845 - 1080259
For information check http://www.sunrisecelebration.com/
Or contact info@sunrisecelebration.com, Or call the Info line: 08450096347

 

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DREADZONE - Live At Sunrise CD
Released on Functional, October 16th

“One of the most interesting groups around”  The Independent
“In the tradition of Lee Perry and Holgar Czukay”  The Times
“Witty, inspired soundscapes”  The Guardian


They’ve released five artist albums, one of which was cited by John Peel as one of his top
ten of all time, toured their inimitable live show the world over and even found time to
squeeze in a top 20 hit, but October 16th sees Dreadzone break new ground as they
release their first live long-player ‘Live At Sunrise’. Recorded at the critically acclaimed 'Sunrise Celebration' festival over the Summer Solstice in 2006, the CD captures the energy and atmosphere of the popular festival.

The album brings together some of the band’s best loved live tracks, from the instantly recognisable strings of ‘Little Britain’, the song that took the band into the charts and led to an appearance on Top Of The Pops, to the feel good party rhythms of ‘Return Of The Dread’.

The album also includes the band‘s version of the Max Romeo classic ‘Iron Shirt’, the jump up anthem ‘Dancehall Priority’ and the skanking ardour of ‘Captain Dread’. All in all a selection of their finest moments, crammed into 70 phat, bouncing minutes of classic Dread.

Dreadzone have been wowing crowds the world over for the past 12 years. Their live show
melds technology with human rhythms, dub bass crashes headlong into dance beats and
live guitar duels with bubbling electronics, all united by energetic MCing and sweet reggae
vocals. Appearances on the likes of Later…with Jools Holland have only further cemented
their musical credentials and now, for the first time, fans have the chance to re-live one of
the band‘s most exciting and polished performances of recent years.

Album tracklisting:
1. Return Of The Dread
2. Once Upon A Time In Jamaica
3. Zion Youth
4. Iron Shirt
5. Captain Dread
6. Elevate
7. Dread’pon Sound
8. Dancehall Priority
9. Digital Mastermind
10. Little Britain
11.Fight The Power

Dreadzone - a potted history:

1992 Greg Roberts (ex Big Audio Dynamite) meets Tim Brian and the pair form Dreadzone.

1993 The band sign to Alan McGee’s Creation Records to release first album ‘360
Degrees’ and are joined for live shows by more former B.A.D. Members – Leo Williams  and  Dan Donavan.

1994 The band sign to Virgin and wow the crowds at Glastonbury for the first time.

1995 Second album, ‘Second Light’, featuring Earl 16 is released. John Peel cites it as one of his top ten albums of all time.

1996 The single ‘Little Britain’ enters the Top 20 and leads to a performance on TOTP, and support slots for Oasis at Knebworth and Loch Lomond.

1997 Third album ‘Biological Radio’ released, along with the single ‘Earth Angel’, featuring remixes by William Orbit.

1998-1999 Dubwiser night launched at Nottting Hill Arts Club, and the Dubwiser sound-system tour takes the band around the world.

2000 Club hit ‘Crazy Knowledge’ is released on Finger Lickin Records.

2001 Fourth album ‘Sound’ is released and the band are invited to appear on Jools Holland.

2002-2004 The band starts working with new studio partner Ben Balafonic and continue to write new material and tour globally.

2005 The band sign to Functional and release mix album ‘Beatz & Bobz Vol. 4’ and their fifth artist long-player ‘Once Upon A Time’

2006 The band continue to tour, headlining festivals around the UK and Europe recording their first live album ‘Live At Sunrise’.

 

The 'Dreadzone' CD is available from www.sunrisecelebration.com
or by calling 0845 1080259.

The 'Sunrise Celebration' event in 2007 runs between May 31st and June 3rd at Bearley Farm, South Somerset.Tickets are now on sale at £80 per adult from www.sunrisecelebration.com.  For more info call Dan Hurring on 0845 009 6347 or email info@sunrisecelebration.com

 


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LAUNCHING ‘THE WAVE-FORM DANCE AREA’ AT THE SUNRISE CELEBRATION 2007

The Future of Festivals!

Here’s a little reminder of the summer fun that opens at the end of May. Do not be disheartened it’s not long and it will be worth the wait. The aptly named ‘Sunrise Celebration’ is coming back in style from 31st May till 4th June 2007 and promises to include one of the most cutting-edge underground music and dance experiences of 2007 with the launch of the new “Waveform Project”.

A wide range of dance, electronica, ambient and funky grooves will be resonating through the beautiful fields of Bearly Farm in South Somerset. The 2006 event, Sunrise was the first festival ever to be granted a 24 hour music license…and licence pending, this will continue into the 2007 extravaganza!

The Waveform Project will be launched this year in true underground club-land style. Waveform a unique collaboration of some of the best in Dance Culture including Tribe of Frog, Liquid Records and Archangel Breaks! Programming will be in waves and should have something for everyone. 

“Waveform will be an immersive audio visual environment encompassing a board spectrum of electronic dance music including Psychedelic Trance, Progressive Trance, Tribal, House, Electro, Breaks and Drum & Bass.” Says Coordinator Jason Tribe of Frog

The Waveform tent will be a living piece of visionary UV Art, and entirely blacked out. It will have a whopping 800 person capacity, blasting out a wide range of electronica though a state of the art Sun Bass Surround sound system. This is a unique 8-pod 20k surround sound set up, that will be shipped over from Spain for the festie season to wow the senses of the discerning dance posse.

Chai tea will flow with ambient grooves in the accompanying ID Spiral Ambient Chill out and party-goers will be able to amble along to the Visionary Arts and Culture zone next door, where amazing mind bending and psychedelic original art will be showcased. The  Invisible Circus Cabaret and games area will spice it all up with amazing performance from around the world, carrying something of the burning man energy!

 

 In addition to the “Waveform” Dance Area, there will be the Main Stage, a second stage hosted by Fish Seeks Bicycle; exciting Bournemouth based time travelling party animals, and a further 13 stages in the different arena. There will be 100’s of live acts, plus many more ‘freeform’ musical experiences dotted around the giant mandala of 13 unique areas. Last year saw System 7, Eat Static, and Banco De Gaia, live Celtic techno from the Mordekkers and the recording of Dreadzone’s first live album, “Dreadzone Live at Sunrise”, which is now available from www.sunrisecelebration.com. This year the line up is still being booked but so far includes Eat Static and Dreadzone will be back by popular demand. The Egg and Ozric Tentacles will be there along with Mancini an up and coming ensemble described in Music Week’s review as:
“Old School Primal Scream, in bed with Deborah Harry at Massive Attacks house!”

The Sunrise Celebration is a frontrunner in the Conscious Party movement showcasing cutting edge alternative technology, and it is an entirely ‘green’ powered experience, running on Solar Power and bio diesel.  These credentials won them the 2006 UK Festival Award for Social Responsibility in their first year!  It is an amazing medley of the very best in the alternative scene fun, flamboyant and family friendly.  For those who don’t like to rough it there is Luxury Camping in serviced Yurts, Tipis and Pod Pads.  Everyone on site will have access to saunas and hot showers!

Keep posted for exciting new additions, and sign up for the mailing list on the newly re-launched: www.sunrisecelebration.com.

Keep a look out for the rumoured Full Moon Dance Festival, put on by the Sunrise Celebration Crew (Family Gathering Productions) at the end of the Summer, especially devoted to electronica and the cutting-edge of dance culture.

Sunrise Celebration Early Bird Tickets on Sale now for £80   info: 0845 009 6347 (local rate)

 For Tickets call: 0845 108 0259 (local Rate)

For Luxury Camping available in Tipis yurts and pod pads! Contact luxurycamping@sunrisecelebration.com for more info

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