After three successful years, RE-PEAT's Peat-Fest is back with its 2024 edition. This year, Peat-Fest is made up of five unique stages spread across three countries, each led by local groups and individuals with RE-PEAT’s support. Every stage responds to a particular peatland context, creating five soggy pools of different flavours, shapes and sizes. But all of them the perfect shape in which to come together for deep learning and big playing for peatlands.
Peat-Fest 2024's London Stage will be a chance to connect with the RE-PEAT team alongside organisers of local Peat-Fest stages across the previous month. As well as the usual Peat-Fest dazzle of creative peatland workshops and sharings, this will be an opportunity to discover more about what organising a Peat-Fest stage in your community involves and feed in to the evolution of Peat-Fest for years to come. Everyone's invited!
With thanks to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation who's funding has made this possible.
Tickets
This event is FREE - but please consider donating to RE-PEAT.
Tickets are divided into Morning, Afternoon and Evening. If you want to attend for the whole day then just select all three!
Full schedule (venue details at the end)
MORNING
Peat-fest 2024 Sharing Circle (Hybrid)
This hybrid opening session will be an opportunity for anyone who's curious to come along and get a taste of Peat-Fest! Our big vision for Peat-Fest is a sprawling festival made up of stages dedicated to local peatlands all around the world, each unique and led by young people. If you are at all interested in being a part of this, then this online session is for you regardless of wether you can make it to London or not. Online joining page here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1016683597007?aff=oddtdtcreator
Film Editing Workshop
A chance to collaboratively edit a music video using footage from Fen Fest AKA the Peterborough stage of Peat-Fest. Join members of the newly emerging collective who organised this day - which celebrated radical, queer and alternative histories of the Fens. Led by filmmaker Rachael Milliner, this workshop requires no prior editing experience - but drop us a line if you do want to bring your own laptop!
Peat Pen Pals Letter Writing
In this workshop, we’ll be reading and responding to letters written by members of Tromsø Natur og Ungdom during their Peat-Fest stage at the end of September. They and others have been engaged in a decades-long struggle to protect Finnheia, a large area of peatland on the island of Tromsø and important grazing site for Sami reindeer herders,from destruction by a luxury ski resort. Come and express solidarity with them and demonstrate that the international community is watching what happens at Finnheia!
AFTERNOON
Peat Pen Pals Letter Writing
Another opportunity to respond to letters from Romsa/ Tromsø (see Morning). This afternoon session will additionally be a space to hear about “Peat Pen Pals”, an in-development programme from RE-PEAT using the format of letter writing to develop international relationships around peatlands and build new peatland narratives that transcend national borders.
Bulrush Craft Workshop
Georgemma Hunt is a freelance artist and architectural designer currently undertaking a PhD at the University of East London, within which she is investigating the material properties of Common Bulrush (Typha latifolia) and developing its use within an innovative construction material. Within this workshop, we will get hands-on in exploring the material possibilities of plants that are sustainably harvested from rewetted, productive peatlands."
Acting As If We Are Living In Deep Time
Bogs have often been seen as portals, liminal space for connecting with the spirit realm. Through a combination of guided meditations, imagination exercises, and creative writing, workshop participants will be invited to move through a state of personal and collective grief through and with the bog. This is part of a series of workshops exploring peatlands and grief being developed by RE-PEAT.
Peatland Justice Workshop
RE-PEAT’s Peatland Justice campaign is currently using creative and participatory research methods to examine and communicate trade and finance of peatlands in Europe as areas where peatland injustice resides. Join RE-PEAT members to hear more about the campaign, explore future directions and discuss the ways in which we value peatlands.
Risograph printing workshop
Interested in the role that print work can take in advocating for peatlands? Then this is the workshop for you!
In this workshop we invite participants to create posters aligned with our Peatland Justice campaign, which pushes for a just transition away from the use of peat in growing media. The posters will be printed on the House of Annetta’s risograph printer; the perfect tool for the accessible and fast-paced creation of activist materials.
We will provide some key resources to guide you in creating accurate and aligned designs. Some drawing and collaging materials will be provided but if you have a preferred method of creating (analogue or digital) then feel free to bring your own!
EVENING
Peatland open mic // Short films// Mini presentations
Have you got a peatland poem you’ve been wanting to share? A soggy song you’ve been wanting to sing? A wetland story you’ve read and want to share? Perhaps there’s a peaty topic or place or bit of research you’d like to do a mini-presentation about? This is your chance! Interspersed with peatland short films.
THROUGHOUT
Peatland Silent Disco Sound Art
Moss Pit by RE-PEAT members pantea, Lukas Fraser and Bertie Pennington (with sounds from OR Poiesis, Justin Bennet, Sophie Kinston and Sophie Standford)
~ ~ ° word of ~ ° ~ ~ by Jasmina Al-Qaisi (find out more)
ABOUT THE VENUE
The House of Annetta is a centre and platoform for transformative spatial justice located at 25 Princelet Street.
Accessibility
Whilst we do have ramp access on the ground floor, at this moment in time, we cannot support those with physical accessibility needs upstairs due to the current infrastructure and instability of the house. The garden has a change of level , and there is a step down into the only toilet on site which does not meet accessibility requirements. The floor surfaces and steps throughout the house are uneven due to the age of the building. There are two level changes across the outside garden.
The House of Annetta are in the process of raising money to address this issue in the future so the house can be fully accessible at every level. If you have any other access needs, please get in touch via the email above.
There is only one outdoor all-gender toilet on site located in the garden. The toilet is not wheelchair accessible. The nearest accessible toilet is at Old Spitalfields Market, opposite the Flying Tiger Shop on the ground floor, approximately 240m from House of Annetta. The toilet is free-of-charge and open 08.00-23.00.
