A cross society group of students are organising the first climate festival in Stirling. Working with multiple charities, university societies, local groups and individuals, the team is putting on an exciting and engaging week of workshops, talks, art and music.
The festival aims to be a way for people, particularly those living in the Stirling area, to increase their awareness and positive engagement in climate issues in the lead up to COP26, the UN climate panel taking place in Glasgow this year.
- Stirling Climate Festival, the first of its kind in the area will be running October 11-17.
- It will be mainly in person, but some events will be online and many hybrid.
- The Festival is being organised by students from the University of Stirling with support and advice from the Students’ Union and members of the local council.
- The festival will include Workshops, Talks, Art and Music on topics from Responsible Consumption to Intersectionality.
- It will be spread around venues in Stirling, focused mainly on the university and city centre
- Main events are the Climate art trail (15th Oct- 30th Nov) and the City Centre day (16th Oct)
- The Purpose of the climate festival is to stimulate an increase in awareness and positive engagement in climate issues in the Stirling area
- Website stirlingclimatefest.info has all the information and it is regularly updated with more events
The festival will run from the short opening ceremony on the evening 10th October to the closing ceremony on the 17th, with events being spread mainly between Stirling University campus and grounds and the city centre. These dates place the running of the festival two weeks before COP26. This is intentional, and is part of a national and international effort to shed a light on the climate breakdown taking place all around the world.
By educating people on the issues surrounding the challenge of tackling the climate emergency, we hope to contribute to the UN climate panel by encouraging the youth, particularly in the Stirling area, to engage with climate related issues and make their voice heard at COP26.
“I took part in this festival because I really believe that the climate emergency has to be our number one priority. The dream would be to see the whole Stirling Community actively engaging with the festival and discovering every day a new perspective of the climate emergency thanks to all the different realities that will be participating at the festival.”
“Young people have been taking the lead on tackling the climate change in a systematic and impactful way and therefore I believe we have a lot to offer to COP26. Our goal is to help people to engage with these issues on a critical way and then stimulate them to bring change at the UN. If you want to learn about the issue of our century, come along, you’ll be blown away.”
Ludovico Caminati of the organising team
“I had the idea for this festival as a way to engage university students and the public in Stirling with the climate emergency after realising that the actions and organising to resist climate chaos in the area was being done by a very small minority, often with significant overlap between different groups and campaigns. “
“In order to achieve real change and stop ourselves from ending up in a climate catastrophe we need at least 3-4% of the population to engage in and properly support action on climate change. This is because as has been time and time again proven, our government will not take the necessary measures, leaving it up to the people to pressure on the government to actually do something meaningful”
“I see the festival as a means to engage more people in a non-confrontational manor, introducing them to the problems, as well as some of the solutions, and providing some of the necessary resources to get more involved!”
Lewis Forsyth – lead organiser
Highlight events include:
The City Centre Stalls – on the 16th October: On Port Street will be stalls, and street performance, giving the residents a chance to engage with different local charity groups and companies taking action on climate. There will be no food or drink but there are a plethora of fantastic local independent seateries nearby
Climate Art Trail – running 15th October to end November: The art trail, will be a multi venue exhibition, highlighting art with a specific climate and or protest message behind it, this is currently open for submissions, details of which can be found on stirlingclimatefest.info and social media channels.
Currently confirmed venues include: Pathfoot building @University of Stirling, Made in Stirling Store and the Macrobert Arts centre.
Take Action
In order to give the festival somewhat of a legacy, the organising team is creating an online Take Action space for people to engage with the subject matter, this includes relevant petitions and a bank of resources covering things particular Stirling, podcasts, online versions of many of our events and resources for activists interested in getting involved in campaigning
Free tickets to book are available on the festival website stirlingclimatefest.info, donations are welcomed. Events are already up, unfortunately due to COVID-19 delays on the venues, some of the biggest events are yet to be released.
The Stirling Climate Festival is getting student union funding.Image Credit :Brignewspaper
Feature image credit: Carla Poulaert
