(An UNCIVILISED Election Message from Dark Mountain co-founder Dougald Hine)
Join us in Llangollen for a weekend of ideas, stories and songs - part literary festival, part music festival, part training camp for an uncertain future.
UNCIVILISATION 2010 brings together writers and thinkers, musicians, artists and storytellers who have woken up to the likelihood that we will outlive our way of living. The world of supermarkets and superhighways is not going to become “sustainable” – as the systems we grew up taking for granted start to break down, how do we go on making sense of our lives?
We’re bringing some of the best known figures addressing these issues together with exciting, radical voices you might not have heard before, to explore two core questions:
What do we do after we stop pretending “the world as we know it” can be sustained…? Dark Mountain co-founder Dougald Hine grills George Monbiot on whether environmentalism is in denial; thoughts from Alastair McIntosh on how we find hope in getting real; and new visions for an unillusioned future from Vinay Gupta, Lottie Child and Paul Kingsnorth.
Where do we find new stories for the unknown world ahead…? Jay Griffiths (author of Wild: An Elemental Journey) on the roots of language in the nonhuman world; poet Mario Petrucci on the role of the arts in an age of contraction; and William Shaw of the RSA’s Arts & Ecology programme, novelist Gregory Norminton and poet Melanie Challenger on where next for literature.
A huge variety of other speakers and performers will take to the stage over the weekend, with contributions from Tom Hodgkinson, Penny Rimbaud, Mark Boyle, Adrienne Odasso, Caspar Henderson, Julian Rose and Jagwida Lopata, Christian de Sousa, Lewis Basset, Susan Richardson, Adrian Arbib, Keith Farnish, Richard Houguez, Briony Greenhill, Anthony McCann, Steve Ounanian and many more.
At night, the musicians take over - headliners Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and Chris Wood embody the thoughtful, radical edge of British music today.
There’s strong support from acts including Chris T-T, Yon, Billy Bottle, Bleak, Zarathrustra, Helena Ward, Feel Real, Caulbearers, Tarquins Ravishing Strides, Kat Drake, Ricky Damiani and more.
Meanwhile, Marmaduke Dando and friends bring their electricity-free club night Power Down to Wales on Friday evening – while on Sunday night, Will Hodgkinson presents The Ballad of Britain.
The weekend will include hands-on workshops, exhibitions, informal discussions and open mic sessions, as well as a Dark Mountain film festival curated by Dan Walwin and a festival bookshop.
Camping is included in the ticket price – but the festival venue itself is indoors, so we’ll be sheltered from the elements, should the weather do its worst.
Meanwhile, a free pre-festival Dark Mountain Camp (24-28th May) will give those who come early a chance to go deeper into the ideas surrounding the project – and host sessions of your own.
UNCIVILISATION is going to be fun – it’s going to be an amazing collection of people, fantastic conversations, and we believe it will lead to collaborations and projects that might not have happened otherwise – and a community that lasts a lot longer than one weekend.
Come and join us, book your tickets and be there at the beginning.