Action Briefing Aug 2004 - Sept 2004
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Glastonburied

Birmingham Friends of the Earth had another successful week staffing the property lock-ups at the Glastonbury Festival in June. Eighty-three volunteers made the trip down to the festival and we raised around £5,000 for our campaign work.

This year's festival was supposed to be the “greenest ever”. There were better recycling facilities, paper plates and wooden instead of plastic cutlery, Fairtrade tea and coffee on all the drinks stalls, and 'green police' politely requesting that people not relieve themselves of their Fairtrade tea or coffee, once drunk, in streams and hedges.

To be fair, Glastonbury will never be a particularly 'green' event: the disgraceful amount of litter left behind is enough to make anyone cynical. Nevertheless, several of our volunteers came up with some exciting ideas to raise awareness as well as campaign funds at next year's festival. I think I’ll have my hands full enough with the practical work of co-ordinating the lockups, so I hope they are still as enthusiastic in twelve months' time!

Thank you to everyone who took part, particularly those who covered shifts for the sick, the lost, the exhausted and the hopelessly unreliable. Apart from the latter, you’re all very welcome back next year!

Karen Leach, Property Cock-ups Co-ordinator