Around the Festival

 I had a day to wander around in Hay and down to the Festival site yesterday.

I started in the Honesty Gardens below the Castle, with a delicious goat curry from Trigg Foods, before I walked down to the Festival site.  There are shuttle buses again this year (£5 for all day travel), and a horse-drawn taxi - which is a real licensed taxi.  It's got the official sign on the back of the cart.  The cart is preceded by a man on a bicycle in a hi-viz vest, for safety.

Things change on the Festival site over the week - the stalls are expensive to hire, so some groups only do a few days and are then replaced by other groups.  So Leigh Day lawyers had disappeared, and have been replaced by Medecins sans Frontieres.  

Another new stall was Positive Action.  They follow the principles of their founder, EF Schumacher, who wrote the book Small is Beautiful.  They work with small communities around the world to find the best solution to local problems that works for them.  For instance, in Kenya, many young people left their communities to go to cities to find work, and Practical Action is now training some of those young people in regenerative agriculture methods so that they can support themselves, replenish the soil, protect their local environment and improve food security.  They have a website at www.practicalaction.org

I also had an interesting chat with the lady from a charity based in South Wales - Autistic Minds.  They work to help autistic people to have equal access to opportunities, support and services, and to form an integral part of their communities.  Most of the staff of the charity are themselves autistic, and they also have some spin-off companies.  Safe Shred Wales Paper Solutions is a company that shreds confidential documents safely, and they use the shredded paper to make paper-based plant pots for gardeners, animal bedding and eco-mulch.  Many of their staff are autistic.

One of the volunteers for Autistic Minds is now a paid member of staff, providing a 3D printing service called Ambition3D.  Mostly, Jake makes models for table-top roleplaying games in resin, but he also does commissions.  The models are available through the Autistic Minds Etsy store.

The other thing that they do is compile an online directory of services and businesses for people on the autism spectrum in the UK, at www.theautismdirectory.com

Meanwhile, in the food tent, there is an exhibition around the walls organised by the Friends of the River Wye, explaining the problems the river faces, mainly from chicken farms and fertiliser run-off.  It includes some information from Compassion in World Farming, which is opposed to intensive chicken farming (and the intensive rearing of other farm animals), with interviews from people around the world who have direct experience of living close to intensive farms.  It's well worth a look.

Back in the centre of Hay, I had a chat with one of the ladies who was part of the Free Palestine protest.  She turned out to be the same lady who taught me how to make rag rugs many years ago (I still have the tools), Jenni Stuart-Anderson.  She said that she should be concentrating on her rag rug making - she still runs workshops, and can be found at jenniragrugs.com and as part of www.creativebreaks.co.uk   But, she has personal friends who are stuck in Gaza, and are trying to raise enough money to bribe the guards at the Egyptian checkpoint to let them out.  The (very polite and quiet) protesters have been on the square every day of the Festival, handing out leaflets and chatting to people.