Climate Change - Great Big Green Weekend

The Great Big Green Weekend event low-carboned its way through Sparrow's Nest on Saturday. Our Lowestoft Town Council wanted to highlight the issues facing us all from Climate Change.

The rain held off, the wind was sensible, and a good few people turned up. A very rough estimate would be at least 2000 people and a fair few dogs through the day.

There were many stalls, mostly green or nature themed in some way.

Use It All provided a Recycling and Information Hub, and talked to a steady stream of enquirers through the day. Use It All is a local campaigning and recycling group.

There was entertainment from singers and dance groups, including Lowestoft Signing Choir, Marina Ukulele Group, Marina Choir Rocks, Tom Tonks, Michelle Miles and the Venue of Performing Arts.

“The Joyful Environmentalist”, Isabel Losada, spoke to us for a while, though her passion and a trebly PA system made it sound like a bit of a harangue, which was a pity. But her book won The Independent’s Sustainability Book of the Year 2022.

The Venue of Performing Arts – a huge group of girls of many ages – were the biggest entertainment draw of the day.

Get Suffolk Reading did a grand job engaging with youngsters with an Eco Trail and free books.

The food stalls seemed to do well – at least one said they would definitely be back.

Next year, perhaps promote the day as a day of entertainment, focussing on the bands and dancers and comedy, but make sure all the food and commercial stalls are as green as possible, and all the organisations and groups are connected to sustainability and the effects of climate change. And make the event as low-carbon as possible. That way, it might be less 'preaching to the probably already quite well informed' and more 'Wow, I didn't know that!'

I noted the following stalls and groups:

Kushee Street Food

Fork Off It's Vegan

Green Waveney Coffee Company

Norwegian Cakes

The Seed Vegan

Use It All

Lowestoft Memories (The Town Hall Project)

Free Cloth Re-usable Nappies (Suffolk Recycling project)

Groundwork East

Realise Futures

Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Waveney Beekeepers Group

Met Office

Uncle Sid's Zero Waste Store

Big Bike Revival

Paint Re-Utilise

Get Suffolk Reading

John Ellerby