Ecotopia 2002 a huge success

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday August 20, 2002 12:23 by Eanna Dowling - Ecotopia 2002 press at ecotopia2002 dot org Grangemore, Lislevane, Bandon, Co. Cork 086 3315096

Hundreds gather from all over Europe to discuss Globalisation and Sustainability issues

This is the latest media release from the Ecotopia gathering, written by the dedicated PRO of the event. The release is distributed to independent and mainstream media. I want to encourage people to attend and participate. Please post this story.

Media Release
For Immediate Release, August 19th 2002

Ecotopia 2002 a huge success in Clare
The Ecotopia 2002 gathering on the Clare shores of Lough Derg has brought hundreds of people together from all over Europe. In a specially constructed "low impact" camp in a beautiful 83 acre woodland, participants have engaged in stimulating workshops exploring environmental and social change. The family friendly gathering offers excellent opportunities for children to learn new skills as the elders swap tales over a cup of tea by the fire.
Ecotopia is the annual gathering of EYFA1 - European Youth For Action, an Amsterdam based umbrella organisation for environmental organisations. The Irish co-hosts are Gluaiseacht2, a vibrant group focussed on raising awareness of globalisation and sustainability issues amongst young Irish people. Previous Ecotopia gatherings were held in Romania, Finaland, Scotland and other countries.
A typical day at Ecotopia sees the hard working kitchen crew gathering at 7 to prepare breakfast. At about 8:30 a couple of people gently tap a drum as they walk the camp giving the wake up call. Up to 300 people share breakfast together in the main communal area before the morning circle is called. Morning circle is the decision making forum of the gathering. There are 4 elements - tasks, announcements, workshops and discussions. Participants are encouraged to volunteer for the essential work necessary to sustain such a gathering. This includes volunteering for kitchen duty, registration/reception, night watchman, gathering wood for the fires and woodland management. When the list of tasks is complete, a round of announcements such as "Lift available to Sligo" or "I lost a pair of childrens wellies by the sauna" follows. Then the list of workshops for the day is called. On the busy days there may be up to twenty workshops taking place in tipis, marquees or outdoors. These cover a diverse range of subjects such as Drumming and Singing, The Nice Treaty, The Johannesburg Earth Summit, Brehon Laws, Yoga and Movement plus Childrens Art workshops.
Many local people have come to the gathering to stay for a while or just for a visit. The County Council sent a health and safety delegation who passed and certified the kitchen. They tested the spring water and found it to be the cleanest they had ever come across.
At night Ecotopia celebrates the culture of the participants. The highlight so far has been the Ecovision Song Contest, where delegations from Israel, Macedonia, Australia, France and the other countries performed national and contemporary songs. Naturally, on home soil, the Irish won, no bother.
Ecotopia 2002 continues until Saturday August 24th. Further information can be found on the Ecotopia website - www.ecotopia2002.org.
ENDS

1 www.eyfa.org
2 www.gluaiseacht.org

For photos of previous Ecotopia gatherings at Finland and Bulgaria see
BULGARIA 2001 http://photos.yahoo.com/aurel_duta2/
FINLAND 2000 http://24.132.122.148/ecotopia/ - http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~keuchena/

For further information please contact:
Eanna Dowling,
PRO for Ecotopia 2002
(+353) (0)23 40130
086 3315096
press@ecotopia2002.org

Note for features editors:

 Ecotopia 2002 is of interest to those�@readers and listeners concerned with globalisation, sustainability, conflict resolution, youth culture and outdoor living. It offers strong human interest with excellent photo opportunities plus international and local interview opportunities.
 For interviews about Ecotopia and the issues addressed by the gathering, please contact Eanna Dowling, PRO for Ecotopia 2002 at 023 40130 or on 086 3315096.
 As Ecotopia2002 is a working gathering, media visits to the site will only be possible by prior arrangement with the PRO
 To date Ecotopia has been covered by The Sunday Times, The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, TG4 news, The Clare Champion, The Limerick Leader, Newstalk106 FM and Clare FM amongst others. A documentary film crew from Agtel is due on site on Thursday August 22nd.