S.O.S. (Solstice over Shannon) Press Release

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday June 06, 2003 11:48 by Nico - S.O.S. Cork (021) 454-1455

Hundreds of people from across the country are expected to attend a huge festival that is being planned for the solstice (21st June, 2003) at Shannon Airport, at the site of the former Peace Camp.

There have been a number of anti-war protests at Shannon over the winter. This event will be something quite different. Rather than allowing U.S./U.K. warmongers to push us to react and focus on what we DON’T want, S.O.S. will be an opportunity to focus on what we DO want; peace, love, music, beauty, truth, understanding and diversity. S.O.S. will allow people who might not normally get involved in political events to party for a cause. It will be an all day event with roots reggae on one sound system and a second sound system provided by the Protest and Play Collective, featuring the sounds of DJs Fiasco and Eugene. There will be free vegan food courtesy of Food not Bombs, drumming circles, art installations, and plenty of activities for children, including face painting and balloon animals. We will also be launching Cork’s new “Green Garage”, which aims to assist interested parties in converting their vehicles over from diesel to bio-diesel.

S.O.S. is brought to you by the same team who organised last summer’s highly successful “Diversity Day” event in Cork. This event will have similar multi-cultural, multi-lingual and environmental themes. All are encouraged to attend. It should be a very special day.

Reclaim the Skies!

The only firepower we want over Shannon is the Sun!

S.O.S. spokesperson, Nico, said:
“There can be no doubt that our spaceship earth is in need of saving at the moment. This is largely because of the huge military presence everywhere, which prevents people from living a good life because they’re too busy dying a horrible death. Our response to this so far, has been to make placards and march with megaphones and chants, declaring what we don’t want. And we’ve seen how quickly protesters burn out on that kind of thing – as soon as the television war ended, all such activity ground to a halt. I feel that what we need to do, now more than ever, is build on the positive rather than attacking the negative; to focus on what we do want rather that what we don’t. We need a big celebration to recharge everyone who’s burnt themself out fighting war. Or who just wants to party. The aim is to include rather than exclude.”

Further information: Nico (021) 454-1455 or Jen (021) 432-2561.