Hey folks,

Just got back from the V2002 and Leeds festivals and as always you
come back from festivals with loads of stoney utopian ideas about
setting the world to rights but I had one that I thought was pretty
cool.

Despite loving both festivals, they were in someways spoilt by the
blatant commercialism and corporate logos everywhere you looked so I
decided I would organise a non-corporate festival in the UK with the
theme of World Peace which is of universal interest and does not
belong to any political colour. I thought we could raise funds for
the CND to help them with their important work.

My vision (!): The festival is held on a weekend in summer 2003 with
entertainment on the Saturday and Sunday but unlike V, after 11pm
(when noise laws are different) we will continue to have
entertainment in the form of arty films, poetry and acoustic music
throughout the night.
During the days we will have music from rock, metal,
indie/alternative, punk, classical, folk, jazz, blues and world music
artists with the more popular groups playing peak time between about
4 and 11pm. I also thought that between the bands, we could have
speakers who would talk about their various campaigns and experiences
and maybe some comedians. We could even have a tent where artists
could have exhibitions and sell their work.

Artists would be expected to perform for free but in exchange for
their services they will be able to sell their CD's, books, videos
etc. in specially designated stalls.

Within the price of the ticket would include three communal meals a
day, so that if people don't want to bring food, they don't have to -
currently at festivals people fork out about a fiver a time from fast
food vendors at festivals.
However, vendors will be there to sell food if people wish to buy it
but as they need to compete with our free meals, they will charge
much less.

According to the non-commercial ethic, there will be no advertisements
from corporations but the festival will have many stalls such as
cultural items (including world music instruments), political
campaigns, smoking paraphenalia, clothes, legal highs,
meditation/yoga, henna, books, pearcing/tatoos, a newsagents, booze
and anything else that people might when walking round.

The ticket price will be kept as low as possible and all profits will
go to charity and once the original price is paid, theoretically you
wouldn't have to spend another penny during your time there.

This is as far as I have got at the moment, but the reason I wrote to
you was that I am going to set up an e-mail information service to
keep those people who may be interested in coming to the event next
year informed of any progress. The addresses will only be used to
send out information on this particular project.
If anyone would like to join this information list, please get back
to me at nirodh@...
- you need not give me any more information about yourself.

Also if you have any good ideas or if you are a musician, artist,
film-maker, poet, comedian, or public speaker and might be interested
in appearing at this event, please e-mail me at the same e-mail
address nirodh@...


Hope to hear from ya!

Peace and love

John Hills