The Dark Mountain Blog
Uncivilisation 2012
posted by Paul Kingsnorth
11th February, 2012
In the grim depths of a northern winter, thinking about summer seems like a natural thing to do. It certainly keeps me sane, as far as that is ever possible. Planning for summer is another matter, but this year we’ve managed to do that in a frighteningly efficient way. Which is how we’re able to announce now that tickets go on sale today for this year’s Uncivilisation – the third Dark Mountain Festival.
This year’s festival will take place in the same venue as last year – the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire - on the weekend of 17th to 19th August 2012.
We’re still pulling the programme together, but most of it is already in place, and it’s looking exciting. We have a bigger team involved this year in putting together our menu, and it feels like, as the world continues to fall apart around us, that this may be the most rooted and strangely appropriate Dark Mountain gathering yet.
This year, we’re doing things a little differently. If you’ve been to our previous festivals, you’ll notice two main changes. Firstly, this year’s festival will be entirely acoustic. There will be no microphones or amps. This will apply to all the talks and events and the music. We think it will create a much more intimate atmosphere.
Secondly, the festival stages will this year be run by specially commissioned curators. Three daytime stages will explore different aspects of the project’s work, from writing to storytelling, art to analysis. On the Friday and Saturday evenings, the music stages will be directed by two experienced musicians and friends of Dark Mountain who will assemble a wonderful menu for us.
A full programme will appear here in the spring, but a sneak preview of the highlights includes:
- Outdoor activities during the day, from wild food foraging to learning to use a scythe.
- Writers workshops, discussions and poetry readings.
- The team behind last year’s ‘Liminal’ will transform the site with a series of installations, participative artworks and mysterious, unscheduled performances …
- Live theatre and fireside storytelling.
- Two decades on, a celebration and commemoration of the British road protest movement, and its legacy of creative radicalism and connection to ‘place’.
- A free space in which anyone can present their work to the audience.
Visit the festival website to find out more. Tickets are on sale now, and are strictly limited in number. This year there will be no day tickets and no sales on the weekend, so tickets need to be bought in advance. You can buy yours here.
Spread the word! And see you in summer.
Posted by Paul Kingsnorth on 11 February, 12
Posted in: Blog
Comments: 1 comment - Read it and respond
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Hi,
Question:
I attended the Uncivilisation festival last year staying in Whetherdown Lodge at a reduced rate if I remember rightly as I was a festival attendee.
Are there discounted rates available this year for the hostel or will it be the standard rate of £23.00 per night? Then again my memory may be completely failing me and I may well have paid full price!
Thanks