BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.5//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:80@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20150911T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20150911T190000 DTSTAMP:20150905T092941Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/wirral-earth-fest-2015-launch-ev ent/ SUMMARY:St Bridget's Church: Wirral Earth Fest 2015 DESCRIPTION:A refreshed and greener than ever Wirral Earth Fest returns to St. Bridget’s Church and Fields on Friday 11 and 12 September 2015. The festival\, organised by Transition Town West Kirby and St. Bridget’s Ch urch\, has an overall theme of ‘Love Where You Live\,’ and the opening event will be a celebration of Hilbre Island and the Dee Estuary\, past a nd present.\n\nThe festival launch event takes place in St. Bridget’s ch urch\, West Kirby on Friday 11th September at 7pm\, when two newly compose d\, bespoke pieces of music will be performed\, including a very special t alk/performance by our invited speaker\, John Ashton\, the former UK gover nment special advisor for climate change.\n\nMany of John’s talks can be seen on YouTube where he displays a considerable knowledge of world energ y and environmental issues and the intergovernmental responses to them. Ho wever\, he has been moving towards other forms of communication that uses the arts as a means to enlighten and change hearts and minds in the face o f these global challenges. As John shared with us: “I’m driven by the conviction that we will be unable to come to terms with any of the challen ges we now face unless we decode what they (governments) are telling us no t only about what we should do\, but also about who we are.” John is dev eloping a new piece for our festival and we are honoured to have him with us.\n\nMusic will be provided by Liverpool/Chester based multi-media arts collective Operation Lightfoot\, who will lead us across the sands with th eir composition ‘Far from the Shore’. Luke Moore\, Creative Director o f Operation Lightfoot said: “It’s exciting to be bringing a new piece of music to Wirral Earth Fest for the second year running. Last year’s e ven was truly wonderful and to be involved again is a real privilege.”\n \nLocal New Folk duo\, The Kirk Owls\, will present their tribute to the D ee Estuary and Hilbre Island\, ‘Sketches.’ Tom Lockett of the duo said : “We are immensely excited to be part of this celebration of a truly ma gical place\; one that holds no shortage of inspiration for us both\, crea tively and as a place to live and work.”\n\nSaturday 12th brings the on- field events which we hope will inspire visitors to the festival to deepen their commitment to the place where they live\, its community and natural environment. Over the last two years we’ve had over 60 local volunteer\ , activist\, friend and church groups\, and businesses\, telling a collect ive story of concern for people and the earth. This year will see an expan ded cohort of groups including a sizeable camp of Scouts and Guides\, who do so much good work in our community.\n\nWe will also be joined by Tam O ’Shanters urban farm with some of their animals and volunteer team\, and the rangers from Dibbinsdale promoting forest skills and crafts. A specia lly commissioned ‘Commitment Tree’ made by Dibbinsdale folk and local artist\, Marko Muller\, will challenge us to make a small change in our da ily lives for the good of others and the environment.\n\nOn-field entertai nment will be provided over two stages\, The Earth Stage and the Wirral Ar ts Centre ‘Firetruck Stage’.\nSebastian Gahan\, Creative Producer for the performance elements of the festival\, explains\, “This year there a re new element’s to the festival’s artistic plan. Notably\, the innova tive Festival Launch event at St Bridget’s Church on the Friday night an d\, on the main festival day\, a dedicated stage specifically for a wider range of performance arts\, such as dance\, poetry and story-telling\, co- curated by local independent arts venue Wirral Arts Centre\; The Earth Sta ge in the big field will carry on doing what it does best\, providing grea t music from 11 in the morning till 5 in the evening. We also have an exci ting programme of music and performance in the church\, which has wonderfu l acoustics and atmosphere.” All of this will of course have the company of good food and fine ales!\n\nThe Festival organisers are making further efforts to make this edition the greenest so far\, with a specific recycl ing area and non-bottled water\, as Andrew Gibb\, of the organising team o utlines: ‘We realised after last year that we could do a lot more to be environmentally responsible\, especially in terms of managing waste. This year we are committed to a greener field during the festival and to provid ing water free of pesky plastic bottles. Any suggestions from previous fes tival goers would be welcome!”\n\nTo keep up with what to expect at Wirr al Earth Fest see our Facebook page:\n\nhttps://www.facebook.com/WirralEar thFest2013.\n\nTickets (£6 (£4 unwaged) ) for the Friday evening launch event can be purchased from Eventbrite via the link below:\n\nhttp://www. eventbrite.com/e/wirral-earth-fest-love-where-you-live-festival-launch-eve ning-tickets-17807110547\n\nJoin the Facebook even page below:\n\nhttps:// www.facebook.com/events/820381141413706/\n\nFor local ticket sales call St Bridget's Centre: 0151 625 2739 between 9 and 1pm.\n\nNB: Friday night's launch evening is ticketed\, whilst the Saturday is Free entry. A donation to ensure the festival remains free is always appreciated though! ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2015/07/wirral-earth-fest-friday.jpg LOCATION:St Bridget's Church\, Church Road\, West Kirby\, Wirral\, CH48 3JT \, Wirral\, United Kingdom GEO:53.368641;-3.180737 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Church Road\, West Kirby\, Wirral\, CH48 3JT\, Wirral\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=St Bridget's Church:geo:53.368641,-3.180737 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20150329T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR