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It's Flashback Friday! Today we would like to share with you a nice little documentary about Boom Festival 2006. Although each and every Boom has been the result of steady evolution and refinement, it seems like this edition was very special. For instance, the Dance Temple and the Chill Out were made of bamboo - an organic material we really fell in love with!
Have a beautiful weekend, dear Boomers!
When trash meets human creativity it becomes handy, smart, practical, useful... and extremely beautiful to look at! Lugu Test Area stands for sustainable deco design. For this year the artist collective promised to expand the playground around the Dance Temple which is shown in this little video.
Communities Made From Dirt
There's nothing wrong about dirt. Quite frankly: We love it. Dirt is a way of life. Well, maybe we are over-simplifying here... But "dirt" as in "soil" or "earth" is a wonderful thing - and we embrace it as part of our vision of an eco-friendly, sustainable festival. Keyword: Clay and straw structures at Boom.
Using clay and straw as a natural resource for constructions is everything but new, it has been happening for thousands and thousands of years. For a good reason: It's simple and efficient. Clay and straw can be found in many parts of the world, you don't need to waste energy to transport it to some place. It's a truly sustainable way of construction, it's 100% organic, it has great insulation properties... and when it meets human creativity it's also beautiful to look at: Adobe, cob, arches, sculptural details and earthen finishes create an aesthetic experience. You can have it while exploring the microcosm of this year's Boom Festival. If you wanna get deeper into the subject, we recommend the presentation by Janell Kapoor about Awesome Earthen Building Around The World & The People That Built Them.
Power Plants - Episode III: Papyrus
Thousands of years ago Papyrus used to be the raw material for the first sort of paper. In this respect, it also used to be the raw material for a paradigm shift, as information could be saved and distributed much easier on paper – an expansion of global consciousness.
Today we use the very same plant in our water treatment system at Boom Festival – and once again, Papyrus is the raw material for a paradigm shift. One the one hand, this plant is an extremely efficient recycler of nutrients. It uses substances in the waste water for its growth, and Papyrus grows rampant. By doing so, the chemical balance of the water is recalibrated. On the other hand, Papyrus captures large amounts of atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2), it’s a long-term storage for the notorious “greenhouse gas”!
Most Boomers like nature and sustainability. Some are also into sports... and took the idea of an eco-friendly festival experience to the next level. They started a new trend, and we really like where this is going: The Boom By Bike Initiative. We will tell more about it during the next days!
Power Plants - Episode II: Bulrush
In this series we want to introduce some of the aquatic plants we use for our water treatment system at Boom, a 100% ecological system that enables us to clean 100% of the waste water from shops and showers.
The natives of North America use it as a source of food and medicine. However, please don’t ingest the bulrush from our water treatment system at Boom Festival – you might find it to taste bitter and spicy, because it includes high concentrations of pollutants (other than in a rural environment). The plant is perfectly fine with that – Bulrush is a bioremediator and extracts harmful substances from waste water, including a number of metals. A perfect symbiosis: This Power Plant can live from our waste water and leaves us with clean water!
Power Plants - Episode I: Azolla
In this series we want to introduce some of the aquatic plants we use for our water treatment system at Boom, a 100% ecological system that enables us to clean 100% of the waste water from shops and showers.
The floating leaves of Azolla turn from green to red as this plant absorbs nitrogen from the water. Which is a beautiful thing- both for the eye and the environment. Waste water usually includes a relatively high amount of nitrogen. Which is a bad thing for any body of standing water because it provokes an effect commonly referred to as hypertrophication.
Have you ever seen a lake that was all green and slimy? That’s what we are talking about.Simply speaking, there is less and less oxygen dissolved in this water, which makes it a difficult place to live for all life forms that require oxygen… and a paradise for those life forms that do not require oxygen: Anaerobic bacteria. They flourish, and by doing so they release various toxins that are not good at all for all other creatures.
And this is how our Power Plant named Azolla works, absorbing nitrogen from the water. By the way, that makes the rotting parts of this plant a great fertilizer.
Power from Within: Planting The Seeds Of Change
Quite obviously, the aim of Boom Festival is having a great time with beautiful people from all around the world. Yet there is more to it: In creating this great time, we want to set an example, an example for a better world, a take-away message for all Boomers. One of the major aspects of this vision is sustainability. It is put to practice in our re-use & recycle policy, in form of bio construction and compost toilets, an off-the-grid energy concept, eco-friendly transport… and in form of intellectual input and education in the Liminal Village.
As part of the Oneness With Gaia program, the lecture / workshop of Starhawk is a good example for this kind of input. It deals with the disconnection from nature that is so symptomatic of our consumption-orientated, hi-tech society. The idea of Starhawk is that this disconnection is just one aspect of a deeper disconnection: The disconnection of body and spirit. To fill the gap, she developed Earth Activist Trainings, a very smart and practical combination of permaculture and spiritual “grounding”.
One aspect of Starhawk’s teachings is that Earth is a living entity, and that we are inevitably connected with this entity. In this respect, we have certain powers – and it is very important to learn how to use them for the good. It is a power from within, and that is why spirituality is a very important aspect, as well. During her workshop Starhawk will share with us ideas that spark hope and believe in a better future.
