Small is Beautiful is back at CAT!
The Small is Beautiful festival returns to CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology) in Wales for 2016 in a 'lite' format - pulling together all the key elements; talks, workshops, debates, arts and music - and the event will be a microcosm of the main event, squeezed into one day.Organisers say that"With the political maelstrom triggered by the EU referendum vote, and the uncertainly this has caused, not least towards the future of UK environmental policy, it was deemed a theme that was too important to ignore" and the content of the festival for 2016 will address the following question:“Does the UK’s vote to withdraw from the EU tell us that human scale change must be achieved at the local level or should we redouble our efforts to form new international partnerships?”The keynote addresses will come from current Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and the recently appointed director of Practical Action, Paul Smith Lomas. This year’s discussion on the above theme is sure to be hotly debated and will be chaired by Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation, who spoke compellingly at last year’s event.The festival offers a wide selection of engaging workshops and mobilisation groups for you to share your thoughts and get your hands dirty. This year these will range from aquaponics to wind empowerment, and from green economics to community action. Something for everyone, as they say!After dinner there’s a chance to dust off your dancing shoes and get on down to some of the finest hand-picked artists in the UK: Count Drachma, The Saltcutters, and – in what is fast becoming an annual tradition – the Small is Beautiful All Star Ceilidh Band. The colourful sounds of Hi-Five Hi-Fi will keep us dancing into the wee small hours... for those with a bit of stamina.Small is Beautiful will also be curating talks and debates on each day of the weekend at Festival No.6 in Port Merion, only an hour away from CAT, the week before Small is Beautiful. Should you be at the festival, do come and listen to the talks, and come and say hello to the team. They would love to see you there!Another date for your diary is 9th - 11th June 2017, when the festival will be returning to CAT as a full weekend affair, taking on the theme of housing from all angles: socio-economic, policy, building materials, global approaches etc. Tickets will be on sale from 10th September, and there will of course be discounts available for those buying them at the event.Small in Beautiful at CAT, 10th September 2016. Tickets from £30, with concessions available. Visit http://www.smallisfestival.org/ for more info and to book. If you’d like to stay at CAT before or after the festival, call Becky on 01654 704973.CAT: Llwyngwern Quarry, Pantperthog, Machynlleth SY20 9AZ