It’s your Colchester Free Festival!

The team are getting ready for Colchester Free Festival 2012, taking place in Castle Park on Saturday 25th August. Once again the entire park will celebrate the music and arts Colchester has to offer. This year organiser Ben Howard is looking for some additional help to ensure the festival remains the great day we’ve now come to enjoy.

So what do we need to do just that?

• People who can join the festival team both now and on the day itself
• Trade stalls to add to the festival experience
• Donations towards the festival’s running costs, your fundraising ideas will be welcome
• Members of the local business community to become festival partners; Lion Walk Shopping Centre (founding festival partner), firstsite (festival partner) and the Colchester Gazette (media partner) are supporting Colchester Free Festival again in 2012 and they want to invite more local organisations to support the festival.
• Musical acts, DJs, artists and children’s entertainers from the Colchester borough to perform at the festival

In essence, they need you!

The festival can no longer survive on the limited manpower they’ve had to date. They need help in every area. Everyone volunteers their time and works for free to make this happen so this is a call to residents within the Colchester borough to come on board and join the festival team.

There are a series of regular, monthly open meetings at firstsite, Lewis Gardens, High Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 1JH – visit the Public Events page for dates and come along if you want to be involved.

Bennison Farm Steering Group

Thursday 3rd March
8pm
Your Space studio (back of Foresters Court, The Avenue, Wivenhoe)

Things are getting going on at Bennison Farm, see our previous blog post for an explanation of the project.

We have fenced the field to keep out the rabbits and we’ll soon have our water connection and be putting our first plants in the ground. We’ve also begun our Organic conversion, sourced manure and are gathering together all the bits and pieces we need to get growing.

It’s now the time to give people the opportunity to get more involved in the project.

Meg and Danny would like to involve the members in process of creating a CSA scheme that will best suit us all. To over see this process they are setting up a steering group open to any willing members. A steering group is a way of making sure that the project is run in a way that keeps both the members and the growers are appropriately involved.

Meetings will be held approximately once a month. In the first six months the role of the steering group would be to help create a structure for the project and form and agreement between the growers and the CSA members. This could include working out how food is distributed and paid for and how the scheme is administrated. The group could also be involved with organising workdays, farm walks and social events.

The spirit of this project is very important and those who feel a real passion for the idea of the project are just as valuable on a steering group as those vital people we are sure who are out there with skills and experience in areas such as accountancy, funding, law, ethical policy, local food and community work.

At the first meeting they aim to discuss;

• The format and role of the group
• How the group makes decisions
• Where, when and how often to meet
• What skills and ideas people have to offer

The first steering group meeting is Thursday 3rd March at 8pm at Your Space studio which is at the back of Foresters Court, The Avenue, Wivenhoe.  Just up from co-op.

If you feel you would like to get involved, want to find out a bit more about the group or feel you have something to offer then please join the group. Meg and Danny welcome any questions. Just call 01206 252147.

Bennison Farm - a new CSA project

We’d like to introduce you to Bennison Farm. A new Community Supported Agriculture project setting up near Colchester.

Danny and Meg are setting up a market garden on 8.5 acres of land near Thorrington, East of Colchester, which they are converting to Organic. They’ll mostly be producing vegetables although we also plan to grow some fruit and keep a small flock of chickens for eggs.

They aim to market their produce as locally as possible. Partly wholesale to local shops and restaurants but also to sell most of their food direct to consumers through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) scheme. CSAs are a direct link between farmers and consumers. With no middle man, farmers get a fair price for their produce and consumers get top quality local food from a know and trusted source.

CSA members will pay a regular share of the costs of growing their food in return for a weekly share of the harvest. As well as paying a share of the costs they’d like to encourage willing and able members to do a small share of the work. This will be a big help to us especially with jobs like planting onions or harvesting potatoes, and will help to keep the growing costs down. However, if members don’t feel able do physical work they won’t be obliged and may be able to help in other ways.

There will be farm walks throughout the year so people can see how and where their food is grown and watch the changes throughout the season. Members will also be invited to social events on the farm such as picnic and barbeques where they can get to know each other, celebrate the harvest and generally enjoy being on the land. Members will be welcome to get involved in running the scheme and organising social events.

They are in the early stages of setting up the farm so this year they will be operating a small trail scheme from around mid July and launch in full in summer 2013. They would love to hear from anybody interested in joining or getting more involved and they’ll keep you up to date as the project develops.

If you have any questions please call Danny and Meg on 01206 252147.

Community Farm Project

We’ve always been a strong supporter of local food, community projects, fresh local veg and anything organic.

There was a poster left on our desk this morning.

With all these points ticked we gave the number a call and discovered an exciting new project developing at Wivenhoe Loveless Hall this Thursday evening.

Danny has just moved to Colchester (literally 3 weeks ago) and has bought a farm in Great Bentley. Teaming up with Transition Wivenhoe he is using this meeting on Thursday to set up a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture project.

The Local Harvest site describes this as:

Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

The idea is to create a community project to grow, sell and harvest food. As well as receiving a box ‘o veg, Danny also wants to provide open days for people to come visit the farm as well as allowing people to get stuck in to help develop the land. Overall we’re very excited indeed.

If you are around Thursday evening please pop along to the hall to find out more and help the project develop. It is still in early days and they are looking for people to sign up, show their support, but also contribute what they would like see come out of the idea.

If you can’t make it, give Danny a call on 07851600369 to find out more and be added to the mailing list.

Transforming Spaces @firstsite

Saturday 17 March, 9.30am – 5.15pm
firstsite, Lewis Gardens, CO1 1JH

£32.40 incl. VAT, lunch and two refreshment breaks.

A great event hitting Colchester in March. Slack Space in partnership with firstsite are hosting a regional conference on the use and transformation of empty shops and disused spaces. The event will look at the current spaces and combine an interactive focus on case studies and success stories with practical advice and contextual understanding.

This event is suitable for artists, community groups, arts and regeneration professional as well as landlords and developers.

Partner Profiles

Slack Space is one of the premier ‘empty shop’ organisations in the UK and has been successfully putting art and performance into empty shops for over two and a half years.

firstsite is a contemporary visual arts organisation based in Colchester with a mission to make contemporary art relevant to everyone.

Artside is a CoExist project featuring two weeks of art and interventions in Southend High Street. Artists work directly with venues to create site-led work.

TAP is housed in a converted waterworks. Currently, it houses CoExist Galleries and Studios, The White Bus, MEET, Solug and Open Arts.

We are Bedford is a community collective. The group put on the Castle Quay Weekender in March 2011, an arts festival in seven empty shops, and run various other successful community events.

Meanwhile Space is led by the Development Trusts Association as part of the Advancing Assets programme, with support from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Empty Shops Network is the national network for organisations and individuals working in empty shops and other disused spaces.

3Space offers a brokerage service between landlords / developers with empty space and charities or other organisations wishing to use that space.

There are 50 spaces free available. To apply please download the booking form here and return to firstsite, Lewis Gardens, High Street, Colchester CO1 1JH or email.  

Deadline date to apply for a free space is Wednesday 15th February.

For more information and outline of the day visit the firstsite website.

Tickets can be collected from firstsite or posted for a £1 fee. The Box Office for this event will close on Thursday 8 March 2012.

One Last Month For The Bike Guru

Reblogged from The Hidden Kiosks:

Submitted by Mike Polom

As The Bike Guru’s three month stint at the Kiosks comes to an end, it’s great to learn that he’s been granted one final month in order to make the transition to a more permanent premises a little easier.

Matt tells me that for his final month he’s offering all sorts of deals on food and drink as well as 20% off all bike servicing for the duration, definitely well worth a look.

I visited the Cafe & Workshop to talk to The Guru himself (aka Matt Lawford) about what went well, what he’d have done differently, and how having an affordable space at such an early stage in his business really helped get his idea off the ground.

He also offers some helpful suggestions for anyone thinking of applying for a kiosk including the importance of promotion, both online and offline, as well as how a solid plan including your aims is vital for success - three months is not as long as it sounds!

I wish Matt all the best with The Bike Guru Cafe & Workshop as his business continues to grow.

Please make sure you pop down to the Hidden Kiosks this month for the Bike Guru’s last month of strong coffee and top notch bike repairs.