at the Big in Falkirk Festival on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th May, a description from the Big in Falkirk website is given below."Big in Falkirk, Scotland's National Street Arts Festival is an award-winning, FREE weekend extravaganza and has become one of the largest cultural events in Scotland, attracting over 100,000 people. Located in Falkirk’s stunning 180-acre Callendar Park, the cutting-edge entertainment features a wide variety of spectacular outdoor theatre, pyrotechnic displays, art, comedy and big name music acts alongside activities for all ages."
Pictures of the event can be seen on the BBC site here - PICTURES
This was the first really big event that the Powerpod had to fit in with. On previous outings it had been a stand alone exhibit so this one would prove a good test for its ability to attract and hold the attention of passers-by. At the Science Festival - see previous message - people were expecting to be entertained and informed about science - this audience was expecting just to be entertained.
Saturday proved to be a dry, sunny day and the crowds were out and any doubts to whether we could attract attention was soon gone as we demonstrated, or so it seemed, to "hundrets" of adults and children
. Unfortunately there were only four of the Powerpod team present and this meant that there was no relaxation time in order to visit and enjoy the rest of the festival. By five o'clock the crew were glad to start tidying up and putting things away. Leaving the festival we met Alex Wilde a Woodcraft Folk leader from the Partickle Elfins in Glasgow who had been singing in a choir three times that day and so disappointingly was not able to come and see the Powerpod in action. There were also some visits from members of Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk.Sunday was another "kettle of fish" with showers and strong gusts of wind forecast. The 3ft ground stakes in the Fair Trade pavilion had been ripped out twice overnight by the wind and security were not allowing any members of the public to enter the tent - so the demonstrators had nowhere to retreat with their activities during the frequent showers of rain. Water and electricity is not always a good mix but it did show that the small PV panels could generate electricity even during the heaviest shower! With only three adult members available and with limited amount of Powerpod experience it was proving difficult to provide the activities even during the dry periods so the decision was made to stop trying and pack up. The next couple of hours was spent trying to get permission for transport to come on site to take the trailer away - the trials and tribulations of a co-ordinator! The decision not to allow the public in the Fair Trade pavilion proved to be prescient as it eventually collapsed in the afternoon with heavy poles falling down and heavy pieces of polyester tent flapping around - there should be a photograph here just to show the danger but we were too busy trying to tidy up the mess!
Reflections on the weekend by those present would seem to suggest that the demonstrators need to have some sort of cover for their activities - although these are obviously best done outside but with Scottish weather being as it is there shall always be the possibility of rain. The original plans for the trailer contained a canopy but this proved at the time a step too far - so it was withdrawn - the problem of some sort of cover may have to be addressed again. We aslo need to look into our monitoring and evaluation systems - how many people did we actually speak to? what infromation did they go away with? - including our ability to "sell" to people the Woodcraft Folk.
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