Unplugged Party
Saturday 7th July from 7pm at the Market Lane Garage, North Street
It had been an interesting debate; should the TTL party on July 7th be a Powerdown party to celebrate the work of the group so far with a great big sigh, or an Unplugged party to cheer the mass of newly joined volunteers off the starting blocks? Was it a retrospective or a shock of the new? Was it a charabanc trip for the TTL members or a recruitment drive for locals?
In the end, we settled on a compromise; a bring a bottle and share-some-food party under the umbrella of a bigger global event, a Live Earth screening which would bring old and new climate changers under the roof of the Market Lane Garage to remind ourselves just how much energy a group of like minded people can create.
This was a gift considering the technical disasters that were going on behind the scenes; as the drummers drummed, drawing a merry band of musicians into their fold, and the Body of Work art exhibition stimulated the party chat, barely a soul noticed that our sweaty browed techie friends were beavering into the night to get a signal for the Live Earth feed. Looking around the party-goers, and earwigging on their discussions, it was clear that it was TTL that had drawn this crowd rather than the desire to spot Madonna’s nips and tucks.
In fact, we were about to forget the entire Live Earth connection, when a clutch of 14 year old girls demanded a showing of the (already downloaded) Al Gore address, exclusive to friends of Live Earth. Wizard of Oz-like, an enormous head of Big Al was projected onto the white walls of the Market Lane Garage, urging us to be pro-active in our own future, and suddenly we felt connected to the 10,000 other Live Earth events in 130 countries celebrating our commitment to changing our world on this extraordinary night.
As Howard and Nick of Southern Solar pumped up the volume again, it was a night that reminded us that we don’t need to be plugged in to have a great bash. The power may have been down but being unplugged meant that we could let go of all those expectations and simply party.
Get involved: contact one of the Group contacts on the Groups page
