Transition Newcastle hosts the second Fair Share Festival.

[Michaelangelica]

Highlights include:

- Friday evening, 6.30pm to 8.30pm: A Q&A-type forum - Closing the Poverty Gap. Panellists include Cheryl Kernot (chair of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand and former member of parliament); Doris Puiahi (Tugeda Tude fo Tumoro Project, Solomon Islands); Daniel Ben-Ami (finance and economic journalist, author of Ferraris for All); and Donnie Maclurcan (Founder and ideas person at Project Australia and co-founder of the Post Growth Institute).

- Saturday, 10am to 5pm: Workshops, speakers, stalls, music, entertainment. Presentations and workshops will cover a range of topics including community gardens, a co-operatively run solar hot water factory, how the Sunshine Coast aims to become the most sustainable area in Australia, permaculture beyond the garden, and strategies for a successful transition to a more sustainable future. There will also be music, entertainment, food, and fair trade and craft stalls.

- Sunday, 10am to 3.30: Workshops, ideas expo, entertainment. Workshops on spirituality and sustainability, asset-based community development and school gardens. There is also a drama workshop for children and practical workshops on blogs and tumblrs, and building a 12-volt sound system with pedal power. The expo will allow people who have good ideas that could help create a fairer, sustainable world to set up a table and share their ideas with others.

- Friday, 6.30pm to Sunday, 3.30pm: Slum Survivor (an initiative of TEAR Australia). Over the weekend of the festival, 10 18- to 25-year-olds will build their own slum housing and participate in a simulation experience designed to help us get a small taste of what life might be like in a slum and to think about how we can respond.

The festival is a partnership between Transition Newcastle, Hamilton Public School, the Family Action Centre (University of Newcastle), Permaculture Hunter and One Just World
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/fea...w/2480985.aspx

[purplepear]

come and see the Purple Pear team address the issues raised by chapter 14 of the design manual Saturday afternoon

[eco4560]

Go Purple Pear! And say hello any Sunny Coasters who pop over to see you. Wish I had time to pop down.