Spring Awakening Sprung

Apr 10, 2009 by louise delmege    3 Comments    Posted under: Span That World

Spring Awakening a Roaring Success

It was a tense lead up for the movement. After a run of Spring Awakening that lost DFs money DF Committee made the tough call that if Spring Awakening failed to break even the event would be dropped form the DF Calendar. Thankfully SA09 was a roaring success with DFs New and Old coming together to soak up the blazing sun, huddle round the fire and attend seriously thought provoking workshops.

Describing Spring Awakening to someone who wasn’t there might be hard. Set in the beautiful Lurgashall on Woodcraft Folk’s own site Park Farm we would be woken by the sun and roll round the site attending powerful workshops run both by affiliated organizations like Junction49 or The National Deaf Children’s Society and our own volunteers. By night it got bitterly cold but we would gather around the campfire or play chaotic games in the barn. Highlights for me were the inspired Teddy Bear’s Picnic in the site’s woods, the fire side Deep Thought Workshop which grappled with the fundamentals and extensions of intense philosophy and a short but productive workshop improving the site for the future by clearing drainage ditches.

• We mended Go-Karts
• We got Sun Burnt
• We had visitors from Woodcraft Folk Head Office
• We zipped sleeping bags together for warmth
• We had an utterly Woodcraft time – amazing

Who Made It Happen?

Huge thanks to EmilyBob Askins and Rosa Crowley-Bennet who were the coordinators for the event. Also big thanks to KPs Rebbeca Stern and Phillip Richards who pulled off a smashing menu despite misguided Tappioca ambitions and to Daniel Rawsnley as the best damn KG i have seen in a long while. General Council Chair Danny Rowe also deserves a big round of appause for volunteering his time to help set up and take down the event – Thanks to all of you!!

DF Committee’s Involvement?

This event was unusual in that it took more input from DF Committee than usual to make it happen and run. Generally we aim for events to be as self sustaining as possible, enabling our volunteers to rise to the challenge of putting on the event while committee get on with their work in the background but somehow Spring Awakening didn’t quite happen as normal. Perhaps a contributor was the tensions around the “last chance” scenario or difficulties finding the site. One thing is for sure it has raising interesting issues about where Committee and Event Coordinator’s roles overlap and has emphasized that running an event is empowering and exhilarating but requires a lot of work and dedication to pull it off.

Still Improving

The District Fellows Movement has developed so much over the last few years. We really have moved away from old stereotypes to become much more inclusive and progressive but there is still work to be done. It is a real shame that at Spring Awakening a few individual DFs let the movement down and upset others with their actions but generally the event was a true success and a step in a bright direction. Bring on Spring Awakening 2010.