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Practical Action at Bluedot Festival 2019

By Ella Burgess On 26.07.2019 Blog

Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending bluedot festival for the fourth year, and what a year it was! 2019 marks 50 years since the moon landings and the celebrations were huge.

Bluedot is a great opportunity for us to tell everyone about the work that we do and we’d like to thank the whole bluedot team for making this possible.

Despite the English weather showing off with torrential downpours, lots of people still came to see us and we had a blast.

Over the weekend, we ran some brilliant workshops which focused on showing how people can adapt to climate change and cope with environmental issues. We held our very first panel discussions, with experts from across Practical Action sharing inspiring stories of change. So many people of all ages came to see our brand new virtual reality experience showing drought prone Turkana, Kenya. And last but not least, we had lots of entries to our prize draw for two tickets to bluedot 2020!

Here’s a selection of some of our favourite pictures from the weekend. Tickets for next year are on sale now so make sure you don’t miss out.

                     

We have arrived! The copious amount of rain was not ideal but we kept smiling, even when our marquee blew over. By the afternoon, the
weather had thankfully cleared.

       

Our Virtual Reality headsets were back! Taking adults and children into another reality. The video shows our work in Turkana, Kenya
where collecting water from unstable and dangerous scoop holes is the everyday reality for families. Thankfully, our ingenious solution of
solar-powered water pumps, water management and training is bringing clean water to drought prone areas.

                                         

BUBBLES everywhere. It wasn’t just the children joining in with the bubbles just so you know (I may have joined in).

         

For the first time ever, we hosted two panels on the Notes Stage. The gadget man, Ortis Deley was our host on Saturday and did an incredible
job at communicating how ingenious solutions can help tackle the world’s toughest problems. We also had some great questions from the crowd,
a highlight being “what can we do to help?” which led to lots of people joining us at our stand to find out more.

       

The magnificent Lovell Telescope towering over the stage made the experience even more surreal. The line-up was incredible this year,
Hot Chip definitely got my dancing feet going!

 

 

Our Plastics workshop
had children thinking about
the importance of recycling
and they even learnt how to
create new products from
waste. Our Beat the Flood
workshop built understanding
of the effects of climate change
and how flood resistant housing
can help communities be better
prepared when floods happen.
Our very own ‘Mover Shaker’
Anna did a great job at getting
everyone involved (even the
parents were loving it).

 

 

 

 

 

   

Here are some of my highlights from around the festival and our stand, although I did find the robot slightly terrifying…

   

 

 

And finally, a farewell from me and my
orange bean bag to signify the end of the
best weekend. I had the most incredible
time with the most amazing and inspiring
people. I’m so grateful to have been given
this opportunity and see you all next year.

If you want to find out more about what
we got up to over the weekend, click here
and don’t forget to explore our new
website.

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