Changing face of Bristol

Bristol's so changed since I last visited, that even my map is out of date. It's clean, easy to walk around and by the station and harbour it is filled with huge spaces that are fun to linger in and easy to reach by bike too.
Dead ringer for Sydney?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Here's how to enjoy a fab festival and get that Sydney-feel, just by taking a trip to Bristol (ideally between 9-17 June).  This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).   

Bristol hopes to copy Edinburgh festival's "must be there" status during its annual June biggreenweek. Running from 9-17 June, Bristol's Big Green Week 2012 boasts comedy, music, film, talks, poetry, art and family events. £8 seems to be the top price tickets and there are plenty of free events too.

"Bristol has a festival every week," explains my friend as we pass a large marquee being put up for the German Beer Festival. We're down at the harbourside - although still a long way from the sea - cycling around after a day at the typeface, and it's a lovely place to be. All that water, space and big venues make you think of the Australian lifestyle. On a warm day with blue skies you definitely could imagine yourself Sydney-side, maybe even Brisbane.

The point of the Big Green Week is that it inspires change. Wherever you are in the green spectrum this is the chance to get buzzed up by Dragons Den's Deborah Meaden, the amazing poet Matt Harvey (he calls himself a Wondermentalist on BBC Radio 4) plus old favourites such as Jonathon Porritt from Forum for the Future, Juliet Davenport from fab Good Energy, Tim Smit from the Eden Project and environmental lawyer Polly Higgins who is determined to sort out the UN.

Cash and conscience
Festivals may seem like a fun place to meet up with friends - but they can inject considerable sums into the economy, never mind spread ideas. The 2012 January Sydney festival is thought to have brought in A$56.8 million (more than £35 million!!!) to the New South Wales economy (13% up on last year).


It can be hard to make money from those greens who lack the super-consumer gene so I shall be looking carefully at how Bristol's Big Green Week balances its books. But if it was a success - not just drawing in lots of people, but getting people to be more inspired from a green perspective and adding a nice flash of cash to the city how impressive would that be? I reckon engineer Brunel (see pix above) who had a very up and down relationship to money, despite his impressively inventive and well-remembered career, would be well proud.

Russian pancake week

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Come see what a traditional Russian festival is like... in a London tent. This post was made in Feb 2012 by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs).   Pic is from telos.tv and shows Stravinsky (the composer) with Matisse's amazing picture - the Rite of Spring.

What's the point of Russian pancake week - a bit of paganism? A chance to eat up sweets, sort out quarrels and  play party games? No, I think it's a proper goodbye to winter. In London Russians met up on the seventh day in Trafalgar Square for the Maslenitsa Festival. My family scurried through the square on the way to Charing Cross Station and orchard pruning in Kent so we could have joined in, if we'd known what was going on. See more here too.

Luckily two days later one of my talented students at the university where I teach feature writing, Alisa Antonova (who is Russian, and had just come back from a trip to Moscow) told me:

"Malslenitsa is the start of spring, it's when we say goodbye to winter. Traditioanlly we burn a big doll (a scarecrow?) who is wearing traditional Russian clothes - a simple dress and an embroidered scarf. We sing songs and have tea from samovars and eat pancakes with berry jams, honey and sour cream. It's my favourite celebration in Russia, because it's so much fun - especially when I was at school. We played traditional games and were able to go dancing together. I like that we still have this festival to look forward to - so many traditions are dying in Russia."

Certainly in the UK this year, this Russian festival has it's timing absolutely right. Spring has sprung - I could smell blossom, and probably plants growing as I cycled around London this week.

Over to you
If you'd like to enter an easy peasy poll on what signs your family uses to check that spring is here, click on this link:

You can get it if you really want

Pete, Nicola, Lola, 10, and Nell, 7, like travelling around Britain on public transport (don’t laugh). We spent three happy months exploring during summer of 2007 but now we’re home, you can still join us for the occasional sightseeing - plus tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint. This post is from Nicola

Loud music, picnics and sunshine is what makes a party in most places. We’ve been lucky enough to live on the doorstep of Finsbury Park where the anti-racism festival (until Boris Johnson scrapped that bit of it) is held each year with fabulous acts and all for free (see pic from 2008).

This year’s star was Jimmy Cliff. He’s a legend everywhere that values Reggae, and of course that includes Jamaica - and for a bit longer, London's West End where they are showing The Harder They Come as a stage play at the Playhouse.

Festival land

Pete, Nicola, Lola, 9, and Nell, 6, spent three happy months during summer of 2007 travelling around Britain. Now we’re home, but the travel bug is still there. Join us for the occasional sightseeing plus tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint. This post is from Nicola

Current travel supplements are awash with places to go, things to do, etc, over the summer. I’m not a big festival-goer but in a bid to make it to Brazil we went to Camden Green Fair for dancing (tea dancing in fact!), partying – and some green info. Apart from the obvious, the only way you could tell it wasn’t really Brazil was the serious over-dressing by festival goers. A brave few were in T-shirts but most had raincoats somewhere nearby.

This pic is during the carbon footprint game run by Camden Friends of the Earth. Most people use 10 tonnes of carbon (much more if they fly) during a year. With our various improvements to our house (eg, insulation, solar hot water, Good Energy's renewable electricity supplier) our family gobbles up about 6 tonnes of carbon per year. The problem is that everyone in the UK needs to be using just 2 tonnes - that's either a lot of giving up, or a lot of energy-efficiency innovation.