It featured indoor and outdoor events, sea and land activities, and music. There was a conference and an eco-stalls fair.
The theme of this 10 day festival, now in its 3rd year, was to “Take Action for our Precious Water”.
We loved taking part and meeting members of the communities involved. Here’s a selection of photographs from the Eco Stalls Fair, Studio at the Lake, How to make a green roof and other stories (our own event), and the Blue Planet Conference.
Eco Stalls Fair
First outing for the marquee – luckily there were four of us to take a ‘leg’ each when putting it up!We enjoyed meeting local people and talking about the project. Some had heard of Blue Heart before, but for others, it was a great opportunity to introduce ourselves.The Eco Fair was also a chance for us to show people the work we’ve been doing on developing an augmented reality (AR) map. Our trial location is Shinewater Park, but the hope is to create maps for each area in the Blue Heart project zone.The AR element is accessed via an app, allowing the user to explore the Shinewater area; clouds float above the surface, and different layers show points of interest across the main themes of water, nature/ecology and heritage.
Studio at the Lake
We started our exploration of Shinewater Park at the site of the Bronze Age trackway and platform, discovered during the creation of the lakes 1995. Chris Greatorex, the archaeologist who excavated the site, explained what he’d found and we got to see and handle original and replica artefacts from the dig.As well as walking and talking, members of the group spent time drawing, creative writing and taking photographs. We even had an opera singer serenading us!
Our last stop was at Geese Pond, where we enjoyed watching the birds. Over the course of the walk, we spotted 31 species: Black crowned night heron, Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue tit, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti’s warbler, Chiffchaff, Collared dove, Coot, Cormorant, Feral pigeon, Goldfinch, Great crested grebe, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Greylag goose, Herring gull, House sparrow, Jay, Long tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mute swan, Reed warbler, Robin, Song thrush, Starling, Tufted duck, Wood pigeon, and Wren.
How to make a green roof …
Speaker Dusty Gedge spoke about the process and benefits of making a green roof, and shared some of his previous projects from around the world.
Blue Planet, Festival Conference
Our Engagement and Comms Lead, Eleanor, was one of the speakers at the conference, which was supported by Caroline Ansell MP and the Mayor Pat Rodohan.
