Tackling a global crisis with hope and creativity
A 3-day arts and ideas festival hopes to inspire folk to Rise Up. RONI LEE reports
AFTER making a successful debut in 2019, Change Festival is returning to Coventry’s Warwick Arts Centre next week.
The three day arts and ideas festival – running from Friday, November 5 to Sunday, November 7 – sets out to explore the current climate and environmental crisis by concentrating on engaging stories (rather than dry stats), with the hope of leaving attendees feeling positive about the future.
Featuring a programme of over 30 events and activities, including music, theatre, discussions, films, art, and free family workshops, Change was inspired by the arrival of founder/director Becky Burchell’s daughter.
“For many years I was arts curator for two of the UK’s most successful outdoor festivals, but when my daughter was born in 2015, I had a big wake-up moment,” recalls Becky of Change’s genesis.
“I realised that if I wanted her grow up in a safe world, I had a personal responsibility to do what I could to address the climate and environmental crisis.
“So I decided to use my festival experience to create Change Festival, an uplifting multi-arts festival that would give audiences hope and inspire them to find their own role in creating a better future.”
The theme for 2021’s festival is Rise Up.
“We are inviting our audiences to explore ways in which they can rise up to the climate crisis,” Becky says. “We can rise up to speak up, rise up to take action, rise up to connect with others, rise up to change our habits, or even rise up to change our minds.
“We can rise up in the workplace, in our homes, in our communities or in our schools.
“We all have different roles to play in creating change, there is no onesize-fits all; that’s the beauty of our human diversity.
“But the one thing we can’t afford to do is sit back and do nothing. So Change Festival has been curated to inspire action - my favourite phrase is ‘hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up’!”
Though keen to emphasise the festival’s sense of hope, possibility and “even joy”, Becky does acknowledge global warming, rising sea levels, disappearing eco-systems and extreme weather conditions are difficult subjects.
“You are right that the climate crisis is a difficult subject. But the truth is, everything we need to do to address climate change will also solve many, many other societal issues. Climate change is the mother of intersectionality and we have become so dysfunctional as a species, and this is our moment to address it. We can’t escape the culminating
affects of the climate crisis, but it is not too late to live in ways that regenerate, rather then degenerate our only home.”
Among Change’s highlights are discussions that rethink ideas of ownership and explore our connection to nature; Nevergreen, a new theatre production telling the story of the late American writer/environmentalist Rachel Carson; musician Cosmo Sheldrake, who weaves sound recordings of the natural world into his compositions; Meet Me A Tree, an opera for 0-2 year olds; a mini-robot march and a giant roaming tortoise puppet!
“I am a huge fan of events that fuse the unexpected.
“So I am really looking forward to Beethoven’s Septet Featuring Oh The Things We’re For, which combines classical soloists with a very modern story, one that celebrates the power of young voices,” says Becky of her own personal highlight.
“We’ve created it especially for Change Festival 2021, working with the multi-talented American author Innosanto Nagara and an all-star soloist line up from the Orchestra For The Earth.
“It’s empowering for families to
Change Festival has been curated to inspire action – my favourite phrase is ‘hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up’!
go to arts events together, as it gives them brilliant talking points and a way to discuss sometimes complex topics in a comfortable way.
“In this event, we hope that parents and grandparents and their children will leave feeling motivated by the strength of the music, the poetic narrative and beautiful visuals.
“I’m taking my two children ... and my mum!”
Summing up Change, Becky says: “The Festival is an invitation for people to be active in creating change NOW - not to be a passive bystander while others decide what’s best for us.
“This is our world and our future. We have created this mess, now we have a chance to create something better.
“But to do that, you need to show up and be prepared to roll your sleeves up.
“So showing up at Change Festival is a great step on that journey.”
Change Festival runs from November 5-7 at Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry. For the full programme and more information, see: www. changefestival.org
Becky Burchell, pictured