Friday 3rd August 07 Big Green Gathering

Another day of working in the first skip, did a morning shift 9 til 12 and then showered and lunched and spent the rest of the day wandering around and experiencing the sights, smells and sounds of the festival.

At 5pm, went to the main info place to see if anybody else was there for the naked ramble... and to our suprise there were quite a few. So no backing out now! At 5 past, we went for it and got naked and for the first few minutes it felt a bit weird, but then it just felt nice. Lots of people laughed or clapped and cheered. One guy was very keen to get infront of us and take photos, and was walking along with his digi camera pointing backwards 'discretely' at waist height, so I remonstrated with him, saying I thought his actions were dishonest and underhand, cheeky and wrong. He didn't reply and disappeared into the crowds, but I suppose if you take clothes off in public, one has to accept that some people might react in that way. Several people did ask if they could take photos, and some people in the group said 'only if you take your clothes off too' which one lady did! Several people joined us whilst we were walking around, and there was only one 'complaint' from someone on a horse and cart when we got to the horse-drawn field, saying 'no, not in here, there's too many kids around', but as we were being followed by a group of kids, asking us questions and laughing and making comments, we weren't too worried about the effect on children and we kept on walking. It was 99% well recieved with positivity and humour, and it didn't feel cold, even though the sky was overcast and it was towards the end of the day, it was a lovely feeling to have the breeze on your skin. I'd be happy to do it again, in the right circumstances such as the BGG offered.

Later in the evening we watched a film, in Spanish with subtitles, on the problems that Spanish organic maize growers are having with pollen pollution from transgenic maize nearby, and then onto another screen which was from 'bicycology' and watched a film about critical mass bike rides.