Hurrah!!! The All Ireland Permaculture Gathering is back! After a 4 year hiatus this year we finally managed to get our act back together and this year’s gathering will take place at the Slieve Aughty Centre in County Galway in association with CELT Ireland on the 24th/25th August 2024 (arrival on the 23rd). Tickets available here
Preparations for the 2020 gathering were under way when the country was struck by that bug that was making the rounds, which rather spoiled plans for that year and the next. Since then, members of the steering committee were busy with other projects, suggestions for venues were made, but didn’t materialise, but fear not, we have been busy in the background and this year CELT have come forward with an offer to host the event. CELT (https://www.celtnet.org/ ) is a charity based at the Slieve Aughty Centre who focus on the empowerment of people through ecological knowledge and skills. CELT stands for Centre for Environmental Living and Training. They run workshops, guided walks and events aimed at teaching people traditional crafts with a particular focus on forestry and agroforestry. CELT will be providing the local support to organise the event and are also kindly contributing to some of the costs. A big thank you for that!
The Slieve Aughty Centre (https://slieveaughtycentre.com/) offers eco-accommodation and horse riding in a beautiful area just south of Loughrea. Their grounds include an organic garden and a few acres of mature woodlands. Other facilities include a gathering hall with kitchen, an organic restaurant, a garden pavilion and firepit plus other outbuildings that we can use as workshop spaces. For those of you who don’t fancy crawling out of a tent on a damp morning, the centre does offer a variety of accommodation options, however early booking is essential, as the place books up very quickly during the summer months. Please contact the Slieve Aughty Centre directly via their website to book.
Now to this year’s gathering, we made a conscious decision to keep the costs as low as possible so that everybody should be able to afford it and to get the ball rolling again. The starting price for weekend tickets is 20 euros for adults and 5 euro for kids. This includes camping on the camping field and use of the shower block. Advance booking is essential this year, as we will have to cap the numbers at around 200. Early bird tickets will be at that price, but will go up to 30 euro, so the earlier you book the cheaper it is.
Keeping the entry fee low has meant that on this occasion we have had to keep costs low, so we have not brought in any catering for the event. There will be a central fireplace and there will be places for smaller firepits on the campsite for people to organise themselves into cooking circles. There is also a kitchen available in the conference room. So please bring in some food and cooking equipment. There is also the possibility of treating yourself and eating at the on-site restaurant, who will offer a special vegan/vegetarian menu for participants of the gathering. This will of course come at an extra cost. In fact if you arrive on the Friday, the restaurant is having a pizza night, but you would need to book that in advance by sending them an e-mail, as they don’t have the capacity to provide pizza for everybody.
Finally to some practicalities about the gathering itself. Those of you who have been to our gatherings before know the score, but for those who haven’t, this is how it works:
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Arrival is from 4pm on the Friday, but the official start is on Saturday morning at 10am with a morning circle and should wrap up by 4pm on Sunday. On arrival, please register at the welcome tent.
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The event is strictly alcohol and drug free, no pets are allowed and please do not bring any meat to cook.
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Leave no trace! We want to leave the place in the same way we found it, so please take any waste with you after the event.
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The event is fully participatory. There are no passengers on the perma-ship only crew! Everybody is encouraged to chip in with any jobs that need doing from cleaning the compost toilets or shower blocks, staffing the welcome tent, directing parking, keeping the bonfire going and whatever other jobs might come up.
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Workshops are organised by participants. There are no headline speakers or pre-organised workshops. After the morning circle everybody is invited to propose a workshop and pin it to the board. The workshop can be your area of expertise or skill that you want to share with others, or it can be something you simply want to know more about or a discussion topic. You don’t have to be a world leading expert to run a workshop. This way might sound a bit haphazard to some, but so far we have never had a shortage of offers for workshops and it has always worked.
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As this is a family event we ask participants to lower noise levels after 9pm. Generally this event is about respect for each other and anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.
Finally I want to put a shout-out to anybody living local to the site to volunteer for the preparation team. CELT already have a small team of volunteers, but many hands make light work. Apart from designing and setting up the site, we always like to leave a legacy for our hosts and this year the Slieve Aughty Centre have requested an educational woodland path in one of their woodlands. If you are able to help out, please contact CELT on info@celtnet.org. The site management crew will get free entry to the event.
Any surplus money from the gathering will be going into the seed pot for next year’s gathering. We will also have a donation tin at the welcome tin if you are able and willing to give a bit extra. The proceeds of donations will be shared with CELT.
We are hugely looking forward to seeing you all, old faces and new, in August.
To book your tickets click here