Thousands of people turned up to the Festival of Nature, despite a forecast of torrential rain and gale force winds. Luckily, Mother Nature seemed to take pity on the Festival, reserving her fury for the nighttime, and even providing some sunshine during the day.

Ecojam’s Free Stuff house gave festivalgoers a chance to exchange unwanted household items offline. Most of the items posted in the house found a new owner, and we will be arranging the exchanges this week.

The pedal powered disco was a joint Ecojam and BUST (the University’s student sustainability team) project. It will be used at various events at the University and in Bristol over the summer, including the Harbourside Festival.

Those who signed up to Ecojam over the weekend have been entered into a raffle for some Ecojam tees and two copies of The Big Earth Book (donated by Alastair Sawday Publishing). Winners will be announced in next week’s newsletter. In the photo below, Phil (a BUST member) is entering a visitor into the raffle.

Sustainable exhibit

I briefed my long suffering brother Rich Fortnam (an exhibit designer by trade) to design an exhibit constructed with sustainable materials, at the lowest price possible. He is more accustomed to budgets of up to £1 million, so a £300 cap certainly stretched his imagination.

We sourced most of the materials from the outstanding Children’s Scrapstore. We were lucky enough to find two old panels (with 2 gaping holes) and some pieces of MDF which made excellent feet for the exhibit. At £13.50 a shopping trolley our budget remained intact. After a bit of patching and craftsmanship, we had two exhibit panels ready.

Because we wanted to use the exhibits at several events over the summer, the graphics had to be tear resistant and able to cope some rain.  Recycled paper didn’t meet this specification, and materials like vinyl were not deemed sustainable. Chocolate Exhibitions, based in Chippenham, recommended a material called Tyvek. It is basically roofing felt made from 90% recycled materials, and recyclable.

DIY pedal powered disco

Festivalgoers were invited to hop on our bicycle and pedal. The bicycle sat on a training stand, and as the rear wheel turned it rotated a roller attached to an electric scooter motor. The motor was connected to an amp via an electrical box of tricks, set-up by Senthil, a talented 2nd year electrical engineer at the University of Bristol.

Building the green energy powered system involved a team of enthusiastic students and staff. James Clarke, a civil engineering PhD student, oversaw the mechanics and drawings; Charles Clapham and Mike Dury in the workshop of the Department of Earth Sciences applied their skill to join and cut the components; and members of BUST helped wherever possible. Sophie Hewitt, a project officer of Ecojam, ensured everything ran smoothly. Sophie and myself, were assisted on the exhibit over the weekend by three other members of BUST, Phil Holtam, James Norman, Jon Broad, and James Clarke.