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The Convergence Festival, a sustainability event that took place in Ireland structured around development and various environmental initiatives, was Ireland’s longest running sustainability festival. The festival was established in 2000 and occurred until 2018. An early mission statement for the convention is that they were “working to promote social justice, enhance our health or help us to live in a more environmentally sustainable way.”
History[edit]
The Convergence Festival was an event focusing on various environmental initiatives that began in Dublin, Ireland in the spring of 2000. The festival later expanded to multiple counties in Ireland, occasionally occurring multiple times a year.
The first mission statement that the festival put out is as follows:
The event aims to assess Irish perceptions of sustainability, draw attention to and promote ‘best practice’ models and act as a communications and education platform. It will disseminate valuable information on the astounding variety of positive ideas, projects and initiatives currently helping to bring about a move to an more sustainable way of life. ‘Convergence’ will encourage participation and dialogue on topics ranging from holistic health to permaculture, economics to community building, agriculture to agriculture, business practice to renewable energy, debt to Agenda 21. [1]
Event Details[edit]
Ireland's Convergence Festivals brought together some of the country’s top leaders and learners in sustainability.[2] Each festival captured a wide variety of subjects, including collaborations with several sustainable businesses and organizations.[3] Convergence Festivals featured a theme that each festival’s respective events followed.[4] Some referred to the themes of the festival as “counter-culture” festival’s themes of the festival as “counter-culture.”[5] The festival created a place for critics of Ireland’s sustainable policy to gather and discuss the topic through different mediums such as music, theatre, and films.[6]
The festival defined “sustainability” as the following:
Sustainability has been defined as 'Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. It seeks to improve the quality of our health, our society's health and the health of our environment through the recognition that these things are linked.[7]
Schedule of Events[edit]
Convergence 1 - 11[1][edit]
| Convergence Festival Number | Agenda | Location | Dates | Themes (if provided) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convergence 1 | Video Seminars, workshops, sustainability lecture series, ecumenical gathering, green map tours, Beltane Fair, discussions, food market, Local Agenda 21, Jubilee 2000, Voice Earth Day Ritual, music & dance | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar) | April 22, 2000 - May 1, 2000 | Holistic health to permaculture, economics to community building, agriculture to architecture, business practice to renewable energy, debt to Agenda 21 |
| Convergence 2 | Conferences, exhibits, features, fairs & special events, lectures, tours, music & dance, seminars, workshops | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar, The Cultural Quarter) | April 21, 2001 - April 29, 2001 | Technology for the Common Good, Debt and Globalization, Green Building and Eco-Design, co-operation not competition, solutions not problems, consensus not hierarchy, biodiversity not monoculture |
| Convergence 3 | The Sustainability Communities Exhibition by The Village, Virtual Viewing Video Series, workshops, information systems, lectures, music & dance, children’s music workshops | Dublin, Ireland | April 6, 2002 - April 14, 2002 | Digital Innovation and Sustainability, Community Sustainability (closeness), Future Generations and Earth Relationship |
| Convergence 4 | Conferences, special events, lectures & talks, The Earth Fair, music & theatre, exhibits, workshops, Vital Viewing, Digital Futures | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar, The Cultural Quarter) | April 17, 2003 - April 25, 2003 | The eco-economy, plant medicines, traditional knowledge, new cosmology, slow food, education for sustainability, natural health, appropriate technology, ecotourism, renewable energy, eco-cities, urban food production, eco-design and community building. |
| Convergence 5 | The Yurt Project 2004, music & theatre, workshops, children’s activities, documentary screenings | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar, The Cultural Quarter) | April 22, 2004 - May 2, 2004 | N/A |
| Convergence 6 | Keynote speakers, business conferences, ‘Real Food’ Banquet, Sustainable Product and Service Exhibit | Dublin, Ireland | October 14, 2004 - October 17, 2004 | Building the Eco-Economy: The Vision, the Challenge and the Opportunities |
| Convergence 7 | Conferences, special events and activities, Earth Fair, video screenings, workshops, art exhibitions, classes | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar, Cultivate & Meeting House Square) | April 16, 2005 - April 24, 2005 | Building a healthy community, inspiring culture, redefining progress |
| Convergence 8 | Sustainable business conferences, online learning and communication courses, comedy show, UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Seminar, documentary screenings | Dublin, Ireland | June 24, 2005 - June 30, 2005 | Learning For Sustainability |
| Convergence 9 | Education for Sustainable Development Seminar, 'Oil, Climate Change and Food' lecture, seminar and workshops on communicating sustainability, FEASTA Conference on Energy Security, Green Burial Conference, art exhibit | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar, The Cultural Quarter) | October 12, 2005 - October 16, 2005 | Communicating Principles of Sustainability, Environmental Issues Pertaining to Oil Production and Use, Sustainability Discussions in Education, Healthy Communities, Self-improvement |
| Convergence 10 | Holistic workshops youth forum, keynote speakers, ethically sourced and locally produced Christmas Fair | N/A | November 30, 2005 - December 4, 2005 | Emergence - Connecting Art, Science & Consciousness |
| Convergence 11 | Power forums, energy lectures, Vital Viewings, World Café, self help seminars, conferences | Dublin, Ireland (Temple Bar, Cultivate Centre for Sustainable Living and Learning) | April 19, 2006 - April 23, 2006 | Rethink Energy (limit fossil fuel use), Slow Down, Go Further, Intersection of Tourism and Sustainability |
Convergence 12 - 21[1][edit]
| Convergence Festival Number | Agenda | Location | Dates | Themes (if provided) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convergence 12 | Sustainability discussions, biodiversity and climate change lectures, National Sustainable Development Strategy Conference, Powerdown Community Toolkit Launch, keynote speakers | Dublin (The Cultural Quarter, Temple Bar) | April 17, 2007 - April 22, 2007 | Powering Down Our Communities |
| Convergence 13 | Community Powerdown Symposium workshops and discussions, Vital Viewings, carbon lectures | Dublin | April 3, 2008 - April 7, 2008 | Post Carbon Cities, Transition Towns, Eco-Villages |
| Convergence 14 | Talks, conferences, workshops, World Cafés, tour, gatherings and film screenings on how we accelerate community responses to the economic downturn, resource depletion and climate change | Dublin (The Cultural Quarter, Temple Bar) | April 22, 2009 - April 28, 2009 | Making the Transition to Resilience |
| Convergence 15 | Discussions, workshops, World Café, strategizing conferences, documentary screenings | Dublin (The Cultural Quarter, Temple Bar, Cultivate, The Greenhouse), Tipperary (Thurles, Tipperary Institute,Cloughjordan Ecovillage) | May 26, 2010 - June 1, 2010 | Resilient communities, Smart communities, Sustainable communities, Limiting fossil fuels |
| Convergence 16 | Sustainable tourism conversations, home energy reduction conversations, bus trip to Totally Tipperary Festival, home composting workshop, biking social, Twitter and Facebook for Green Business Conference, small scale wind power workshop, website design workshop, Solar Solstice, documentary screenings, The Green Works Tours | Dublin, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Cork, Limerick, Sligo, Westmeath | June 16, 2011 - June 27, 2011 | Green Jobs & Community Resilience |
| Convergence 17 | Sustainability values conversations, experiments, exhibits, workshops, Public Space Tours | Dublin (Dublin’s City Hall), Tipperary (Cloughjordan) | June 6, 2012 - June 30, 2012 | Values Necessary for Systemic Change; Illuminate Innovative Sustainability Initiatives; Efficiency in Achieving Goals, Green Economy |
| Convergence 18 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Convergence 19 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Convergence 20 | Student conferences, various conversations about cooperation, sustainability focused fair, community owned shop conference, Halloween festival and party | Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Tipperary, Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Galway | October 19, 2015 - October 31, 2015 | Cooperation (Community Ownership, Social Enterprise and Resilience) |
| Convergence 21 | Co-housing and community land trust conversations, workshop for Irish-based youth educators, sustainability conferences | Tipperary (Cloughjordan Ecovillage), Dublin, Limerick, Kerry, Donegal, Galway (NUIG) | October 13, 2016 - October 28, 2016 | Sustainable living |
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Convergence". www.cultivate.ie. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ^ Cordes, Carolin (2018-06-12). "The Convergence Festival – imagining a more sustainable Ireland". Green News Ireland. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ^ "Convergence Festival and Collaborative Ways". Third Space Galway. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ^ "cultivate.ie". www.cultivate.ie. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ^ Murphy, Adrienne (2003-05-17). "Get a new life...: This year's Convergence festival promises a celebration of sustainability and counter-culture". ProQuest. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ^ The Irish Times (2002-04-06). "Can't we do any better?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ^ "Convergence". www.cultivate.ie. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
External Links[edit]
Convergence 1- 21: http://www.cultivate.ie/convergence-festival