Re:Generate - A Party with a Purpose
Reflection piece by Leo:
Before I was a sustainability consultant I used to party for a living. You can only do that for so long before it becomes a bit meaningless. Although I’m somewhat obsessed with living in purpose nowadays, I still love to celebrate!
Recently we launched a concept I’d been sitting on for a few years, a concept which bridges these two worlds - a ‘Party with a Purpose.
Re:Generate is a boutique festival which leaves the ‘Leave no Trace’ discourse behind, instead seeking to ‘Leave a Positive Trace’ - in the case of the most recent one, restoring ecological landscapes. We planted 750 trees together, we swam in the river together, ate an incredible feast together, and then we partied all night - together. The vibe was electric, the bass was chunky and the fire was burning bright as people connected over a shared sense of achievement after doing the mahi.
The idea is to create a scalable and replicable model for regenerating degenerated social and ecological systems. Once confident that our model works for a wide range of applications, we offer the concept for anyone to replicate - at scales relevant to their context. All branding, manuals and procedures are made open source with the idea that a growing network of events provide regenerative solutions on the same exponential scale as the problems they seek to address.
Of all the projects I am a part of, I see this one as having the biggest potential impact. It has the potential to harness the power of community, of collective action, of joy and celebration. It has the power to flip the script on environmentalism into being something fun and awesome - associated with desirable emotions, instead of blame, guilt and shame.
Re:Generate sold out and the party was super sweet. Under the Waste Wizards tent we had Vibe Architecture’s new PA sounding FAT with Mufasa, Matt Rapid, the Groove Mantis and Alley Kat. Chur’s lighting - the whole party running zero carbon on the Sunsonics Solar Power Generator. Everyone who planted a tree got a chance to feel more human, everyone who came healed a lost connection - to ourselves, to each other, and to the ecology which supports us.
The behaviour associated with this disconnection has caused the living systems of our ecological context to express negative feed back loops, sending invoices for the true cost of 'progress'. You notice it now, the murky watering hole, the poisonous shellfish, the absence of bugs on your car windscreen. It’s up to us whether we want to treat the symptom, or the cause.
Image: Fluro Grey
Re:Generate reconnects us with the whenua (land) by carrying out work that heals, restores, re-wilds and regenerates. We do this for our love for nature, not out of fear of what we stand to lose. When humans collaborate, we experience connection. When we are in competition, we experience separation. Working together with a shared purpose of planetary care awakens our innate sense of fascination, stewardship and belonging on this planet once again. Re:Generate seeks to create a new identity of people and place.
Kaitiakitanga. Whanaungatanga. Kotahitanga.
If you or anyone you know has land that needs regenerating (that can also handle an epic party) - get in touch with Why Waste.
Image: Fluro Grey
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Image: Fluro Grey
Image: Fluro Grey
Image: Fluro Grey