A DAY TO WADE INTO
OUR CHARTER
Join us for a special community day to share in our love for rivers and generate concrete action moving forward. We’ll begin with a screening of ‘Rave On For the Avon,’ followed by a presentation of the Thriving Avon Charter. Later, we will engage in workshops to explore policy recommendations with Bristol’s Local Councillors.
1pm - We will gather in the Tobacco Factory yard area to be welcomed by the Goddess of the Wye, Bristol’s SHE choir and Filhos de Angola capoeira group.
1.30pm - Screening of 'Rave On For The Avon' in the Tobacco Factory Theatre
3pm - Conham Bathing Present their Thriving Avon Charter
3.30pm - Coffee break in the Tobacco Factory's outdoor tent area
4-6pm - We will breakout into workshop groups to dig deeper into the policy points of the Charter, co-facilitated by Conham Bathing and Surfers Against Sewage.
📢 The Avon Needs Your Voice! ✍️📃🦦
2024 is the year we want to see change for our waterways in Bristol and beyond. Our local river, the Bristol Avon, has suffered immensely in recent years.
Having been named the third most polluted river in England, the Bristol Avon has been subjected to over 6,500 untreated sewage spills in 2023 alone. Despite this, our river goes almost entirely unmonitored for harmful pollutants which threaten public and environmental health.
In just six years’ time, Bristol City Council’s One City Ecological Emergency Strategy has a goal of achieving excellent water quality for 100% of Bristol’s waterways. In order for this to be realized, Bristol’s communities, citizens and policymakers must come together to tackle the multitude of pollution issues in our waterways, whilst nurturing sustainable and equitable access to the river for all.
The Conham Bathing Group, along with the support of Bristol’s communities, are developing the Thriving Avon Charter (TAC).
The TAC will establish what we, as river guardians, view as a healthy reciprocal relationship with the Avon. One that doesn’t profit from extraction and pollution, but that seeks to prioritise environmental and public health.
It is hoped that the TAC can serve as guidance and inspiration to showcase to the incoming Council all that the Avon means to Bristol’s diverse communities, and all that we hope it can be in the future.
To launch the TAC, Eighty Sita Productions are partnering with the Conham Bathing Group (CBG) and Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) to hold a special screening of Rave on for the Avon at the Tobacco Factory on the 15th June 2024.
The screening will be followed by a workshop where we will hear from members of CBG about the charter, and how it fits into a wider national movement of grassroots community action currently sweeping the UK, spearheaded by SAS’ Protecting Wild Waters programme.
The day will be an opportunity for new local councilors to come together with Bristol’s water users to foster meaningful discussion and solutions to safeguard the future of the Avon for all, in 2024 and beyond.
Template letter for you to invite your Local Councillor
Dear ___,
I am writing to you on behalf of the ___ ward, and water users and lovers from across Bristol, to invite you to attend a community event on the 15th June 2024 1-6pm at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol. The day will be co-hosted by Eighty Sita Productions, the Conham Bathing Group and Surfers Against Sewage.
The event will feature a screening of the documentary film Rave on for the Avon, which follows our community’s fight to protect the Avon in unique, daring and distinctly Bristolian ways. This will be followed by a workshop where the Conham Bathing Group will present the Thriving Avon Charter - the Bristol community’s vision for how our local waterways can be safeguarded in the future for the benefit of both people and the environment - alongside presentations from Surfers Against Sewage.
The event will be an opportunity for local policymakers to come together with Bristol’s local communities and SAS, a national organisation of leaders in this space, to discuss issues of water quality and pollution in the river Avon, and how together we can realise Bristol City Council’s One City Ecological Emergency Strategy’s goal of achieving 100% Excellent waterways in Bristol in just six years’ time.
Please visit tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/rave-on-for-the-avon/ for more information on the event, and to book a ticket which is a 'pay what you can' ticket.
Thank you,
___