by Stéphanie De Caluwé
This year is the fourth edition of Lost Theory Festival up in the mountains of Croatia. It's am adventure brought us experiences and lessons we never imagined before. The Lost Theory team grew towards being a family and fell in love with the area.
We would like to spend our future here and buy a piece of land in an area we already have in mind. It would be a perfect place to live sustainably with all its beautiful elements in a mountain climate. One of the main goals of this festival is to create a place of sharing experience, connecting with positive people and creating communities that set realistic and achievable goals for sustaining happiness, healthy living, thinking, feeling, breathing and dancing. The first steps growing towards this future eco-village demonstrates itself in our permaculture design course during the build-up of the festival and the eco-management during the event, which will transform Lost Theory into an activation zone.
Our ultimate goal is to manifest ecological living for co-creative communities outside of the mainstream system. Lost Theory is a work in progress - so in order to work towards this goal, we have implemented a number of strategies that include: understanding nature in the area, utilising the gift of nature by permaculture and techniques for living in nature.
UNDERSTANDING NATURE
Sharing a clear understanding of the fragile ecosystem where the festival is taking place. We have a lot of elements to explore on this 15 hectar plot of land with its fauna and flora, birds and wildlife. The Otuca River runs for two kilometres trough the festival site and is formed from a total of 15 different springs. The sweet water lobsters inhabite the river, what proofs the quality of the clear water. Shepherds to this day still cross the mainland with their livestock of cows and sheep. The landscape is shaped by a strong wind known as the Bura.
PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE: UTILISING THE GIFT OF NATURE
We believe permaculture is the most logical way to continue in this life and take it to the next level. We had a lot of wonderful experiences with permaculture so far by wwoofing, food-forests, courses about permaculture and natural living in communities.
Still we are eager to learn more about permaculture and found some excellent Croatian teachers from The Recycled Estate, an ecological farm near Zagreb. This collaboration makes it interesting for us to experience the principles of permaculture on the area and set our first steps towards the future with this knowledge.
The course we offer is a certified residential course of 72 hours. It includes a visit to The Recycled Estate where the permaculture skills will be put into practice by farming and sustainable constructions. On the festival area itself you will definitely learn how to make compost toilets, purify water and make a water pump. The climate makes it ideal to use solar energy, as a solar cooker, shower and collector will demonstrate it.
TECHNIQUES FOR LIVING IN NATURE
This year the ecology of the festival goes hand in hand with permaculture.
There will be some compost toilets and straw bale urinals, a water purification system to clean the river and wastewater of the showers.
We try to activate our festival visitors with an eco deposit system, recycle programs, signalisation, re-usable cups, portable ashtrays and workshops.
Next to this activation we also plan some ecological celebration! There will be guerrilla performances, children who reward visitors with the right eco-attitude by self made gifts and a recycling Carnival to close and clear the festival area.
People who feel inspired by our plans, who want join, help out or share their knowledge with us, you’re more than welcome! If you feel a calling towards the permaculture design course, you can contact us here. Some helping hands are needed for the ecoteam on the festival, so if you are interested in helping out, please contact us here.
For some more information about the festival, please visit our website: http://www.losttheoryfestival.com
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