Lotus Nova Festival
Looking back at the summer and the first real-world outing of the pollen project
There is an assumption, one I often make myself, that someone else will have ‘have it covered’ when it comes to climate change and related issues. Thinking about the myriad ways that nature is threatened tells such a different story. This summer it was the crisis of (legal) water pollution in the UK that really rocked me. Wild swimming has enriched my life so much. The truth is that almost every body of water I swim in is terribly polluted. Whilst this is making headlines, we are not nearly as outraged as we need to be.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how people, including myself, who care deeply for nature still tend to be numb to the scariest of the warnings and the worst of the impacts. There’s a sense of hopelessness that is felt in pangs or as a kind of creeping haze. This creates a stopping force in people’s efforts to create change. To commit to pushing back against all that destroys is to accept it fully, and that can be frightening. The pollen project exists to create a new space in which people can explore the realities of the changing, often deterioirating, world around and to take action in ways that feel empowering rather than draining. At this early phase of project development, I wanted to experiment with the idea of pollen appearing in surprising places, creating an unexpected pocket of time to engage with these issues.
On a whim, I contacted the organisers of an independent music festival in London called Lotus Nova and pitched the idea of a pollen project table. Stopping in the middle of a dog walk I sat down by a tree in one of Sheffield’s valleys and drafted a message which explained the project and the reasons why I feel that there is a place for discussions about nature in environments that are not necessarily designed for them.
I finished my message saying “I think that our strongest hope to get through the climate crisis, and all that links to it, is creativity, community and drawing power from the pockets of joy we find on the way. That’s why I’m excited to go slightly off piece with this campaign… Reaching out to people like yourselves and seeing what we can do.”
Following that, I had a conversation with those running the account: starting with a quick message from them that just said, “You’ve sold”.
A few weeks later I found myself in London, with six potted geranium flowers that weren’t much smaller than myself, a few bunches of lavender and piles of handwritten action cards. I took an empty book which, during the festival, was filled with people’s artistic responses to the questions ‘what connects you to nature?’, ‘what disconnects you?’. There was something exciting about practising something I had thought so much about: the idea that we need to inject these conversations into new settings and have honest, open conversations about how to unite in new ways.
Take a look at the pollen gallery to see some memorable moments from the festival.
At Lotus Nova there was a remarkable sense of curiosity and support from all who engaged with the project. This is the churning and bubbling of activism. I think, and I kept thinking this summer, this is how we build the momentum for big, beautiful things. It’s like working together to set up runs of dominos that lead to something larger.
That night, I left the venue quite late. As I hoped, each delphinium plant found a new home with someone who lived close enough to get them back in one piece. I had a list of new ideas, formed through conversations that could never have been expected and a set of people to make contact with.
The sky was pink, and London felt like it was stretching out after a long day, readying for rest.
Lucy
