The Big Green Gathering (BGG) was a festival with an environmental focus which happened during most summers between 1994 and 2007. It was held at various locations in Somerset and Wiltshire in England. A successor event, the Green Gathering, is taking place at Piercefield House, Chepstow, Monmouthshire in July 2011.
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The event grew from the Green Fields area of the Glastonbury Festival.[1] And in their turn, the Green Fields at Glastonbury Festival had evolved from an earlier series of Green Gatherings held from the late 1970s until 1983 at two Somerset venues, some being formally associated with the Ecology Party, as the UK Green Party was then named.
The first BGG was held in 1994 at Watchfield, north east of Swindon.[2] In 1995, the BGG moved to a site at Lower Pertwood Farm, about 10 miles (16 km) south of Warminster, in Wiltshire, and the event was repeated at that site in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000.[2] The next BGG took place in 2002 at Winchester Farm on the Somerset Levels in Cheddar. In 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 the BGG was held at Fernhill Farm, a 160 acre (65 hectare) site which can hold up to 20,000 visitors, in the Mendip Hills. No festival was held in 2008 due to financial problems.
In 2009 the festival was scheduled to return to Fernhill Farm. Two days before it was due to open the organisers voluntarily surrendered their license to hold the event, following the threat of injunction proceedings in the High Court by Mendip District Council, supported by Avon and Somerset Police.[3][4] Organisers were unable to fully refund all ticket holders.[5]
A successor event, the Green Gathering, was arranged to take place in July 2011 at Piercefield Park, near Chepstow in the Wye Valley.[6]
The BGG is described by its organisers as"for people who care about health, the environment, sustainability, our children's future and life in general. It is a celebration of our natural world and our place within it." Several ecological and anti-war groups such as Greenpeace have a presence at the festival. In 2005 featured former Environment Minister Michael Meacher, Bruce Kent from CND and Tony Juniper from Friends of the Earth.[1]
On the festival site there are several distinct areas including:[7]
Although the BGG is not a music festival, there is extensive live music performed at the festival. Past performers have included 3 Daft Monkeys, Damien Rice, and Banco de Gaia. The 2011 event at Piercefield will feature Thomas Dolby.
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