Every year since 2,000, Torill Frydenlund has been organizing the Maanefestivalen, or Moon Festival, a rock festival, in Fredrikstad, Norway, a traditional, old fortified town on the banks of the river Glomma. Many years ago, Torill, an activist, was involved in the drafting of the Earth Charter. However, she lost contact and only rediscovered the Earth Charter recently. In collaboration with Earth Charter Norway and Earth Charter International, this year’s Moon Festival honored the Earth Charter’s 15th anniversary by making it a feature of the festival’s traditional “Green Side of the Moon” environmental awareness campaign.
Fredrikstad’s main square, only a minute’s walk from the festival’s main stage and even nearer to secondary stages, was filled up with several stands in support of environmental stewardship and sustainability initiatives, including Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and other local initiatives. The Earth Charter had the largest stand of all and the festival printed out thousands of small brochures and large posters for the volunteers from Earth Charter Norway to hand out to festival attendees.
For those people with a deeper interest in learning about the Earth Charter, five short workshops were held in a local Rotary Club facility. Earth Charter Norway’s Leif Runar Forsth offered two separate workshops on the Earth Charter and creativity, and Earth Charter International’s Douglas F. Williamson offered three workshops on the Earth Charter, interdependence, and teamwork, on the Earth Charter and storytelling, and on the Earth Charter and systems thinking. The workshops were attended by more than 50 people, all of whom got a short but intensive look at the Earth Charter.
The Earth Charter was well disseminated at the festival and there is no doubt that through the work of the EC Norway volunteers many people had the chance to learn a little about the Earth Charter. The hope is that EC Norway will find new momentum and new volunteers and supporters to continue to grow the Earth Charter’s reach in Norway.
For more information: http://www.earthcharter.no/
