Festival time

Just as the April showers finally seem to have arrived, the summer festival season is upon us and there are some great free festivals happening in London this summer.

In my local area, the annual Brockley Max festival kicked off last Friday with a lively afternoon and evening of music outside the Brockley Barge. I was there for a couple of hours in the evening and there was a fantastic atmosphere and a great mix of different types of music, ranging from a community choir to a ska band. The festival runs all this week and includes theatre, comedy, dance, workshops and children's events as well as lots of music.

Another of my favourite free festivals begins in a few week's time. The Greenwich and Docklands International Festival runs from 24 June to 2 July and if past events are anything to go by is likely to include some amazing spectacles. A year or two ago we watched a fire lit dance performance after dark in Greenwich Park. There doesn't seem to be anything quite the same this year but there are lots of other interesting free events on offer, including:

• A 21st century version of the Greenwich Fair which was the 'largest and most uproarious gathering of outdoor entertainment in Britain' until it started getting abit out of hand 150 years ago and was shut down.
• As the World Tipped , an aerial theatre performance about climate change in Mile End Park.
• An opportunity to view dance from an unusual angle at Canary Wharf with La Mirada Transparente's transparent stage. The audience sit on reclining seats underneath the stage.
• Les Girafes, the festival's finale in Woolwich town centre which includes life-sized giraffes, confetti explosions and evocative music.

Also, just about to start is the More London Free Festival at The Scoop. It starts with theatre performances from tomorrow but over the coming months there will also be music and film at this outdoor venue next to City Hall.

These are only a few of the many free festivals in London this summer ranging from one day local events to summer long celebrations at central locations. Let me know if you have any particular favourites.

A shorter working week

For many people in employment, today is the start of a three-day working week. There's been endless discussion in the media about how the extra public holiday makes it possible to take an 11 day break with only three day's leave. As I don't currently have a job, I can't get too excited about the extra day's holiday and I've been more interested in the limited discussion there has been about the idea of a shorter working week on a permanent basis.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian about this last week. In the 1950s, it was assumed that technological advances would reduce working hours and everyone would have a three-day week-end on a regular basis. Of course, what has happened instead is that for many people technology, in the form of mobile communications, has extended the number of working hours. The author argues that this isn't a very effective way to work and that too much employment in the 21st century is about activity rather than productivity.

The Guardian article also includes a short history of shorter working, in which the most recent development is a report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) called 21 hours. This makes the case for a much shorter working week becoming the norm, arguing that this could help solve a range of problems from unemployment to a lack of time to live sustainably. Whilst many people are unable to get paid work, others work too many hours and compensate for this by an over-reliance on energy intensive consumer goods and services. So as well as reducing inequalities, a shorter working week would also have environmental benefits.

Even the report's authors acknowledge that achieving this will not be simple and that there is much work still to be done. They finish by setting out ideas for addressing the transitional problems that would arise and ensuring the necessary conditions are created. These include ways of incentivising employers, compensating lost earnings, sharing unpaid time more equally between women and men, and changing the climate of opinion.

The report makes interesting reading and the issue is something the current government should be in favour of - after all, the plans for a Big Society will only work, if people have more time to devote to their local communities. I first came across 21 hours when it was published a couple of months ago and it reinforced my own feeling that ideally I would like to work fewer hours in the future which is why I am currently seeking part-time or freelance opportunities. 

Postcards from the Future

Another exhibition of photos but this time instead of depicting the streets of London over the last century and a half, these pictures illustrate what the capital might look like at some unspecified time in the future when climate change has had a significant impact on every aspect of London life.

The pictures were created by Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones who are described as 'future-illustrators with a deep interest in the environment' and the sight of familiar landmarks in very unfamiliar situations is very striking. The picture above is from the artists' blog and shows one of the photos in the exhibition. This one imagines a time when London is, by necessity, self-sufficient in food and Parliament Square has been transformed into rice paddies. The roads appear to be free of traffic and the fields are being ploughed by water-buffalo. It's not clear whether MPs are still sitting in the House of Commons and passing this every day on their way in!

There are several pictures depicting various forms of electricity generation in the capital. Whilst some, such as tidal power stations around the Thames Barrier, and even a wind farm on the Mall (the turbines fit in quite well between the flagpoles) don't look too out of place, I can't imagine the nuclear power station in Kew Gardens going down too well!

Other images show the impact of extreme changes of climate in other countries as refugees from equatorial lands move north when their homelands become uninhabitable. In one The Gherkin has been converted in to high rise housing and is rapidly becoming a slum. In others shanty towns surround Buckingham Palace and cover Trafalgar Square.

The exhibition is thought-provoking and certainly worth seeing for the striking images whatever your views on climate change. However, I felt slightly more explanation might have been helpful in some cases. It wasn't clear to me whether the pictures were all supposed to illustrate different aspects of the same scenario or to show alternative possible outcomes. So, for example, was the picture of flooded London what followed when the frozen Thames pictured elsewhere melted or are these completely separate scenarios. In another example, the explanation for one of the pictures relating to refugees says the global econony has collapsed as a result of devastation in many countries but the text for another picture which shows camels replacing horses on Horse Guards Parade as a result of increasing temperatures suggests that tourism remains important to the London economy.

For a small exhibition - there are around a dozen images in total - this certainly left me with a lot to think about. You can view the images on their blog but I would recommend visiting the exhibition if you can as the full-size versions are much more impressive. It's on in the Olivier Theatre Exhibition Area on Level 1 at the National Theatre until 30 May.