Context:
In September 2008, the National Trust & English heritage held its first ever youth volunteering festival ‘Revolution 08’ which attracted over 200 young people to celebrate volunteering. They took part in a massive conservation challenge (doing 2 years of conservation work in one day!) in the woodlands of the Killerton estate near Exeter, Devon.
The free festival had been organised by a small core group of volunteers who shaped the whole look and feel of the festival, using their talents and enthusiasm to take forward different areas that interested them.
“It's been great to have been part of such an interesting, dynamic team, where we all worked together to produce an event to promote what we all saw as such an important topic - volunteering. We all really enjoyed the tackling the challenges that emerged along the way. I feel that I have built on many key life skills that can be put to use every day”. Oliver Newth, 17, core group member
What happened?
People arrived and set up camp for 2 nights, were fed great locally sourced organic food and had the chance to enjoy the various evening entertainments including a youth theatre group doing an outdoor production of their own play ‘Shakespeare on Dartmoor’, 2 fantastic bands ‘Fortune Favours’ and ‘The Madrips’, a stand up comic Tom Rosenthal, a multi-talented Folk beat boxer Vid Warren, as well as some great DJ’s.
In return they had to put their energy and enthusiasm to good use and help the National Trust wardens to clear an area of overgrown woodland, to return it to a woodland pasture system that will enable the area to be grazed and will encourage the return of flowers, orchids and butterflies that had previously struggled for daylight. Massive bonfires and lots of tired people later, the festival goers had made a massive impact and fantastic contribution.
What was learnt?
The project has allowed a large number of young people to meet new people, share their experiences, learn new skills, showcase their talents and celebrate volunteering, as well as a chance for a large number of them to travel to a different part of the South West. The feedback has been really positive with a high proportion of young people indicating that they would like to do more volunteering in heritage and conservation, as well as doing other volunteering in their local communities.
“Revolution 08 was amazing! Thank you so much for the opportunity to take part in the festival. It was a well organised weekend that I really enjoyed. Everyone was really friendly and the conservation work was really fun!” Jessica aged 17
“I really enjoyed the weekend and had real fun doing the volunteering with cutting the trees down and all that... I would say the best bit was the food... top stuff that was...” Stephen aged 19
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