Celebrate, inform, act. Energy Union is a pan-European campaign tour supported by the European Commission to promote Intelligent Energy in an innovative way. After a successful tour in 2009 and 2010, with more than 18,000 visitors in 19 cities, The Energy Union Tour will finish up in London with an impressive grand finale in March 2011. Energy Union has been seeking out the coolest cities and the best venues in Europe to reach out to young people with an impressive tour that combines education and music. Discussions will inform about energy efficiency and renewable energy while an Audiovisual show, DJs and VJs will provide entertainment. The mission is to illuminate, inform and animate; to think and act.
First up on the final tour schedule is an impressive penultimate event in the coastal city Brighton. This will combine a daytime exhibition and discussion programme (‘Our City, Our Future’) from 1st – 5th March at the Jubilee Library in association with Friends of The Earth, as well a highly anticipated show at Coalition on the 5th of March featuring Coldcut’s Matt Black (Ninja Tune) and the awesome Skrillex on his European debut tour.
At the Policy Forum, ‘Our City, Our Future’, Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth will be asking people what they feel should change or happen in the city to reduce the amount of energy we use and to minimise our impact on the environment. These ideas will then be used to steer a ‘Question Time’ style debate on Saturday 5 March at the Jubilee Library. Brighton & Hove already has aspirations to become a Low-Carbon city but it needs greater ambition to achieve this, which this event will no doubt help to kick-start.
Following the Week/end in Brighton is the final gig of the UK tour in London on Tuesday, March 8th, 7pm. Matt Black will be presenting an exclusive Coldcut audiovisual production at the Darwin Lecture Theatre of UCL, in the form of a ground-breaking piece of VJ cinema about Intelligent Energy. The music is ‘Journeys by DJ’ style : a 21st century montage of kicking sounds drawn from many genres, woven together by the acknowledged Grandmasters of the eclectic electric mash-up. Coldcut are pioneers of VJing and the audiovisual cutup, and Energy Union is their most ambitious AV production to date.
The screening will be followed by an open discussion session organised by Friends of the Earth EWNI (England Wales and Northern Ireland). Alan Simpson (former MP and sustainable energy adviser to Friends of the Earth), Danny Chivers (environmental writer and carbon analyst) and Fiona Dear (co-ordinator of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition) will be on the panel.
Following this, Matt Black will move on to the Inspiral Lounge in Camden to DJ live with DJ Vexx Angel. More exclusive VJ screenings will also take place simultaneously and some special guests are expected to make a surprise appearance. The night is free to get in to, so make sure you get there early!
More Information, Addresses and Links can be found on the respective tour info pages:
http://www.energyunion.eu/en/tour/london & http://www.energyunion.eu/en/tour/brighton
“The youth of the world have got the most to lose and to gain from sorting this out. It’s down to you. It’s fun, it’s sexy and it’s happening.”
Matt Black, Coldcut
