Near the hedge, but not ragged

Saturday at the Ragged Hedge Fair started bright and sunny, but to misquote the late Larry Grayson: “What a grey day”. As we’re running off solar, that’s not working at its full capacity due to cloud cover, although Clive, our power supplier, still has the wind.

The free first hour of internet access for kids is proving very popular, with a queue forming whilst we were setting up, which we recruited so as to let them get on quicker. Wireless access is also running nicely. Since we opened we’ve had a steady stream of users, with plenty of interest expressed in Linux and free/open source software in general.

The festival is now in full swing, with a large crowd enjoying live music, performance and the programme of educational and cultural activities (Lloyd one of our satellite techs, started out the day with yoga). Workshops have also been going on, with one run by Clive, our power supplier, paying a visit with his group to neighbours Bristol Wireless for an explanation of our low-energy systems in action. As we’re powered by renewables, we are very conscious of energy consumption and have taken every opportunity to turn kit off and unplug it save power. At the same time, some neat kit has also been discovered, such as low-power LED lights.

We’ve got a few more hours to run, after which we can relax and enjoy the bands and perhaps enjoy the local apple juice if we can arrange delivery or an off-site jolly.