Be the Change!
Projects are funded by the profit of the annual summer festival and from other crowdfunding sources
We try to support small-scale, bottom-up community projects, on our own land and in the surrounding villages. Cooperation with the broader community is very important, and we have already developed a very good relation with locals and authorities. We hope the success of our initiative will benefit the villages around us, even the whole county.
If you have any project ideas or want to get involved in any of ours, drop us a line!
The status of projects can be “planned”, “on-going”, “completed” or “cancelled”.
Bio & Handicraft Market in Bercel village
Status: completed
The purpose of this non-profit initiative is to revivify a traditional ‘Farmers Market & Community Handcraft Fair’ in the beautiful but very poor mountainous region of North Hungary (Nógrád county), in a small village called Bercel. An old Country House and its huge garden has been provided by the local Council for free to help the idea taking its best place.
Read more about the project: indiegogo.com
We didn’t achieve all our goals but the main one, with the help of locals and the local council, was accomplished: there is now a regular market, open every Saturday since the 15th of November 2014. We still work on how to promote and sell the products of local producers through other channels.
Tipis, yurts and other nomad tents
Status: ongoing
We can use different type of tents, tipis, yurts and other canvas structures for creating temporary mobile buildings both for accommodation and to form a social space. Very handy and practical, waterproof, and fast solution, and the tents could be used for accommodation by children camps, handicraft workshops, and other weekend programs.
We already have a couple of yurts and tipis onsite, and until the summer gathering plan to get more.
Earth-ship, tree, straw and hobbit houses
Status:Â planned
A lot of dry wooden material lies on the edge of the forest, with these and sawmill planks we could design waterproof earth and tree houses, which can provide accommodation not only seasonally but in inclement weather as well. It’s also possible to build straw bale houses, which is an easily accessible natural building block too. It takes more time and work to build these, therefore this is a more expensive investment, but worth it in the long run.
We have already built one little hobbithouse, and this year there are more other types of houses will be built. Can’t wait!
Organic structures, living willow domes
Status: ongoing
It is very easy to make a living willow structure. They don’t need architectures and licensing, they grow strong and shady, they are both cheap and environment friendly, and after 1-2 years when we have enough plants all that has to be invested is time and manual handwork. It is a traditional local wood used for basketry in the old times, and because of its fast growing and undemanding nature nowadays the willow could be used for plenty more other purposes from making heating pellets to forest recultivation.
A few installations of living willows have been created, on the festival site and in a closeby village.
Community kitchen, bio food, organic garden
Status: ongoing
Our goal is to provide organic meals for the community in our kitchen at Csobánkapuszta. In this case we need a garden and gardeners, and a lot of work and more work again. Also the kitchen itself has to be properly built with special materials and cooking utensils to pass the health and safety regulations, and to be able to serve enough people even in the busiest times. It is a time-consuming and more expensive development, but also worth it in the long run.
A lot has been achieved, from building the oven to planting the kitchen garden, but there is always room for more development.
Solar power, sustainable energy sources
Status: ongoing
We can choose the Sun as the source of energy. The solar panel systems can supply everyone with renewable ‘free’ electricity. After testing a smaller system for a year now, we know that the new generation solar panels are good enough to serve the basic electrical needs during the night. There is even a way to provide music and some minimal lighting for a smaller stage with bare solar energy. As solar cells, these solutions are expensive.
A solar system is in place now providing power to operate the water pump in the bathroom and for smaller parties, to run computers and recharge batteries. As our community will grow, we might need more energy.
Selective waste management, nature friendly items, reusing and recycling
Status: ongoing
We can also work out together a waste management directive, which requires a sense of consciousness from every guest, so from You as well :) This way we could ensure the selective, environmental friendly treatment of our waste. The costs can be more in the beginning, until we set up a good working system.
Composting, recycling and using natural ingredients are at the core of our principles, and we created the 100% natural S.U.N. soap and other bio items. We also need to focus on the waste management of bigger number of people.
Buying a flock of sheep, and goats
Status: ongoing
An excellent solution for controlling the lush vegetation is animal husbandry, because sheep clip the grass, while goats form the undergrowth. A great little team, though a shepherd and a dog is needed with them, otherwise they go after their bellies. On the fields they smooth the broken ground with their feet, and compost the soil. This requires a bigger investment, but in a few years they give back wool, which is a great material, for example for felting.
We already have a few goats, they’re happy to roam the land.
Noah’s Garden
Status: ongoing
A school garden of various traditional and endangered plants and trees to protect plants and keep biodiversity. It could serve as a seed bank beside being one lush green piece of beauty.
The garden has been started, and obviously it is a long term project.
