Power Shift: The Real Energy Question (at Celtic Connections)
From: the Spring Consortium
With: Scotland’s Makar Peter Mackay, improviser Pippa Evans, Bella Caledonia’s Mike Small, futurists Pat Kane and Indra Adnan, National Theatre of Scotland co-founder Simon Sharkey, and more
Jan 18, 3pm [GMT], The Green Room, The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Killermont St, Glasgow G2 3NW
Tickets: £13.82 (click here)
Step inside an electrified Sunday afternoon at Celtic Connections. A collision of presentations - some song and poetry, provocations and collective imagination, maybe even a ceilidh! - all powered by the urgency of Scotland’s energy future and our part in shaping it.
Across the country, communities watch turbines turn and pylons advance, wondering why the clean-energy gold rush feels like something happening to them rather than with them or for them.
Why is it Scotland will have the highest output of renewables in Europe and the highest bills? Why should saving the world mean struggling to survive the month? Why do we feel powerless, trapped in loops of despair and learned helplessness?
Yet there’s a spark, a sense that Spring is coming even in the depth of our political and planetary Winter. Musicians, storytellers, technologists, activists, futurists, neighbours will gather.
We’ll shake off the cloak of winter and test new ideas the way bands test riffs—loud, collaborative, unafraid. We’ll imagine futures where local power isn’t a metaphor but a lived reality, where agency shifts back to the people, where wind and tides fuel not only our grids but our communities’ confidence.
Expect participation. Expect debate. Expect to surprise yourself.
Tickets for event here
What is the Spring Consortium?
Too often, taking action in the face of the current polycrisis lacks traction. Approaching a problem from one perspective can have limited effect. Is politics broken because of the mainstream media? Or is it our technology? Or do we need new stories through the arts?
The Spring Consortium was pulled together in Scotland to integrate a number of different forms of action so that we can have a deep and lasting impact whenever we act.
The current group was convened to address the opportunity of Scottish energy futures. While we currently have the best resources of clean energy in the UK, we have the highest fuel bills in Europe. The issues are complex and the threat of polarisation around Net Zero weighs heavy.
Can we reimagine a Power Shift in which communities’ come together, their lives transformed?
Our consortium consists of:
The Scottish Beacon – network of independent, community media, inc Greater Govanhill
CrownShy – civic and democratic technology
The Necessary Space – theatre company
Equitable Energy – research, advocacy
Bella Caledonia - media platform
The Alternative Global – system convenors for ecocivilisation
RESOURCES AND CONTEXT
From the news platform the Scottish Beacon, two articles from their PowerShift series (conducted in conjunction with The Herald), covering the tumultuous relationship between Scottish communities and the renewable energy revolution:
Mike Small, “Introducing the PowerShift”
Mike Small and Rhiannon J Davies, “Voices from rural Scotland on the renewable energy rush”
Rhiannon J Davies, “Lessons from communities already making renewables work for them”
More articles on Scottish Beacon’s community empowerment tag
From Indra Adnan at the Alternative Global, an editorial on our PowerShift event as an example of “New Paradigm Artivism”
From democracy and land campaigner/journalist Lesley Riddoch, “Highlanders have the right to be angry over explosion of wind farms”, in The National