Glastonbury Festival is a special place to Jamie, for many years he has enjoyed going to this spectacular and very green festival. One year in particular was very unique for him. Whilst sand sculpting there in 2010 he was introduced to his sister for the first time!
This year we were asked by WaterAid to create a 12-tonne sand carving to be situated just by the Pyramid Stage. The message for the sculpture was to show that the climate crisis is also a water crisis. 1 in 5 people don’t have access to a clean toilet and due to climate issues, such as floods and droughts the number will rise.
For the sculpture we used a combination of sand, and some of the things Glastonbury is well known for: mud and composted poo from last year’s festivals! (Glastonbury now has over 1,300 compost toilets across the site)
Day one, compaction day, was in 28 degree sunshine! We were so grateful to receive help from Jemima, from WaterAid and from 17-year-old helper Mikey who said, “This is the hardest thing I have done in my life!”.
The carving of the sand sculpture itself was a challenge due to the fact that the sand was not pure and our sculpting cuts into it were not clean, finding twigs or a big mound of hardened compost that would have to be chiselled away at.
The sand sculpture design was a fella (Tim, a WaterAid volunteer from the loo crew) on a toilet holding a newspaper. Next to him are four Glastonbury toilet cubicles, to signifying the above statistic.
The sculpture was purposefully left unprotected and open to the elements (the hot sun dries and cracks the sand sculpture as in a drought, the rain washes bits away as sanitation facilities crumble in a flood) as a metaphor for the fragility of facilities due to the climate/water crisis.
We had such a great time as we knew we would on this event. Glastonbury itself is a totally inspiring, electric and spiritual event with so much to see and do that has purpose.
Dave was so taken with the work that WaterAid do that he stayed on for the rest of Glastonbury by volunteering with WaterAid to help clean the toilets! Well done Dave!
