OFF THE GRID PARTY – MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER FROM THE SUN

28 January 2015

Off the Grid Party

The client:

Vivienne Westwood threw what may well have been London’s first solar-powered party last Autumn to promote the use of renewable energy through the crowdfunding platform the Trillion Fund. 

The brief:

Ethical Team provided PR, Communications & Media Consultancy for the launch. And a unique solar-powered ‘Bamboo Sculpture’ was created on the roof of the venue by specialist model makers Giant Robot as a clever way to engage the party-goers and create intrigue using sustainable fibre alongside natural energy generation from the sun.

The output:

Ethical Team managed the major sponsor relationship and promoted the event through it’s network. The acclaimed environmental designer Vivienne Westwood teamed up with Ross Harding of Finding Infinity, a social enterprise that promotes renewable energy, and Trillion Fund, a U.K. crowdfunding platform, for the party named ‘Off the Grid’, which took place in the fashionable Snap Studios in East London. “The music, the lighting and everything that you see and experience inside is straight from the sun,” said Harding. “We brought a bank of batteries out on the street and then wired up to the rooftop. The solar panel is almost like a sculpture on the rooftop.”

A Cygnus Hybrid Power Generator kept the party — where guests included Mary McCartney, Karen Elson, Pam Hogg and Lou Dalton — going, and it took the events team one week to charge the batteries. Jamie Hince of the Kills, took full advantage of the abundant green energy, performing a DJ set on the night.

Westwood was the initial backer for the Trillion Fund, investing 1 million pounds, or $1.64 million, in the platform that raises money for renewable energy projects.

“In the end, I think what Trillion Fund are aiming for is that you have clean energy that [costs] a very minimum amount of money. It’s going to be wonderful for poor people, and it’s not going to be good for the traditional investors who have been earning money in the same way for 300 years! But now it’s all changing.”

Vivienne Westwood Commented in an article with Another Mag. “Since history began, wars have been fought for land and for the treasures – the raw materials – that are in the ground and on the ground. We have a system called the Capitalist system which extracts the treasure from the earth and exploits people to the point where people are getting poorer and poorer and the rich are getting fewer and fewer. It’s becoming evident to everybody that this system is inhuman.”

Solar Bamboo Event