‘Fessing up at the festival

The word ‘loo’ comes from medieval days, those simpler times, when people would throw their toilet waste out of the window. ‘Regardez l’eau’ (‘watch out for the water’) people would shout, as they emptied the contents of their chamber pots onto the streets below.*

That habit was abandoned with the invention of internal plumbing and the flushing toilet. After which point, people found ever more ingenious ways to dispose, and never speak, of the by-products of their humanity.

On the 17^th and 18^th of September a group of regeneration practitioners will challenge that centuries-old practice. And I plan to be part of it.

The ‘Sharing sh*t practice’ session at the Re:Fest UK Festival of Regeneration is an open invitation to discuss another taboo by-product of our humanity – our regeneration failures, mistakes and misjudgements.

Everybody makes foul-ups, but it’s apparently in nobody’s interest to admit and discuss them. No, no, no, much better to hush them up so everyone else can make the mistake too.

The aim is to create a space where practitioners, activists, planners and anyone else can admit and discuss why things went wrong, what they learned and what others can learn. The organisers, Mend, bill the session as a ‘truth and reconciliation commission for the regeneration community’. The output will be a list of things we will never do again, either individually or as a ‘regeneration community’.

You can take part by tweeting your ‘Regeneration Confession’ to @RegenConfess.

Re:Fest as a whole is designed as a ‘fringe without the conference’: a series of events, happenings, discussions and installations around the loose theme of regeneration – past, present and future.

The event will evolve right up until the opening, but you can see the emerging programme here including exhibitions, a midnight debate, and a session on ‘the economic and social impact of arts festivals – told through the medium of jazz’.

Thankfully, this comes without the standard conference fare of ‘keynote speakers’ (people telling you stuff you already know) and ‘opportunities to network’ (a big room with some warm wine and peanuts, where you might meet someone with a similar interest, but will probably have a few stilted conversations before pretending you’re responding to very urgent emails on your phone).

I’m astonished that there’s still a trade in this kind of old-fashioned, non-participative, sit-passively-and-be-talked-at event. Which is partly why I’m intrigued by Re:Fest.

In New Start, and many other places, I’ve long been very critical of regeneration, or at least the models of regeneration that we had to put up with during the ‘good times’. I’ve been clear that those models are dead – and we shouldn’t mourn their passing.

Re:Fest is trying to ‘regenerate the regeneration community itself’** – recognising and celebrating the good, while confessing to the failures.

It should be an interesting debate. You can sign up here. It’s free if you want to bring something along, or there is a small fee if you just want to attend.

I’ll be tweeting and blogging from the event – get in touch if you’re going to be there.

* At least, that’s the urban myth – I suspect it wouldn’t get past the klaxons on an episode of QI.

** Insert your own timely Doctor Who regeneration reference here.