_*350 Climate Action Festival*_
*25 November 2008*

Celebrate climate action at Waitangi Park on Saturday 6th December!

Waitangi Park will be a-buzz this Saturday (6 December), with activities including “a ‘super shopper sprint’ and ‘350 frocks on bikes, games, live music, and more than 30 interactive and food stalls – all part of the Climate Action Festival.

Event organiser Aaron Packard says three themes - connection, action and celebration - will be running through the day. “These are the three key ingredients if we are to come to grips with what climate change means for us as a planet. We need to know what it is we are dealing with in climate change; so we need to be connected to each other and what is going on. Once we are connected we can take effective action. And we need to celebrate our successful actions and have fun while making a difference!”

The Festival joins a movement of millions around the world on the Global Day of Action on Climate Change urging effective action from world leaders at the United Nations climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland.

The Climate Action Festival also joins the international 350 movement, with the official launch of /The NZ 350 Challenge. /350 parts per million (ppm) has been identified by scientists as the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the planet. The current global concentration is 387ppm and increasing at 2ppm each year. “While this can invoke a sense of panic in people, there are those of us who believe that we can take the required action to put the climate back into balance and have some fun while we do it. The festival aims to do just that” says Packard.

Festival events include:
The Super Shopper Sprint event, which will kick off at noon with local MP Grant Robertson and two other car drivers racing three cyclists to do a supermarket shop and return to the park;
350 frocks on bikes – at 3.50pm, 350 women on bikes, wearing frocks will leave Waitangi Park and ride around the city;
Live music from Tommy, Olmecha Supreme, My Golden Soul and Over the Atlantic,
A sustainable hangi – made locally and brought on site by Natives for Climate Justice;
Primary school climate art on Green Bikes;
Kids colouring-in competition (with great prizes)
Clothes swap – bring your unwanted clothes and pick yourself up a new outfit.

The festival runs from 11am – 4pm. Visit HYPERLINK http://www.350.org.nz for further details about the day. Please note, this event will be cancelled only in the event of severe weather.

ENDS

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