Practically Green Festival
With the sun shining on a warm Spring morning, it was the perfect time to drive up to the Nillumbik Shire Practically Green Festival. We wanted to spend a bit of time outdoors, looking for ideas that might be useful for our design and to chat with people working in sustainable design.
Intrigued with the Renault electric vehicle.
Renault Twizy EV was an eye-catching display.
How could we resist looking at the Renault electric vehicle display, particularly when we came across this little car? It’s an EV, but not as we know it. Apparently, the Twizy is being being sold in Europe, but it’s not street legal in Australia.
We chatted with the Renault representative and joked about how it looked impossible that the Twizy could actually fit two adults. “Really,” he said. “Would you like to try?” Challenge accepted.
Not so squeezy after all!
Yes, you can fit two adults and it is surprisingly roomy once you’re inside. Libby graciously allowed me to hop into the back “seat” while she took the driver’s position. If you took the Twizy shopping, you wouldn’t have room to bring the groceries home but parking wouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps you wouldn’t even need to leave the car to do the shopping! Wonder if it would fit into the aisles at Woolies?
Intriguing? Yes, but we’re not in a rush to trade in our LEAF EV. Perhaps us old folks aren’t the target market. We could see young people using it to buzz around town.
Wandered around the different stalls.
Mudbrick demonstration was a hands-on experience.
Because we had arrived just after opening time, the mudbrick demonstration hadn’t yet fired up.
Kids could add to the art installation.
While parents wandered around looking at the Practically Green Festival displays, their children could entertain themselves adding to the art installation. Wonder how it turned out at the end of the day?
Variety of ideas on display at the different stalls.
There were quite a few people sharing their ideas at the Festival, including David, our builder. We stopped by his elegantly presented stall to chat about our recent meeting with Council and to share some ideas for what to do next. Amazing to see what David achieved by making a display based on well-placed oiled timber and photographs of previous jobs.
Do it yourself drinks on offer
On the way out, we saw a stall that leant new meaning to the expression “make your own drink”. Not surprising to find a pedal powered drink mixer in operation at a sustainability festival.
An entertaining morning. No new ideas jumped out to grab us but we did enjoy looking around.
