THERE may have been a few fairy wings flitting about but fact-finding was the real order of the weekend at the Sunrise Off Grid event, which took place at Fernhill Farm near Cheddar, former location of the annual Big Green Gathering.

Organic farmers Andy and Jen Wear made excellent hosts, laying on home grown vegetables from their permaculture garden and magnificent hog roasts, providing a large dry barn furnished with soft sheep fleeces for performances from many festival favourites including Seize the Day, all amid a spectacular setting in the Mendip Hills.

SHELTER BELT: dramatic skies hover over the Sunrise Off Grid event last weekend as fairies wander through the permaculture garden at Fernhill Farm. Sheep's wool is used as a mulch here and a pond in the dug out quarry garden attracts predators for aphids and other unwelcome pests. Picture by Victoria McManus
Dan Spanner of Spanner Jazz Punks lets rip on stage on Saturday night.
BACK TO SCHOOL: The off grid college hosted lectures on a wide range of topics over the weekend
WARM AND DRY: Strawbale building expert Paul Wells spent a lot of time passing on knowledge and information to visitors. Pictures by Victoria McManus
WORKSHOP AND PLAY: visitors enjoyed a a good mix of learning and fun in spite of the rain. Picture by Victoria McManus

Organised by the team that stage the annual Sunrise Festival near Bruton, the point of this small four-day gathering of 500 was to exchange ideas and inform people about off grid living, renewable energy and sustainable building – with a bit of fun thrown in.

People studied the notice-boards intently and strode off with purpose to a bewildering array of workshops on transition, bender building, food storage and conservation, micro-renewables, dowsing, no-dig gardening and hurdle making.

We found out about friendly funghi, natural beekeeping and herbal medicine while the children belly-danced and hula-hooped their way through the weekend. (We wished we had made it to some of the other more intriguing workshops, such as Talking to Gnomes and the Art of Hitch-hiking, but time was short and there were bands to watch and people to see, as well as running our own workshop on strawbale building.)

Saturday saw a parallel event, the Future Farming Conference taking place in another barn on the farm, where practical talks and debates about sustainable and off grid farming took place.

Organiser Dan Hurring chaired a debate about the proposed sell-off of Somerset County Farms and many experts were on hand through the day to feed an information-hungry crowd. The Blackmore Vale Magazine's off grid correspondent Jyoti Fernandes impressed many with her energy and commitment to farming off grid at their 43-acre organic farm near Bridport (where they hand milk eight cows, keep pigs and chickens, as well as producing endless spicy sausages, salves, soaps and preserves and educating local schoolchildren).

Raw pizza, vegan meals and strange green algae smoothies were on offer around the site, while the farm shop kept its baskets overflowing with produce and served up hot tasty meals (quite possibly frightening a few vegetarians away in the process with whole pig heads squatting provocatively on the counters).

Hot cider in large mugs at £1 a go helped raise any spirits dampened by the rain and Saturday night's highlight was London band Spanner Jazz Punks who brought the barn alive with their extraordinary frenzied mix of ska, pop and experimental jazz led by manic frontman Dan Spanner. Roll on next year.

Report by Victoria McManus