The first Change! festival
From 15 to 18 August the first Change! festival took place at Hohenfels Castle near Lake Constance in Southern Germany. 150 mostly younger people took part.
As I walk through the castle gates the inner courtyard is already filled with life. It looks colourful and busy. Then the church bells ring in the first of a series of Change festivals, entitled «Let’s change the world – together!»
What is this about? About changing the world, a step at a time! Each for him- or herself and everyone together! But how can the world be changed? So many questions – but the festival provides plenty of food for thought. There are lectures and practical workshops that provide inspiration for a change in thinking of how we deal with nature. The programme is shaped by everyone together, as everyone presents their individual impulses and questions, on the basis of which new joint initiatives can be founded.
After all, change can only happen if people who have courage and visions stand up to bring about the change they wish to see in the world.
At the end of each day everyone joins in with festival hymn, sung in three parts, this time around the campfire rather than in the courtyard. Enthusiastically, we sing «I will never give up … as long as I am breathing, until the world is singing.» What a promise! Singing, thinking and feeling this promise requires courage and awareness of the responsibility each of us has for the world.
The time is ripe for inner and outer change – everyone agrees on that as the festival draws to a conclusion. And Hohenfels Castle will be a place that provides space for the impulses of a world-changing movement.