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PEACE AND LOVE? YOU BUDDHA BELIEVE IT

22 - 23 July 2003

It was back to the days of peace and love at last week's Buddhafield event on the Blackdown Hills when 2,000 people, most of them young, got together to sing, dance and learn more about their religion. From Wednesday to Sunday the 30-acre site at the Gallop near Clayhidon was taken over by friends of the Western Buddhist Order for their annual outdoor festival, which took the theme of Touching Earth.

But unlike many other outdoor festivals, this one had a policy of no alcohol, no drugs and no dogs. There was hardly any loud amplified music and, unusually, the police said no crimes had been reported during the five-day event. The licensing authority, Mid Devon District Council, was also pleased with the way things went.

People in Wellington may have wondered about the weird and wonderful folk they saw walking around the town during the event, so the Wellington Weekly News decided to see for itself what was going on.

When we visited the site on Friday afternoon, someone told us it was rather like the early days of the Glastonbury Festival before it became such a giant commercialised event.

The calm, non-threatening atmosphere was certainly impressive - unlike the centre of Wellington on a Friday or Saturday night.

There was a lot of opposition to the holding of the event by some local people and the organisers made great efforts to ensure any disturbance to neighbours was kept to a minimum. Representatives of the Devon and Cornwall Police, the Devon Fire Brigade and Mid Devon District Council were on site to see that the many conditions imposed before a licence was granted were complied with.

Although the atmosphere was very laid back, a lot of work had obviously gone into the organisation of the event with loos, showers, a sauna and a vegetarian cafe all provided to meet the physical needs of the festivalgoers.

Their spiritual needs were also well looked after with a beautifully decorated worship tent and areas for healing and meditation - very important aspects of the Buddhist religion.

Altogether, around 600 people were involved in running the festival, which must be one of the biggest such events to be held in the area.

The busy programme included classes in dance and music and a whole range of workshops ranging from nanotechnology to compost making. There was also plenty to occupy the many children at the festival with trampolines and swingboats, and plenty of opportunities to dress up and take part in plays and processions. The main aim seemed to be to encourage the children to be creative and be aware of and care for their environment.

One of the organisers, a "gentle" man with the name of Lokabandhu, told us that Buddhafield was the outreach branch of the Western Buddhist Order which has 20 centres throughout the country offering teaching and retreats.

"We are a community which does things out of doors and we visit various festivals around the country as well as have our annual Buddhafield event, " he said.

"This is our eighth event and the second at The Gallop. Our strict no alcohol and no drugs policy is important as a lot of people who come have suffered from both in the past.

Lokabandhu stressed they tried to buy as many supplies as possible in the area around the festival site to help the local economy and aimed to leave the site as they found it.

"We are keen to have good relations with our neighbours and cause as little disturbance to them as possible, " he said.

We also met the owners of the field, Steve and Margaret Lee, who were pleased with what they had seen as they walked around the site. "We see this as a way of bringing town and country together, " said Steve.

On Monday a spokesman for the Devon and Cornwall Police told us: "There were no crimes reported during the festival - everyone seemed to be very well behaved. If only that would happen at every similar event."

That sentiment was echoed by Marjory Parish, Mid Devon's licensing officer. "We have been on site and found nothing to complain about, " she said.

"We have had just one complaint about noise, but we were monitoring noise and found no evidence to substantiate that complaint." Mrs Parish said the organisers had been very co-operative.

"The atmosphere was very relaxed and everything came together as we had hoped."