Groove Armada

Image by Scott Sandars

London's Lovebox festival (21-22 July) with headlining acts Sly & The Family Stone, Groove Armada and Blondie will get surprise visitors from outer space who are coming back from the future to warn people about global warming. As part of its Climate Changed campaign, Christian Aid is working with a theatre group at UK summer festivals to make the subject more engaging.

The theatre group Faith, Hope & Gaffertape consisting of four time travellers will be performing pieces of spontaneous theatre at the festival. They live in space because earth has become uninhabitable due to the effects of climate change but are hoping they will be able to convince people in 2007 to change their lifestyles to prevent the destruction of earth. They will try to persuade the festival-going public to save the planet before it is too late.

The actors will roam the festival site performing site-specific sketches about the impact climate change is having on developing countries. The pieces will have a B-movie science fiction theme to engage and entertain a festival audience, but the facts and figures used will be real and relevant. For example, 182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa could die of diseases alone related to climate change by the end of this century, according to Christian Aid research.

There will be a number of sketches of slapstick comedy including landing of a spaceship, taking grass samples, scanning, recreating flash floods and sand storms and showing a timeline of the effects climate change will have in next 150 years.

Festival goers will also be able to find out how to join in Christian Aid¡'s 1,000-mile Cut the Carbon march from 14 July-2 October. it is the biggest protest march in UK history taking in 70 towns and supported by top UK bands, comedy acts and performers in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff and London. For more information about the march visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ and http://www.pressureworks.org/

You can also join the Facebook group Cut the Carbon March¡ at http://www.facebook.com/ to take part in the march online.

For more information about Lovebox Weekender visit http://www.loveboxweekender.com/