Weird festivals

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30th June 2008

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We've had a lesson plan about strange festivals:
http://www.developingteachers.com/newsletterplans/News_lplan
_april2000.htm

Here's another article - a little shorter - that would make a useful reading - have a read:

Five best ... weird festivals The Glastonbury festival stomps defiantly into action this weekend, but the odd druid, "chanting dome" and James Blunt aside, you can rest assured that the truly weird festival action is happening elsewhere. 1. Boryeong Mud Festival, South Korea The rainy Glasto swamp has nothing on Boryeong city in the Chungcheong province, three hours from Seoul, which has 9.9million square metres of squidgy brown mineral-rich mud on nearby mud flats. In July it's put to good use in the form of mud slides, mud fights, mud baths, mud wrestling, mock battles and rodeo rides for a festival at Daecheon beach. All good clean fun. July 12-20, mudfestival.or.kr, charges for some activities. 2. Festival of near death experiences, Spain At the Santa Marta de Ribarteme festival in Las Nieves, Galicia, people who've had near death experiences - surviving illnesses or accidents - are paraded through the streets in open coffins. Their relatives carry the coffin to church (god forbid any of them has a heart-attack on the way), then locals gather round to hear the story of their near misses, before fireworks to lighten the mood. July 29, free, gospain.org 3. Water buffalo races, Thailand Buffalo fancy dress, chaotic races (with jockeys riding bareback), a buffalo procession and a Miss Farmland competition lend a fun element to the serious business of buying and selling buffalo at this annual market in Chonburi, 30 miles from Bangkok. October 1-31. tourismthailand.org. 4. Global Rainbow Gathering, Mexico Peace and love and a fair bit of nudity are on the line-up at the ultimate hippy fest, which has travelled around the world since 1972. It's free and non-commercial, drugs and alcohol are banned (except marijuana, naturally) and days are filled with massages, drumming and discussing how to heal the world etc. Not one for cynics. November 1-30 in La Paz, Mexico, also in Wyoming, US, July 1-7. See welcomehere.org. Donation only. 5. Twin Peaks Fest, US Set in North Bend, the town near Seattle where David Lynch made his seminal television series, this celebratory festival includes hikes and bus trips to film locations, a celebrity dinner with some of the actors, Twin Peaks related games and a Lynch movie night. July 25-27. twinpeaksfest.com. Tickets $200 or $220 including bus tour. The Guardian, Saturday June 28, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/jun/28/fivebest.festivals

So what to do with it?

1. Put 'Festivals' on the board & elicit different ones from the stds' country &, if they know any, around the world. You could also brainstorm, & write up, all festival - related vocabulary.

2. Put the titles of the five festivals on the board & get stds to discuss what they might be about.

3. Feedback - put up notes that they have come up with, for use in the initial reading.

4. Stds then read to verify their ideas. For the lower level you could doctor the text & grade it to make it more accessible.

5. Pre-teach crucial vocab before the next reading task.

6. Set some detailed reading questions.

7. Stds read & then compare in pairs>> feedback.

8. Discussion: 'response' to the article - in pairs/small groups - which ones would they be interested in attending & why.
If you have access to internet, the stds could follow up the links for each of the festivals to get some more info & pictures to share with the rest of the class - maybe a homework task.

9. Feedback - you could then go on to give some 'live listening' by giving a description of some of the festivals in the article from the lesson plan mentioned above:
http://www.developingteachers.com/newsletterplans/News_lplan
_april2000.htm

10. Speaking - stds come up with their own weird festivals - they come up with the idea & then design a poster to promote it.

11. Stds then mingle & try to persuade everyone to go to their festival. The 'purpose' is to see how many people they can persuade >> feedback.

Alternatively, instead of using the whole article, you could give each std a different weird festival. They work on it as a reading & then a jigsaw task - a mingle where they tell each other about their festival - with the aim of deciding on the most interesting festival.

Comments & ideas, please post for all to use at:
http://forum.developingteachers.com/index.php?topic=1569.0

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