350Africa.org and Fossil Free South Africa activated the FossilFree and Fossil Free Stellenbosch petitions at The Rocking the Daisies festival at Steyn Wine Cloof Estate just outside of Cape Town. The festival ran from Thursday the 5th till Sunday the 8th filled with music lovers and activists galore at an incredible campsite which was home to about 20’000 people for the weekend. We were situated in the Green Village tent organised by Greenpop, an NPO that aims to popularise green spaces and green living. There were a number of like-minded organisations including Greenpeace, Fry and Regenize, all there to spread climate and environmental awareness. From Thursday to Sunday, we broke the ice on financial services providers inaction towards the climate crisis through petitions, a banner signing space and gaining insights from people on what they can and would be willing to do to strengthen community rights in combating climate change.
The activation kicked off on Friday 6th October and the response from the festival goers was absolutely amazing. People were interested in the petition, calling on South African asset managers to divest from coal, oil and gas holdings. They were keen to figure out how to get involved from their homes and communities across the country. More importantly, people wanted to know about the campaigns next steps. We were swamped from the time the tent opened at 10 am till around 4 pm. With over 100 visitors who signed the petition and wrote personal messages of solidarity on the Fossil Free banner – This was indeed a success.
In celebration of our followers and avid festival goers, we took pictures of the people who signed the petition with our Instagram prop which proved to be a real crowd pleaser.