Slow Travel Berlin presents A Celebration of Creativity, Culture & Cuisine – April 22, 2012, 12pm-6pm

On 22nd April 2012, Slow Travel Berlin will take over Kreuzberg’s 100–year-old covered market hall Markhalle IX for a day of local creativity, culture and cuisine.

The morning will be given over to a selection of free tours that explore the city via a range of interesting themes, including literature, sustainability, street art, architecture, history and running.

From midday, the Markthalle will officially open until 6pm and host a range of activities, workshops and entertainment, including:

• Locavore Food Market with: Soluna, Goldhahn & Sampson, Bitter’velt, Stadtschoenheit, Dickes Bee, B Alive (Raw Food), Suff Weinladen, Culinary Misfits, Sunday Burgers, Wilde Gärtnerei, Prinzessinnengarten…

• Literary Lounge with: SANDjournal, Dialogue Books, Mondo Azul and Shakespeare & Sons (tea and snacks supplied by Hudson’s Café of Kreuzberg), plus various readings and performances…

• Workshops with: Urban Sketching Berlin, Nadelwald (Sewing), Stuart Holt (Film Making), Didges Brew (Didgeridoo), Katrina James (Photography Mentoring), Life Drawing Berlin…

• Plus: Children’s entertainment with Rotonda Teatro, Live Cartoon Drawing with Caffeinated Toothpaste, DJs & Live Music (Spiral Music School, Berlin Pop Choir, Dorothy Of The Day, Sarah Maguire), Crafts, Grinberg Massage, Swishing (clothes swapping) Stall, Free Ideas from Art Connect Berlin – and more surprises on the day…

Entrance to the event and all workshops are free, though donations to performers and workshops are welcome.

Read more about this Slow Travel Berlin event

How to Holiday Ethically in Burma – April 16, 2012,6pm

At 6pm on Monday 16th April, Tourism Concern has organised a event exploring How to Holiday Ethically in Burma. It will be held in the Grand Committee Room at the House of Commons. The meeting will be hosted by the Rt.Hon. Malcolm Wicks MP, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma. Guest speakers include Anna Roberts (Executive Director at Burma Campaign UK), James Moreton (co-Founder and Director at Panoramic Journeys), Simon Usborne (a features and travel writer at The Independent) and Min Hein (Head of the Activity Committee for the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area) UK).

Tourism Concern, an independent, non-industry based, UK charity that fights exploitation in tourism, supported the calls from Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD) for a tourism boycott for many years and now promotes the revised position, which entails the need for ongoing awareness of the wider challenges facing the country and how tourism relates to this.

The speakers will each give a perspective on the current conditions in Burma, whether the tourism boycott was effective and, now that it has been lifted, whether it is ethical to travel to Burma. Pro-democracy groups, includign the NLD, have suggested that some forms of tourism can bring benefits to local people and assist their cause; but that large scale tourism would bring few benefits and continue to support the regime.

If you would like to attend please RSVP online. Numbers are limited and priority will be given to Friends of Tourism Concern.

Read more about this event on Tourism Concern