Irish Aid at Electric Picnic

The Irish Aid tent returned to Electric Picnic this year offering festival-goers the opportunity to score a #dizzygoal, contort their bodies to play Sustainable Development Goal “SDG” Twister and explore Irish Aid supported projects on the SDG world map.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals cover a wide range of areas, and address the many causes of poverty, injustice and damage to our planet. Ireland has played a central role in the development and final agreement of the 17 SDGs, most notably co-facilitating the final round of negotiations at the UN along with Kenya. This culminated in the agreement entitled: Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On our world map, music fans could pick any one of the 17 goals to find out how Irish Aid is supporting programmes and projects to help achieve these goals in countries from Nicaragua to Ireland, from the UN in New York to Vietnam.

Of course, the SDGs, also known as the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, cannot be achieved through Government efforts alone. As the UN secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, announced in 2015 when the final agreement was adopted by 193 countries, “The true test of commitment to Agenda 2030 will be implementation. We need action from everyone, everywhere. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our guide. They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.” In this spirit, we asked festival-goers to play their part in helping to achieve the Global Goals.

Some chose to score a #dizzygoal to symbolise their commitment to the achievement of the Goals. Others wrote messages on SDG postcards, either outlining current or future actions they could take to help achieve the goals. Our SDG Twister encouraged revellers to stretch themselves and make that extra effort to reach the Goals.

The Irish Aid tent in the Global Green area was part of the ‘Development corner’ along with Trócaire and Gorta/Self Help Africa. It was a space for passers-by to sit back on our billow bags, find out more about Irish Aid’s work globally and learn about the volunteering supports and options available through Irish Aid and Comhlámh, the Irish Association of Volunteers and Development Workers. For more energetic festival-goers, the SDG hopscotch was a chance to hop and skip from goal 1 ‘no poverty’ to goal 17 ‘Partnership for the goals’.

Over the three days of Electric Picnic more than 1,000 people, young and old, visited the Irish Aid stand or took part in the SDG activities. Some were learning about the SDGs for the first time, while others were able to recite all 17 goals from memory. From our many discussions with music fans over the weekend it is clear that Irish people support Ireland’s work with some of the world’s poorest communities to promote sustainable development and realise a world free of poverty and hunger, as set out in the SDGs.