The Bamboostic poster
At the IITF 2009, there was a special festival at the NMBA pavilion.
Called BAMBOOSTIC 2009, this festival aimed to win hearts and minds to the cause of bamboo. A creative mix of competitions and events - painting, poetry, paragraph and slogan writing on bamboo and the environment had over 300 participants of all ages - from 3 and 1/2 year olds to 60 year olds ....everyone had a blast and the pavilion got really crowded during competition hours as each participant was encouraged by hordes of family members and friends !
As Coordinator of the Festival, what made me happy was to see people's joy - young and old - in expressing their creativity - in fact many people thanked us for the opportunity TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES. Another heartening thing was that so many people actually sat and thought about bamboo and how it coud be useful to combat deforestation, global warming and climate change - normally many of these people would not have bothered about bamboo. All in all, it was extremely gratifying.
In addition to the competition events, we organized live craft demonstrations ( toy-making, kites and weaving) and also had an artist making what else but "Bamboo Tattoos" on the face and hands - everyone wanted one !! We also distributed 20, 000 windscreen stickers promoting bamboo - the slogan was
CHOOSE BAMBOO FOR A CLEANER, GREENER EARTH !
