The 8th Beskid Good Energy Festival is already behind us. The weather was perfect, and the number of participants exceptionally high. Nearly 800 preschoolers in colourful attire holding balloons in the colours of the rainbow as part of the "Bielsko Balloon Release" action, followed by students of primary and secondary schools with teachers in the number exceeding one thousand. The programme of this year's festival was based on a comic book already known to the residents of the city, entitled "Bielski and Biała Save the City", which in a humoristic way presents the subject of environmental protection and energy saving by the inhabitants of Bielsko-Biała. In the previous heating season, anti-smog workshops were organised in municipal kindergartens, which used the comic book as a didactic tool, and every preschooler received a copy as a souvenir. In addition, each of the five categories of the 8th edition of the "Respect Energy, Protect the Climate" competition, the final stage of which took place during the festival, referred to the content of the comic book. The effects of the competition efforts could be viewed during the event in the form of a presentation of competition entries, such as the original performances by two of the kindergartens entitled "Exile of the Smog" or a comedy show performed by high school students entitled "Smog Off". There were also living figures of a stork and a frog - heroes of the comic book. There were excellent presentations of works by primary school students, i.e. posters promoting district heat inspired by activities based on the fairy tale "Red Riding Hood. Black Smog Mission" (by PK Therma) and spatial figures of the Eco-Ant - the hero of the comic book "How the Eco-Ant Taught Bielsko Residents to Segregate Garbage" (by Zakład Gospodarki Odpadami S.A.). And all was supplemented by dance performances with participation of Sebastian Chmiel and teachers from the Cuban dance school of Mikołaj Strzyż and Agnieszka Jarosińska, a magic show by Adrian Mitoraj, sand animations by Tigran Vardikyan, fairytale animations by Roman Baran from “Cartoon Studio” in Bielsko-Biała and giant soap bubbles dancing floating around throughout the festival day. Could it be more joyful and fairytale-like? There were also, of course, workshops popular among younger students, run by secondary schools: Copernicus High School No. 1, High School No. 5, "Mechanic" High School, "Gastronomy" High School, and "Gardener" High School, and as many as five stands organised by the Bielsko-Biała Industrial School. The subject of the workshops varied: from solar cells, through 3D printers, mechanical robots, to planting plants and trees, fashion design and the creation of tasty muffins, delicious beverages and natural cosmetics organised for the first time by the Kopaliński Language School. The students, along with the teachers of the Technical and Trade School, immortalised the images of the new Climate Ambassadors who came to the photo studio set up on the stage in front of the Bielsko Cultural Centre. Long queues awaited the chance to climb an inflatable wall set up by the Bielsko-Biała Sports and Recreation Centre, assisted by trainers from Primaroca.
We welcomed new companies in the group of festival partners: Magneti Marelli and Leroy Merlin, who supported the event financially, substantively and via "recycling" - equipping the festival with the necessary equipment, which then returned to these plants. The permanent honourable group of our partners is composed of the Bielsko-Biała Sports and Recreation Centre, Tauron Dystrybucja, PK Therma, AQUA SA, ZGO SA, SUEZ Bielsko-Biała SA, but also the Office for Waste Management at the City Hall in Bielsko-Biała, Municipal Guard in Bielsko-Biała, Gamebo-dom, Centrum Inżynieryjne, MLark Marketing Agency , ZIAD SA, MZD Bielsko-Biała and Multiprojekt Studio. Some of them provide not just substantive and financial sponsoring of the categories of the 8th edition of the competition, but also of the 10 stations within the urban game "Control the Energy", organised for families during the afternoon part of the festival. There was even a cableway car onto the Szyndzielnia mountain, a modern two-chamber garbage truck, a model of a low-energy house equipped with renewable energy systems along with an animated presentation of this system, as well as many other attractions for those participating in the competitions and other visitors. These institutions have a deep understanding of what education in sustainable development is and we can always count on their support.
Special thanks go to the group of volunteers, students of Bielsko-Biała secondary schools: High School No. 5, Art High School, Kopaliński Language School, "Gastronomy" School and Technical and Trading School. In all, over a hundred of them helped out.
Time passed quickly and with flavour in the family relaxation zone created using recyclable materials: students from the Bielsko-Biała "Gastronomy" school served dishes from the field kitchen of the "Po świecie kuchni" restaurant and the well-known chef Mateusz Kręcina made ice-cream prepared with liquid nitrogen. Excitement was provided by the spectacular performance of the two-time finalist of the "Got Talent" programme Łukasz Świrk, an acrobat who, on a lamp post and two chairs, presented such feats as if gravity did not concern him at all. The illusionist Adrian Mitoraj did everything he wanted to our imagination, and Tigran, accompanied by epic music, made many of us tearful by animating beautiful fairytale stories with the help of sand. Families were challenged in the "Family Eco-Skirmish" tournament, where the goal was to demonstrate knowledge about energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. A family with two small children won, and thanks to Gamebo-dom, a distributor of low-energy houses, they will spend a week on the Baltic Sea in such apartments. None of the participants left without a prize, so it was worth to "challenge yourself". Come join us during the next, 9th edition of the Beskid Good Energy Festival next year!
