Young climate activists are taking to the woods to dance against deforestation.

Extinction Rebellion and Bush Buzz are orchestrating Mourning Wood, an event taking place from 23:00-06:00 on 19 August in Dublin to protest the selling of public spaces to vulture funds by state-owned forestry business, Coillte.

Bush Buzz is a collaborative project which has seen young Dublin artists and event organisers stage raves throughout the country. For just over a year, they have harboured free parties as far as rural Galway.

“Extinction Rebellion reached out to us with the idea of throwing a protest rave”, a spokesperson for the group said. The protest group has been active since 2018, mostly based in the UK with a commitment to radical climate activism.

The angst of climate change combined with the restrictions of being a young person in Ireland are the driving factors for the event.

“Rave culture means no fifteen euro tickets, no three o’clock curfew and no seven euro pints” the spokesperson said, leaving raves as a more appealing alternative to the confines of Dublin nightlife

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According to The European Statistics Office, Ireland has the lowest forest coverage of any EU member state. The current forest cover in Ireland is approximately 11 per cent, a fraction of what the nation once was and a quarter of the EU average. Pre-agricultural Ireland reached about 80 per cent coverage, dipping to less than 20 by the time of the industrial revolution.

“Coillte is allowing publicly owned State forestry to be used to finance and facilitate a corporate takeover of vast amounts of Irish forestry by vulture funds,” the groups said in the statement on Instagram.

As recently as January, Coillte struck a 200 million euro deal with British investment fund Gresham House which sees 123,000 acres of land and forestry being privatised. The move was called a “shocking move” by a variety of TDs, with People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett calling it “a shocking move”, and stating the effrots “will be resisted”.

The night sees nine different DJs perform sets in a secret location in Dublin with the three goals to “Rave, rage and rebel”.

Mourning Wood kicks off on the night of 19 August. All free tickets have sold out, however, donation-based tickets are still available to purchase for any fee on Eventbrite.

Grab tickets to Mourning Wood here.

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