Our Winter Meeting will happen from Thursday, February 20 until Sunday February 23 in South Germany or in the North-West of Switzerland. We don't have a fix venue yet, but will publish the location on our website as soon as we know more.
The Winter Meeting will be the first of our two physical preparation meetings for the Ecotopia Biketour 2020. We will look for interesting projects and based on it decide in which countries (Central/Southern/Southeastern Europe) and which time frame the next tour will happen, analyse the last year tour and discuss our values and how to implement them, create flyers, posters and stickers to advertise the tour, make up a task list and a time line of what needs to be done, and have fun together! Anyone who is interested in meeting us and finding out how we organise is welcome to join, there is no obligation to take on any tasks afterwards. You are welcome to join us even for less days, if you want.
***Call-out for projects and events to visit in summer 2020***
Ecotopia Biketour is looking for interesting projects and events happening in summer 2020 in Central, Southern and Southeastern Europe. Based on that during our meeting in February we will decide more precisely the countries to visit on the next tour. Any information is appreciated. To propose a project for Biketour, please enter it in this map: https://facilmap.org/btprojects or send us an email to 2020@ecotopiabiketour.net. We are also looking for local coordinators (for the mentioned parts of Europe) to help us with planning the tour!
Ecotopia Biketour is a self-organized political bicycle tour that has been cycling through different parts of Europe each summer since 1990. The tour visits different groups, communities, projects and events which share our group values: ecological sustainability, anti-oppression, veganism, skill-sharing, multi-linguality, consensus-based decision making. We are interested to meet with local groups for a couple of hours to learn about their situation and activities, but also for larger places who can host us for a couple of days. For example we have visited alternative social centers and squats, cooperative farms, bike kitchens and critical masses, anti-discrimination groups, self-sustainable communities, action camps and environmental campaigns. A diverse, international group of around 20 to 50 people cycle with the Biketour each day. Our group usually sleep in tents and are happy to use outdoor spaces. We need access to water and electricity whilst visiting projects, which we can give a small donation for. We cook meals every day (with our own cooking equipment), which we are always happy to share with our hosts. We offer to help in the projects we visit by doing some work in return. Because we’re a mixed group of people, we have a wide range of skills and activities that we are happy to share with you. Whilst we are visiting projects we are interested in learning about them, helping out, sharing activities together and resting. We usually like to stay for anything between 1 and 5 nights.