Vital Mass

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday October 17, 2002 18:58 by Sam Hall

Galway Sept 22nd

On Sunday 22nd of September Galway’s sky was shining with a bright, bright ball of fire burning high in the sky. People from far and wide had converged on this town for a reason. For many different reasons......

The day was officially called ‘car free day’, European car free day, but the day, its many people and countless festivities will be remembered as far more then the day when cars were pushed aside.

At 2 pm the Spanish Arch was containing a growing Critical Mass of cycling. By 2.25 the mass began to move towards town, collecting a few rollerbladers and even a skateboarder or two along the way. Leisurely, they rolled on their sustainable wheels around Galway’s pokey little streets, as curious Galwegian citizens peered out from behind windows and stalled in their motor vehicles, bemused.

Galway is proud of its tradition of diverse, excellent festivals but in the last few years the buzz was being killed by capitalisim. Many wondered what would come of the day as they wandered through the festival that was in creation since 2pm. The bands began playing music outside Duffy’s as an eco-mandela was being crafted on the street called Mainguard. The yard of St. Nicolas’s church was filled with the beat of the drum circle. Ramps, half-pipes and obstacles were being used where the market usually stands as scores of skateboarders and freestylers reclaimed their streets that would soon be denied them by law. Street theatre in the form of colourful pedestrian crossings was enjoyed, as participants who rolled out zebra crossings began to help people cross the streets with the safety of a lollipop brigade.

All the time stupefied car drivers looked on while a few drivers got thick. As people flowed down Mainguard St. they sipped on free Fair-trade coffee and ate a healthy selection of nuts and raisins. Children played in the cardboard eco-bus and danced to music powered on energy supplied by the lads at Wax-Factor records. People chilled out in a free atmosphere created by the people of Galway.

Ideas zoomed throughout the crowd, including another critical mass at 5pm. A wish tree was erected near the bike rack in Mainguard St. People wrote down what they wished to be. It was a few steps further down the street that the cyclists began to swirl around each other and form another mass. 5.15 and the cycling mass moved through Lombard St. at the foot of the improvised skate park. Those in the mass called on the skateboard community to converge with them. The skateboarders stopped and five…..ten…….twenty ollied into the mass, spontaneously followed by the wave of all remaining boarders and free style bikers. The drum circle was then pulled into the rhythm of what was now more then a critical mass. People walked with drummers as cyclists buzzed around the eco-bus. The youth were pushing the boundaries improvising fake road-accidents, screaming and shouting demanding answers from gawking motorists. The children were on-fire, they had come together in this nature for the first time in Galway. Their knowledge of the streets with all their unnecessary dangers was driving them ahead. Participants, volunteers and communitarians looked at one another in awe at what had been achieved and what was yet to be achieved. This was more then Critical Mass. It was a moving festival, on foot, on bikes, on wheels. It was all who are marginalised on the roads. Those who know what is happening to our towns and cities. This was more then a parade. IT WAS A MATTER OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO OUR PLANET THAT THIS SHOULD HAPPEN. It was Vital Mass. Vital for the survival of community festivals and spirit. Vital for our environment and health. Vital for survival of life.

We returned to relax at the street party, play hopscotch and eat. Some had experienced empowerment for the first time in Galway. Boundaries for society were pushed into new territory and no-one predicted such an enormous success. The future looks brighter then ever as people come together, free.