6810/news

On the Road to Sines!
Are you on the way to Sines? Then you probably already know where to go! If you're not, get on the highway, stick up your thumb and let the road bring you where need to be this Friday. If you're late, not to worry. You can take your time as we will stay there for the weekend and some days extra.

This year's hitchgathering destination is a free camping place in the town-center of Sines, 160km South of Lisboa, in the Parque das Merendas with shade, free toilets, showers, water-supply and a beach only 10 minutes away! Check the exact locations. It is the spot with all the green, with a beach further North.

A Self-Organized Gathering
The first hitchhikers to arrive can write a 6-8-10 sign on a cardboard and gather within the camping spot. These people can start getting to know each other and brainstorm on workshops, games, and activities they want to be happening during the next 2-3 days of the festival.

The gathering is based on self-organization: even if there have been people contributing more actively than others, do not expect them to have all the answers and to know what it will happen next. There is no fixed programme, and you can contribute with your own proposals. Some of the ideas so far include a workshop on intuitive traveling, a scavanger hunt, massage therapy, the screening of the documentary on the first version of the gathering 888, community building games, etc.

In case you do not manage to find the gathering or for any urgency, here some numbers you can text or call:


 * robin +351911970504 (portugal - call only)
 * tau +34644062203 (spain - text only)
 * rui +3511910818420 (portugal)
 * diego +393396667272 (italy - text only)
 * julien +34652295990 (spain - text only)
 * valentina +393289579038 (italy - text only)

Pre-gatherings: organise them!
Pre-gatherings are taking place in different locations. You can find latest information at the website, where you can announce new ones also. The last Pre-gathering confirmed: Donostia-San Sebastián, August 3rd, 1800h at Zurriola Beach. We are going to sleep on the beach or in the wilderness to the East side of it! Contact-person Diego, you can text him at +393396667272.

Places to Stay
We all love a nice shower and a good sleep once in a while. That's why we have asked friends and connected projects in Porto and Lisboa and elsewhere for some help. For Lisboa, we received confirmation that you can stay at a squated warehouse. Find directions in the about section at their website: http://www.spcc.pt.to/

If we get confirmation for other places in Portugal, we will share them on the site. You can also add links to your contacts there. If they can be shared (for example a link to helpful cs-hosts).

General Advice
Portugal was chosen as the main destination because it's quite challenging. It gets very hot in Spain and Portugal. What are the things you need to think of?
 * Always bring enough water bottles with you. In hot temperatures, you need at least 2 to 4 liters a day.
 * Avoid hitchhiking in the middle of the day. Try trucks, for example, for long distance traveling during the day.
 * Take enough breaks!
 * Do not stand hitchhiking in the sun. Do not stand hitchhiking in the sun. A sunstroke is easy to get!
 * Take a hat, scarf or umbrella/parasol since shadow is often hard to find. Cover your skin.
 * Take enough food for the day, as food at gas stations in Spain is very expensive.
 * Try to speak the local language. Some useful phrasebooks here:
 * http://hitchwiki.org/en/Template:Phrasebook/Spanish
 * http://hitchwiki.org/en/Template:Phrasebook/Portuguese
 * Give 6.8.10 flyers!

May Newsletter
News about our location, flyers we printed and a pre-gathering in Berlin coming weekend.

Location Scouting continues
So we decided to meet in somewhere Portugal, but where? At the moment we have several proposals under "investigation": Tomar, Aljezur, Sintra, Costa de Caparica, Lisbon. At the same time, Shaun is traveling in Spain and Portugal looking for some spots. If you know of a possible good place, log in and contact him directly, or post on this forum-post: http://hitchgathering.org/somewhere-portugal

Flyers Available - Get Them Send To You
We have printed flyers for the gathering and spread them around several places around Europe. We want you to have those flyers. You can spread them among your friends, or give them to your drivers while hitching to Portugal.


 * Give us your mail address and we will send them to you via normal mail: http://hitchgathering.org/send-me-flyers/add-me
 * Get in touch with someone who has the flyers. You might want to hitch to that location, or find someone who is traveling from there. Check the overview here: http://hitchgathering.org/lightfoot

For more details, check this post: http://hitchgathering.org/send-me-flyers

Pre-gathering in Berlin on May, 28 & promotion at the Road Junky Travel Film Festival
On the date 28-30 of May the Road Junky Travel Film Festival will occur in Berlin (different entry fees for each day: check their facebook page to see the program).

Many of us will be in Berlin, so we decided to organize a pre-meeting on Friday 28th of May at Rigaerstrasse 105 (TeaHouse) starting at 6 pm. At 8.00 there is a food served with a 2 euro suggested donation.

If you are planning to be in Berlin during those days and you want to meet with us (even if you are not planning to attend the RoadJunky Festival), you can sign up on the event.
 * Get to know each other or reconnect with already-well-known friends.
 * Talk about the latest news and about further organization (location scouting; web-promotion; press release; what to do in Barcelona and Portugal; ...)
 * Decide together how we want to promote the 6810 at the Road Junky Festival (we have 20 minutes on Saturday, 29th between 5.00 and 5.30 pm, at the Cafe Area)
 * Distribute flyers for further lightfoot delivery and for friendly promotion.

More pre-gatherings
So far we have a confirmed pre-gathering in Barcelona on the 1st of August, other ideas for pre-gatherings are announced in this forum: http://hitchgathering.org/forums/6810/pre-meetings

Organising a pre-gathering is fun,easy and very rewarding. Announce your ideas on the above forum and create an event on the website for more exposure. Creating an event is easy and allows you to e-mail everyone who signed up for the event with the latest details. To create an event, log in and click on "share".

Spring Newsletter #1
send out: 03/02/2010 - 19:12

Meteorological spring just started in Europe a few days back, which means that the spring/summer hitchhiking season 2010 just started!

For all the folks out there, a group of enthusiastic hitchhikers has started to organize on the next big event this summer: The European Hitchhiking Gathering 2010, short 6/8/10.

On August 6, 2010 we want to gather again somewhere in Europe to celebrate the freedom of the road, connect with the community and spread the word about one of the best ways of transportation there is.

A location has not been determined yet - for that we just started a voting on the official website: http://hitchgathering.org (the same as the previous website, except the name is different now).

We would love to see everybody voting for his/her favorite location. If you want your location added to the voting, give your voice at the discussion on hitchwiki: http://hitchwiki.org/en/6810

As always the gathering will be organized in an open, horizontal way, which means everybody who wants to contribute in the planning of the event is welcome to join!

The weekend of March 13/14, 2010, we are meeting in the heart of Berlin to push forward the development of the event. On http://hitchgathering.org you can find the current discussions & can sign up for the coordination meeting.

We wish you all a good start onto the roads of the world, warm highways and safe rides. Spread the word!

- The Community


 * Website: http://hitchgathering.org
 * Location Discussion: http://hitchwiki.org/en/6810
 * Coordination Team: http://groups.google.com/group/789-coordination

April 2010
During the weekend of the 13th and 14th of March, a handful of hitchhikers met up in Berlin to kick off the coordination of the next European Hitchhiking Gathering. This newsletter is here to tell you what happened during the last month.

Our goals
The main points were:
 * To promote the concept of hitchhiking in European society
 * To stimulate the community of hitchhikers.
 * To have a good time doing the above, while travelling and meeting old and new friends.

The destination
At the meeting we soon attacked the big question that was on the tip of everyone's tongues: WHERE?

After various discussions, we agreed to follow the result of the on-line location polling at the gathering website. If no support(logistical, locational, etc.) was to be found after one month, the choice would fall subsequently the next on the list until a suitable location with the required support was located.

After polling closed it was determined that, if everything goes well, we'll meet you on the 6th of August 2010 in Portugal: The End of Europe.

Currently we are connected with local hitchhikers in Portugal who are actively in search for a meeting place. If you also have connections in Portugal, don't hesitate to contact the coordination teams in the hitchgathering* forums.

A necessary passage to Portugal is Spain (aka: the Gorilla in the room) and the general impression is that this country is in need of a lot of hitchhiking promotion.

Thus: We also invite all hitchhikers to converge in Barcelona on Sunday August 1st, 2010. Monday, the 2nd, will be our day reach out to the people and media. Afterwards we'll leave the city and all meet again on 06/08/10 Somewhere in Portugal, where we can spend the weekend together, with all such worldly concerns many hundreds of kilometres and another country away. There's not even any need to meet in large centres as in previous years.

Money Money Money
The previous editions of the festival were realized with almost no budget, the rest paid for by the volunteers. After a long (and painful) discussion, we reached a sort of consensus to stay away from any official sponsorship or public funds. We have good hope that the various hitchhiking clubs of Europe will provide us with some financial support, as has been done for previous gatherings.

Promotion
Three major pieces were produced: A short 789* movie by Mitch, a couple of 6.8.10 logo designs by Sandra and a poster/flyer by Heather. We brainstormed many ideas for promotion and you can help with new ideas on the coordination forum of the website. We're now up to print a bunch of flyers and distribute them to everybody by means of lightfoot or snail mail. More information on this coming soon.

Coordination
Our main coordination tool is now the hitchgathering website. For an ongoing list of updated features please refer to the wiki pages.

Translations
The content of the website is translatable in as many language as we want, which means "so many languages as we have a translator for". If you know a language, you can translate any content on the site by clicking the "translate" tab on top. You need to be logged in.

Links

 * Minutes of the pre-meeting: http://hitchwiki.org/en/6810/Berlin_meeting/Minutes
 * 789 video by Mitch: http://hitchgathering.org/789-video
 * Hitchgathering Forums: http://hitchgathering.org/forums/6810