Hello!

We’re only six days away from EMF. This is the last time you’ll be hearing from us before the gates open.

There’s some important information in this email - its a long one, so get a nice cup of tea.


The short version:

Schedule

Our schedule has been announced! You can see the full timings at emfcamp.org/schedule.

Villages are still publishing their own content so there’s lots more to come! Please note all timings are subject to change - keep an eye on the schedule, or add your favourites feed to your calendar.

Workshop sign up

This year we’ll be allocating many workshop places by lottery. You can see which workshops require tickets by looking for the 🎟️ symbol in the schedule.

Enter the lottery by clicking “Request Tickets” on a workshop then selecting the number of tickets you need - each person may only win tickets for one workshop and one youth workshop. You can order your workshops in order of preference after applying.

The lottery will close on Wednesday 29th May. Any remaining or returned tickets will be available to book on the website from Thursday May 30th. Youth Workshops will allow unticketed first-come-first-served walk-ups for the remaining places.

Any workshops that don’t have the 🎟️ symbol are being run independently by villages and may have their own sign-up, or be first-come-first-served - check the workshop description!

Volunteering

EMF is entirely run by volunteers, and we need you to help. There are over a thousand volunteer shifts to fill, covering almost 4,000 hours. It sounds like a lot but if 50% of attendees take a shift, we’ll easily fill them all.

Please register to volunteer and sign up for shifts.

Volunteering not only gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, you also get a free meal from the excellent volunteer kitchen, hot and cold drinks, and a guaranteed ticket voucher for the next EMF.

Weather

It’s been rather wet over the last few months and the ground at Eastnor is quite soft. Please make sure you have good wet weather gear and expect it to get a bit muddy - bring some boots.

It can also get quite cold at night, so bring warm clothing and suitable sleeping equipment. Some people use an electric blanket!

If you’re coming in a vehicle, follow the directions of our marshals, and please stop and ask for help if your vehicle gets stuck.

Tildagon badge: Bring a USB-C cable

Instead of a regular lanyard, our Tildagon badge is designed to use a USB-C to USB-C cable - simply plug the cable into both badge sockets and hang it around your neck.

In an effort to reduce waste we are not supplying cables with the badges. Please bring your favourite USB-C to USB-C cable with you, or you can use a lanyard from a previous event. We have some suggested cables in the badge documentation - including ones that light up!

Staying healthy

Please read our health guidance before coming to the festival, and if you are ill with an infectious disease please do not attend EMF - we will happily refund your tickets!

Trains

Another reminder that there will be engineering work until 18:00 on Sunday 2nd June that will mean no trains leaving Ledbury and a rail replacement bus service instead. Our shuttle bus will run to Worcestershire Parkway while the engineering work is happening, but this will reduce its capacity. If you’re planning to leave by train, we recommend you leave on Monday if possible. More details on our travel page.

Publishing your own events

If you’re planning a meet up, workshop, chat, show and tell, or any other kind of activity you’d like to let people know about, add it to the schedule.

You can choose to host it in the lounge or bar, but this doesn’t reserve you space; if there are a lot of you it’s probably better to meet there and go elsewhere.

If you have registered a village you can also publish events happening in your village to the schedule - let everyone know what you’re up to!

Lightning talks

Each day we run a lightning talk session - ten minute talks on any topic you like, open to anyone who wants to present!

If you would like to give a lightning talk, please sign up in advance. We’ll need you to supply a slide deck in PDF format so we can make the talks as fast as possible.

Electronic Music Open Mic (EMOM)

On Saturday afternoon Null Sector hosts an Electronic Music Open Mic-night (EMOM). Bring your synths, sequencers, stylophones, spectrums, and signal generators to play a short 15-minute gig for curious onlookers. The best acts will be given the chance to perform in an EMOM showcase on the main music stage.

If you’re interested in taking part please let us know.

CCC & Swap Shop

We’d like you to bring two things this year: Plants, and interesting junk!

The charity Swap Shop is waiting to receive your unwanted tools, electronics, baffling machines, and unusual objects. Drop them off at the Swap Shop and take home some different ones instead.

We also want your contributions to the Community Cultivation Compilation - an exchange for tiny plants, offshoots, bulbs, and seeds. Bring a cutting and take home a new green friend 🌱

As always, you must be prepared to take home anything that doesn’t find a new owner - even if it photosynthesises!

Use our data

On developer.emfcamp.org you’ll find a catalogue of data and programming interfaces we publish for you to play with - everything from information about talks to how many pints of beer have been served at the bar so far.

We love seeing what you do with it, and we’d love you to document your own things so others can interface with them too. Got an API for your robot? Let us know!

Hackers Screening & Costume Competition

Following the screening of Hackers on Saturday night, director Iain Softley will be answering your questions …and judging the best Hackers cosplay outfit.

Pack your pager, rollerblades, and red eye shadow. We’re hacking the planet.

Photos

We love your photos! We love seeing them! If you take photos at EMF and are willing to share them with us, please fill in this form.

We particularly appreciate people helping to document the festival for our archives. If you’d like to volunteer for the EMF photo team, get in touch.

Mobile Phones

In addition to the DECT network, we’ll be running our own 2G mobile phone network. SIM cards will be available to buy from the shop and should work in most GSM phones. Find out more on gsm.emf.camp.

If you already have a SIM from a CCC event (not a plant) please follow these instructions.

Keeping up to date

You can also follow us on Mastodon at @emf@emfcamp.org for live updates.

We also have updates from many of our teams:

Sponsors

We wouldn’t have got this far without our amazing sponsors, without them EMF would be impossible.

Once again we are incredibly grateful to:

  • AND Digital
  • Bosch
  • Codethink
  • Espressif
  • Mathworks
  • MSD Animal Health Technology Lab
  • Mythic Beasts
  • Nationwide
  • Octopus
  • Onega
  • PCBWay
  • Texas Instruments
  • United Tech and Allied Workers


See you in the field!

Love, The EMF Team