The Skills Tour and Permibus at Festivals, Fairs, Farmers Markets and Co-Ops:

The Skills Tour and Permibus II have a variety of offerings perfect for community events in addition to our standard menu of offerings.

The mobile permaculture demonstration (Permibus tour) is a 10-20 minute permaculture primer during which we walk folks through our bus systems; that includes  bio-fuels, solar power, greywater, humanure composting, hydroponic garden, permaculture curtains, and composting (including chickens and worms). As we walk folks through the tour of the bus, sharing the possible, we incorporate permaculture principles, which are displayed throughout the bus in large color graphics designed by Starhawk. This is a very popular offering. We did over 400 mobile permaculture demonstrations in two days at the Common Ground Fair in Maine in the fall of 2008.

In addition we often have on-going chicken informationals (a 10-15 minute talk about chickens). Both the chicken informationals and the Permibus tours are circular so people can come in at any point and then leave when we get back to where they started. It works best for us to do most things based directly out of the bus at events. That said, if we are going to teach an actual workshop that takes an hour or more it is often best to have a space removed from the bus to avoid constant interruptions from ongoing tours and chicken questions. We also have an interactive permaculture puppet show, great for the edu-tainment or all ages.

Another way to organize is to put us in a tabling location and we do the mobile permaculture demonstrations and chicken informationals as part of our tabling. We also do any full workshops or puppet shows from a stage separate from the Permibus. Which way works best depends on the flow of the event. Do folks mostly wander from thing to thing (or in and out as in the case of a co-op or farmers market) or do people look at a schedule and show up at workshops listed in the schedule? As they say in permaculture, it all just depends. Please contact us to talk further about how the the Skills Tour and Permibus II can be a part of your community event!

Many Thanks,

The Permibus Family; Delyla, Megan and Stan Wilson