Originating in a classroom, the Athens Food Cart Festival is quickly becoming a reality. On Friday, March 2, 2012, students and volunteers met for an orientation and to view the future location of the festival. To communicate ideas, students participated in a charrette. A charrette is a design workshop, allowing all members of the event to meet, interact, and voice any concerns or desires. After seeing a visual of the location of the Athens Food Cart Festival students created presentations based on a Japanese technique called PechaKucha. PechaKucha is a conversation based work shopping tool, with each presentation consisting of 20 images, but with only 20 seconds to speak on each image.
Early the next morning, landscape architecture students and volunteers met to workshop ideas and goals for the festival. Beginning the morning with coffee and donuts, leaders, volunteers, and various stakeholders met with students to discuss the event. Students shared ideas of music and entertainment, as well as sustainability methods like designated compost areas and fun do-it-yourself garden planters for children. Bar-height tables and chairs were a popular idea among students, although the themes for the event varied from student to student.
After the presentations, students discussed likes and dislikes from each presentation with guidance from Pratt Cassity, instructor of the event and Director of the Center for Community Design and Preservation in the School of Environmental Design. After the most important concerns and ideas were separated, students formed into four different groups to tackle and solve problems.
The Charrette helped develop the ideas for the Athens Food Cart Festival. It illuminated the potential that food carts can bring to Athens. The charrette allowed stakeholders to witness more than framework for the festival, it allowed for the evolution of the festival from an idea in a classroom to a community-engaging event.
Students from the College of Environment and Design study the layout of the festival location
More updates will come but right now we can say that the festival will take place on Saturday, March 31st, 2012.
Check back soon!
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