Crack! Fest

CODE: LUNAR06

Work:

During the festival, the place is going to host hundreds of artists and thousands of spectators, so the international volunteers will be asked to join the local volunteers to manage the entire organisation of the event. An average of 6 to 7 hours per day is required, with working shifts organized on the event nights.
The volunteers' work is mainly going to involve: Logistic set up and support; Pub and restaurant tending during the festival; General cleaning during the evenings.
After the event, the volunteers will help take down the structures and clean the fortress. The work can be physically hard (and it will be very hot), but the environment will be funny and easy going. The motto is “Share, Work and Have Fun”. In a few words, volunteers should get ready to be active and to give their energy to the community working at the Forte Prenestino.

Accomodation and food

Please, take good note that the accommodation is really basic.
The volunteers are going to sleep inside Forte Prenestino in a shared dormitory, yet they will have to bring a sleeping bag. Hand in hand with your team-mates, you will have to clean and to prepare the dorm at your arrival. During the festival, volunteers can possibly be asked to sleep a few nights in tents.
Volunteers will have access to a private chemical portable toilet (those used in festival settings) for the entire duration of the workcamp. Showers are collective open air showers, so don’t forget your swimsuit!
Regarding the meals, the volunteers will have access to a private kitchen in their dormitory for breakfast and some of the meals. Most of the meal will be served in the Forte Prenestino restaurant, where volunteers will support the cooks during the festival days. Most of the meals will have vegan options.

Location and leisure

The camp takes place in Rome. The city is surrounded by sixteen military fortresses built during the second half of the 19th century to set up a defensive system. All these fortresses were partially used and then abandoned during the 20th century. Forte Prenestino is located in one of these fortresses, in a big working-class neighbourhood called Centocelle.
The 1st of may 1986 a mixed group of people, under the pressure of necessity decided to squat Forte Prenestino. Since, there was no cinema, place to make music or to meet each other, they made of this Fortress the perfect spot to exchange and to learn with and from each other.For the last 25 years, full of work, fun and political struggles, the center has become a place of cultural production, autonomously managed and economically independent. Every 1st of may, a huge festival celebrates the creation of Forte Prenestino.
Forte Prenestino organizes concerts and events like Crack!, as well as providing different services for the community such as a restaurant, two pubs, a tea room, a recording studio, a popular gym, and a theater.
During the workcamp there won’t be much free time to visit the city of Rome, for instance we suggest you to arrive or depart a few days before or after the camp.

Project hosted by

The camp is organised by Lunaria in collaboration with Forte Prenestino. CSOA Forte Prenestino is an occupied and self-managed social centre that has existed since 1986. Reclaimed from abandonment, it is a space for meeting, socialising, creativity and collective organisation, lived without institutional authorisation or political control. The Forte is self-managed through horizontal assemblies and the free association of people who share a common project and ethics. It experiments with alternative ways of living, organising work, time and decision-making, valuing equality, diversity and collective responsibility. Open to anyone who shares its values, the Forte is entirely self-financed through accessible contributions from cultural and musical initiatives, which support its daily activities, campaigns and mobilisations.
As part of a wider struggle for a different society, Forte Prenestino practices another form of sociality and economy. It is openly anti-fascist, anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-prohibitionist, and remains a deliberately challenging space.

Directions to meeting point

Closest Airport: Rome Fiumicino FCO, Rome Ciampino CIA
Closest train/bus station: Rome Termini train station

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