Camped out on Trinity Presbyterian Church’s lawn this September 14 through the 22 was an organization known as the Carnival de Resistance. This traveling demonstration group bikes across the United States with all of their belongings on their backs.

The performers live very rugged lifestyles that encompass their overall goal of being environmentally friendly. The Carnival’s mission is to influence others to live similar lifestyles without attacking the audience with facts about the earth’s imminent death, as many “green” advocates tend to do. They instead choose to make viewers aware of the problems in the environment through song, dance, and theater, all taking place in a carnival setting. Each different performance focuses on a different area of natural powers: Air, Water, Fire, and Earth.

Juniors Chloe and Shannon Richard attend Trinity Presbyterian, the host church of the Carnival during its stay in Harrisonburg, so they and their family were very involved in the Carnival. They attended the Carnival on September 15, with the theme of Earth.

“They used leaves and branches and talked about cutting down trees and how that related to the Bible. They also used a story from the Bible,” Shannon Richard said.
Throughout the performance, the actors read a series of poems. They also sang tribal songs and one woman danced in native African style.

“They had some really awesome artists and dancers. I can’t imagine myself ever doing that, but it was really cool,” Chloe Richard said.
The Carnival was set up in the format of an old-fashioned circus, with smaller tents outside one major tent.

“Outside there was a midway with carnival games and then there was a big tent. The front of the tent was sectioned off and you’d sit on the ground and listen to music before the show, and then they opened the curtain and there was a stage and that’s where you’d watch the performance,” Chloe Richard said.
Phoebe Copeland attended the Carnival on September 21, and performance theme was fire. Earlier that day it had been raining, so all the activities had been consolidated into the tent.

“[In the tent], there was this spider web of rope with little pieces of cloth tied to it. There was also this wall that was actually this big piece of paper that they were painting on and it looked really cool. There were also carnival games, chairs, and tent poles set up all around,” Copeland said.

The overall opinion of the high school attenders was that it was a little weird but mostly pretty interesting.

“It was weird because I’m not used to that sort of thing, but it was really cool and helped them convey their point of view on these things in a different way,” Shannon Richard said.

This eco-friendly Carnival will be in Charlottesville, VA from September 28 to October 6