Win a weekend trip to Falmouth

Celebrate the UK’s first zero-carbon trading project with a weekend trip to Falmouth, a stay in a luxury eco-hotel and tickets to the New Dawn Traders welcome home party.

Bristol-based New Dawn Traders are on a mission to run the UK’s first zero-carbon coffee back to Bristol, in time for the Food Connections coffee rave.

The ethically-sourced coffee beans come from Dominican Republic and will be sailed across the North Atlantic Ocean on their engineless ship, Tres Hombres. Once the beans arrive in Falmouth, they will be loaded onto a train, and transported by electric rickshaw to their final destination, Extract Coffee Roasters in St Werburgh’s.

The mission is about “bringing food trade to a human scale and consumerism to a conscious level,” says Alex Geldenhuys, founder of New Dawn Traders.

The coffee beans will be delivered in time for the early morning tropical coffee rave at Extract Coffee Roasters on Friday, May 8 – part of the Food Connections festival – for a morning of Caribbean-inspired dance workshops, from calypso, to cumbia and merengue. 

Ravers can expect to wash down cinnamon rolls from Hart’s Bakery with the finest New Dawn Traders’ espressos and spiced sipping chocolate.

Alex continues: “We want people to rethink their consumption habits. At the moment 90 percent of what we buy comes off container ships, but how much of this do we actually need? Ultimately we should look to fulfil most of our wants and needs locally. 

“The cargos that we choose to sail over from distant lands are of value because they are products that cannot be grown in England and are of cultural significance and curiosity; like coffee, chocolate and rum.

“We need to re-enchant a culture around the stuff we make and trade and consume.”

To celebrate this important mission, Bristol 24/7 are excited to team up with the Food Connections festival to offer one lucky reader a truly unique prize.

The winner will get train tickets to Falmouth and  two nights in a luxury eco-hotel, be part of the flotilla to welcome the sailing ship home, run the UK’s first zero-carbon coffee from the boat and onto a First Great Western train, and sing sea-shanties until the sun comes up at the New Dawn Traders welcome home fiesta.

Lorna Knapman of Food Connections says: “This event is what Food Connections is all about.  We want to connect people with good food and drink as well as offering inspiration and experiences to help change the way we think and eat. It’s going to be really fun, however there is a serious message behind what we do.”

To enter: make sure you are signed up to the Bristol24/7 newsletter (sign-in details below) and then email [email protected] with the subject line ‘Food Connections’, your name and contact details. Enter by midday on Monday, April 20.* 

Terms and conditions:

–          –Participants will need to be free to travel on the morning of Friday, May 1
-Competition winner will be provided with two rail tickets by First Great Western, to travel from any UK train station to Falmouth
-Competition winner will win two nights at the nearby eco-hotel on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2
-Prize included two tickets on the flotilla ferry at Falmouth, to sail out and meet the New Dawn Traders as they arrive back into port 
-The winner will receive free access to a programme of talks and workshops taking place over the weekend
-The winner will receive two tickets to the New Dawn Traders welcome home party on the evening of Sunday, May 3

 *Please note: The closing date of this competition has been brought forward to April 20.

What’s on at Bristol Food Connections 2015