PPL PWR MKR FST 2018

With the festival season fast approaching, the need was damn high for PPL PWR to pull itself together and prepare and rebuild its demos and showpieces for the Festival season 2018 - thus PPL PWR MKR FST (can you guess what it stands for?) was born.Set in the rolling hills of Croydon, all the biggest names and anthems were there, thanks to spotify, with headliners such as Adam’s DIY wind turbines, Molkie’s Pallet Benches and Lara’s Technicolour stage - security was tight.

Pallet Benches

Having sourced a million pallets over the last few months, the time was upon the team to make some upcycled benches for the PPL PWR roadshow.After much head scratching, a plan formulated itself, as simple as simplicity itself. Lifting off a single strut, gave access to cut the pallet into 2 unequal halfs. Turned 90 degrees, this shorter length would form the back piece, bolted to the seat piece, the the lifted strut used as infill to create comfort for the bottom - and voila!The addition of bit sanding, and a coat of varnish and PPL PWR had 3 upcycled benches in no time!

DIY Wind Turbine

Cobbled together in 2016 by Adam, from his grandmother’s washing line, a treadmill motor and some PVC piping, the turbine had suffered irreparable trauma at Bloomsbury festival, with the plate to which the blades are bolted cracking into 2.Upgrading from chipboard to plywood, Adam easily made a replacement, evening adding in some flair with rounded edges and within a couple of hours, the wind turbine was better than ever.

Thermoelectric Thortune Teller

Coming from the success of the thermo-electric generators demoed at the Future Me: Institute of Imagination event and Imperial Festival, it was time to up the anti and make a full on demo piece fit for Brainchild.Paul set about mounting the thermoelectric pads directly to the top of an Ikea table, routing the wires through to the underside, and embedding them directly to the underside of the table.Why? We hadn’t quite decided yet, until we got talking about Mystic Meg (ask your parents) and suddenly, the Thermoelectric Thortune Teller was born!Crawling under the the table, those seeking the fortune will whisper their question to the mystic, at which point, in all their wisdom, the fortune teller will reveal their destiny by lighting up one of the answers.Well, that will happen, if they can find a friend who is will to provide the power to light the LED, through placing their hand on one of the sensors on the table of the table.

PPL PWR Pallet Stage

Normally found squirrelling away at the PPL PWR stage round her Aunt’s house, Lara joined the MKR FST to ensure the sourced pallets fitted the artistic vision of the stage, which would go onto to make the stage and seating to her walls and roofing.With her paints recycled from her Aunt, the stage was looking colourful in no time!

Brainchild 2018

With Brainchild fast approaching, it was a huge relief to finish a load of the pieces that we would be taking to the festival and even better to see how well they worked.Now we just need to pray Molkie’s van is in good enough nick to get everything to the site! Bring on Brainchild 2018!