Tag: Summer Gathering 2026

This year, the Earth First! summer gathering will be at a squatted site. This isn’t anything new, as EF! has a long and proud history of reclaiming space, most recently during the 2023 summer gathering at a proposed coal mine location in Whitehaven, Cumbria.

However, we know the last two gatherings have been on permissive sites, and we want to make sure that those who have become EF!ers in the last few years are aware of the differences.

What is squatting?

Squatting is when you occupy land or a building without the landowner’s permission. This is trespassing, which is against the law, however crucially it is only a civil offence. This means that technically the landowner can take you to civil court to regain possession of the land, but it’s not a criminal offence, meaning that the police shouldn’t get involved, and the crown prosecution service can’t charge you for it.

Although civil trespass itself isn’t a criminal offence, it’s still possible to commit other criminal offences while squatting. For example, if you are both trespassing and intentionally obstructing, disrupting, or intimidating others from carrying out ‘lawful activities’ on that land, this becomes aggravated trespass. Trespass can also become criminal if you are residing on land with one or more vehicles, while causing damage or distress. If you cause any damage to property, this is criminal damage. We will not be committing any criminal offences, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

But I don’t know how to squat somewhere!

There will be a dedicated group of people responsible for setting up the site initially. If you are a general attendee, just wait for the location announcement on the website (probably by 10am on Wednesday 12th August). If you see it, this means the site has been secured and it should be fine to arrive. So don’t worry – you won’t be expected to rock up and be part of the group securing the site without your prior knowledge! Once set up, the site should be fairly similar in vibes to what you find at permissive gatherings. There’ll be camping, workshops, games, food, singing and friends, just like always. We’ll want as many people as early as possible to make it safer for everyone, so please plan to arrive on the morning of Wednesday.

How risky is it?

Generally, squatting is not particularly risky. The main avenue open to the landowner is to take squatters to court, to get either a possession order or an interim possession order. They both require a minimum of 2 working days notice before the hearing, and with our gathering being just 6 days, leaving on the Monday after a weekend, it is impossible that either of these potential orders would arrive in time to matter.

Another common strategy is to try to use private muscle to intimidate and remove people from the land. This is legal to a point, as private security has the right to use so-called ‘reasonable force’ to remove trespassers. However, this is also quite unlikely, as we will be a gathering with at least several hundred people. This is far too many for them to consider violently removing. It will also look very bad for them – we’re just people who care about the world having a short, peaceful gathering in a way that respects the land we’re on (more than the landowners do!)

It is also possible that they will call the police, even though we won’t be committing any criminal offences. The most likely result will be that a couple of rural crime bobbies will come and have a look, and through a combination of “this is a civil matter, they’re not doing crime” and “oooh look there are rather quite a lot more of them than us, we don’t have enough resources to try to remove them all, and then we’d have to carry their tents away too”, will leave and do nothing.

We can only talk about probabilities – it’d be lying to suggest we can guarantee anything. However, even if the already unlikely bad scenario happens where lots of goons and/or cops show up, it is even MORE unlikely that they won’t allow people who want to leave to leave. They will be looking to remove us at that point – and if that passes your personal risk threshold and you need to go, that is absolutely fine, and they should let you go, as it’ll be what they want too. However, we do think that a large response is very unlikely – informed consent just involves talking about all scenarios.

What do you think will happen?

The landowner will probably be a bit disgruntled at first, but we’ll explain that we’ll be gone in a few days and we’re not going to damage anything or disrupt any lawful activity, and so the path of least resistance will be for them to grumble and just wait for us to leave.

Of course, it is possible we may fail to secure our primary site. If this happens, we’ll announce a delay on our website, and then move on to our backup site, which will then be announced. This will probably be on the afternoon of the 12th (or evening if it is an especially tricky day…)

Greetings – there’s just over a week to go until the 2026 EF! Summer Gathering in the Peak District.

Unfortunately, we all know the climate crisis is responsible for the scarily hot and dry weather. We have had a summer of heatwaves, and August is unlikely to be different. There are wildfires all over the world, and currently several burning in the Peak District.

The gathering intends to be incredibly careful around the risk of starting any fires at the site. Some of this is the responsibility of the site crew – for example, we will be having the heating element of our kitchen in an off-site, fire safe location. However, fire safety is also about asking everyone participating to stick to some collective agreements.

The EF! gatherings collective is asking attendees:

• Don’t bring personal camping stoves (if you require your own food for access reasons, please email earthfirst.uk@proton.me to discuss)
• Not to bring any glass bottles (they can start fires)
• To only smoke and vape in our designated smoking areas, where there will be sand buckets for cigarette butts, and water buckets & fire extinguishers
• Don’t have any barbecues or campfires

Site location

This year, EF! will be squatting a site in the Peak District. As it will be non-permissive, the exact location can’t be shared ahead of time. It will be shared on this website on the morning of Wednesday 12th August.

However, the rough location can still be shared, as it’s often important to make bookings in advance.

Traveling from the East (Sheffield)

It’s recommended that people coming from the East side of the country make their way to Sheffield. The site location is accessible by a direct bus ride from the city centre, lasting no more than 45 minutes and costing £3. The bus runs from the morning until the early evening – any gaps in the service should be filled by a shuttle.

It will then be a 5 minute walk on slightly bumpy, narrow, and then steep terrain. (We appreciate this sounds concerning to people with mobility needs – please email us earthfirst.uk@proton.me if you’d like to talk about options)

Sheffield is accessible by train and coach from virtually all major cities.

Traveling from the West (Manchester then Bamford)

If you are traveling from the West of the country, you are still welcome to make your way to Sheffield, however you may also find it easier to go to Manchester and then take the Hope Valley line to Bamford, from which the site will be a half-hour direct bus ride, costing £3.

Manchester is accessible by train and coach from virtually all major cities. The train to Bamford normally runs hourly from about 6am to 10pm and lasts about an hour.

The anytime fare is £15.10 (£10.05 with a railcard) for a single, or £19.60 (£13.05 with a railcard) for a return. Often cheaper advance tickets are available.

When to arrive and leave

Site setup will start from the early morning on Wednesday 12th August, however it may take a few hours to secure it enough to be able to publicly announce it. It should be announced by 10am, from which point everyone is welcome and encouraged to come help set up the site! If you’re planning on arriving early, bring some water and a packed lunch, as the first scheduled meal won’t be until the evening.

The gathering will last until Monday 17th, which is the pack down day. There will be breakfast, but no lunch and dinner. Everyone should expect to leave by mid afternoon – please stay and help us to pack down if you can, but as it’s a squat you may not want to linger too long after most others have left. There will be plenty of other pretty places nearby if you wanted to stay in the Peaks!

How much money?

This gathering is as DIY as it gets, and doing it ourselves also means funding it ourselves. No one profits off of these gatherings. No one gets paid.

Gatherings always run on a donation basis, and no one is turned away for lack of funds. At the welcome desk you will be able to donate whatever feels right, based on ‘solidarity pricing’:

Solidarity pricing: Have more, pay more. Have less, pay less.

Here’s a little guide to help you judge how much you can afford compared to others, it’s not just about income, other factors are important. Class, wealth and experiences of systemic oppression all play a part. Remember, it’s just a guide, an imperfect way to create a more economically liberating model while we work to smash capitalism and create different economic systems.

• Some factors that can allow you to afford more:

– Having above average income

– Owning land or property

– Being likely to inherit property or wealth

– Having significant wealth, savings or investments

– Being easily able to meet basic needs and can afford luxuries (holidays, takeaway)

– Having recognised educational background and qualifications (good schools, degrees, postgrad etc.) 

– Being easily able to get well paid work

– Having a safety net or strong social support networks (eg a parents house to retreat to, friends with money etc.)

• Some factors that can reduce how much you can afford:

– Earning less than average income

– Supporting dependents or having care responsibilities (children, relatives, partners etc.)

– Having disabilities or long term ill-health

– Regularly being in contact with state/institutional violence

– Precarious migration status (eg being a Refugee, asylum seeker or person without papers)

– Being unable to legally work

– Experiencing financial distress (eg. unexpected court fees, losing a job, sudden rent increases)

– Experiencing systemic oppression due to things such as race, class, gender, neurodiversity, sexuality

No one is turned away for lack of funds, please don’t let cost put you off attending!

We all have different relationships to money and we encourage everyone to be honest with themselves. The emotions that come up when we talk about what we can afford can often cloud our judgement. Capitalism breeds a culture of scarcity – for some this feels like emotional instability and uncertainty, and for others this looks like material poverty and a lack of resources. It is impossible to talk about things like class, money, wealth or income without thinking about systemic oppressions like racism or ableism.

 There are lots of hidden costs involved with gatherings like this. Some stuff can’t be found in bins or borrowed, and while we try to keep costs down, there is equipment we would like to purchase to make summer camps like this more accessible in the future, (eg track matting, a minibus, lighting, solar panels, hearing induction loop,.) By donating more generously you are helping achieve this!

No one is turned away from EF! for a lack of funds, but if you are planning on spending any money at the gathering, cash is preferred as there’s not a cash machine near the site!

EF! is as DIY as it gets, which means sometimes the card reader doesn’t have signal, and do you really want to give someone your whole entire government name so you do a bank transfer to buy their zine?

EF! doesn’t receive funding from billionaires and donations help cover costs like food, kit maintenance, hiring vans and buying equipment to increase accessibility of the gatherings. If you are unsure what you should contribute, please have a read of this solidarity pricing guide