Hundreds Gather in Tompkins Square Park for New York’s “Summer of Ludd” Festival

In New York City’s East Village, hundreds of people gathered in Tompkins Square Park for “Luddite Recreations,” a performance that opened the weeklong “Summer of Ludd” and focused on getting people off their phones and into community.

“Hacker Houses and Fan Bands goodbye freddyla7 I’m going to take a few days off for my birthday, for America’s birthday, for a long weekend road trip, but mostly because Taylor Swift’s wedding is about to consume the news cycle for at least 72 hours”

After School by Casey Lewis

The festival’s organizers set the tone with rules delivered at the start of the play, where an actor playing Lord Byron told the crowd of about 300: “Be present, and absolutely no phones, recording, or photos allowed.”

After School by Casey Lewis

Wired described the event as running through July 5, with most major parts concentrated in Tompkins Square Park and a beach day cookout on July 4 as part of the schedule.

The Ars Technica account similarly placed the opening gathering in Tompkins Square Park and said the weeklong series included talks and activities such as “how to flirt and date offline” and “learning to fight against data centers.”

Organizers spoke through Gowanus, described as a blue cloth “media puppet” with soda-cap eyes operated by a masked puppeteer, to keep the group’s identities anonymous while addressing the public.

Wired quoted Gowanus saying the New York Luddite Renaissance is a “loose group of organizers that have no formal affiliation as of now but have been coalescing around noticing similar problems of alienation and overreliance on Big Tech.”

Ars Technica

Breitbart likewise framed Gowanus’s message around social change, quoting: “We believe that the event is the medium to enact social change, where people can meet up in physical space.”

Both outlets tied the offline focus to a critique of online organizing, with Wired adding that when organizers try to organize online, they have “Mark Zuckerberg’s eyeballs and Silicon Valley’s fingers in the sacred human interactions of our lives.”

The festival’s programming included zines and workshops aimed at replacing constant connectivity, including tables with “ten different zines” and activities covering topics from abandoning Spotify to surveillance technology in schools.

“In New York City’s East Village, a weeklong festival dubbed the “Summer of Ludd” is bringing hundreds of young people together to learn how to live without constant digital connectivity and to resist the omnipresence of technology companies”

Breitbart News

Wired reported that a table held 10 different zines including “Why GenAI Sucks,” and said the events would continue through July 5 with most major parts concentrated in Tompkins Square Park.

Breitbart added that the programming included partnerships such as the Museum of Interesting Things screening 16-millimeter films, and workshops teaching participants to use shortwave radios and walkie talkies for long-distance communication.

The Ars Technica account connected the movement’s tone to Gen Z’s relationship with digital life, noting that the Luddite movement has become “heavily associated with Gen Z,” the first generation to grow up entirely with digital technology, even as some young people became increasingly critical of tech’s omnipresence in society.