Inside a Luddite festival to harness Gen Z’s rage against big tech companies

On Sunday In the evening in the middle of Tompkins Square Park in New York City’s East Village, hundreds of people gather in front of a giant paper face of a woman wearing a crown. It is a theatrical backdrop, its body composed of drapes that resemble a dress but serve a dual purpose, allowing the actors to dart on and off the stage.

I’m here to see a show called “The Recreation of the Luddites,” which is a history of the Luddite movement—a group of craftsmen and textile workers who resisted the adoption of machinery during the early years of the Industrial Revolution in England and whose resistance to being removed from their work was met with violence by the British monarchy.

It’s one of the inaugural events of the Summer of Ludd, a week-long series of talks and activities like how to flirt and date offline, tinkering, and learning to fight against data centers, all focused on getting people off their phones and into society.

Poster insulting ChatGPT.

Photo: Vittoria Elliott

Photo: Vittoria Elliott

Everything is clearly handmade, giving it the energy of high school production (for free). On one side sits a small orchestra conducted by people dressed in pride. Behind them, a table holds 10 different magazines covering everything from how to get off Spotify to the role of surveillance technology in schools to “Why GenAI is Failing.”

Events will continue through July 5, with most of the main segments centered in Tompkins Square Park. (There will be a cookout at the beach on July 4, as well as events at nearby locations in the East Village.)

At the beginning of the play, the actor playing Lord Byron, the famous British poet who supported the Luddite movement, tells the audience of about 300 the rules of the week: Be present, and absolutely no phones, recording or taking photos.

None of the week’s events, including the play, are announced online. Posters in the neighborhood advertise the Summer of Luddite, declaring “Only in Real Life!”, and brochures containing the schedule of the week’s events have been placed in community spaces throughout the area.

I learned about the event in a serendipitous way offline. Earlier in June, I was with a friend in the East Village, and we got caught in a heavy summer rain. While I was waiting for it at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, a small place that documents the history of activism in the neighborhood, I found the brochure summarizing the events of Loud’s summer among many other magazines, posters, and fliers. And there I was, my phone put away, my notebook, and the play bill in my hand.