Hundreds of people gathered in Tompkins Square Park last weekend. No phones allowed. No recordings. Just a giant papier-mâché face, a small orchestra, and a play about the Luddite movement.
It’s the Summer of Ludd — a weeklong festival in New York’s East Village running through July 5. The goal? Get people off their screens and into real community.
The opening event was “Luddite Recreations,” a performance covering the original Luddites — English textile workers who smashed machines during the Industrial Revolution. The comparison to today isn’t subtle. Instead of factory looms, the enemy is Big Tech, data centers, and the attention economy.
Organizers stay anonymous. Their spokesperson is a blue cloth puppet named Gowanus with soda-cap eyes. Yes, really. Gowanus says the group started planning in January, building offline alternatives for everything from movies (16mm film screenings) to long-distance chat (shortwave radio workshops).
Events include mending workshops, a beach day cookout, and lessons on how to fight data centers. There’s even a “platformless” presidential campaign announcement from a dumbphone advocate.
Attendance skews Gen Z. A 2025 Pew study found 48% of teens say social media has negative effects on their age group, up from 32% in 2022. They’re not just complaining — they’re organizing.
“We believe the event is the medium to enact social change,” Gowanus says. “When we organize online, we have Mark Zuckerberg’s eyeballs in our sacred human interactions.”
Hard to argue with that.
