On a Sunday evening in Tompkins Square Park in New York City's East Village, hundreds of people gathered in front of a giant papier-mache face of a woman wearing a crown to watch a play about workers who resisted machines during the Industrial Revolution. The phones stayed in their pockets. That was the rule.
The performance, called "Luddite Recreations," told the history of the Luddite movement, a group of artisans and textile workers in early industrial England whose resistance to being displaced by machinery was met with violence from the British monarchy. It was one of the opening events of a weeklong festival called the Summer of Ludd, according to a report by Ars Technica.
The festival ran through July 5, with most major events concentrated in Tompkins Square Park and nearby locations in the East Village. Activities included talks on how to flirt and date offline, mending workshops, and sessions on how to fight against data centers. A beach day cookout was scheduled for July 4.
The event drew roughly 300 people to its opening performance. A small orchestra, with musicians dressed in Pride regalia, played off to one side. A table nearby held ten different zines on topics ranging from how to stop using Spotify to the role of surveillance technology in schools to a publication titled "Why GenAI Sucks."
The production had an intentionally handmade quality. Everything appeared crafted by hand, giving the event what one observer described as the energy of a high school production. The actor playing Lord Byron, the British poet who historically supported the Luddite cause, opened the play by laying out the week's expectations for the crowd: be present, and no phones, recording, or photos at any point during the events.
The Summer of Ludd is built around a frustration with technology that has found traction among younger generations. The festival framed itself as a space for people to step away from devices and reconnect with in-person community. The original Luddites were not simply anti-technology, but workers who objected to machines being used to undercut their labor and livelihoods. The festival draws a direct line between that historical grievance and current anger at large technology companies.
The week's programming mixed the political with the practical, pairing lectures on data center resistance with hands-on skills like clothing repair. The mix reflected a belief among organizers that disengaging from technology requires both critique and alternatives.
