A Forest Festival
Music. Forests. Art. Ideas. Sounds good, right?
Timber is a new festival exploring the transformative impact of forests, with an exciting programme of artists, performers and areas. Music, art, philosophy and sustainability will weave together into an exhilarating weekend in the heart of the National Forest, one of Britain’s boldest environmental projects.
Festivalgoers will adventure through for its inaugural edition this July (6th-8th), exploring what woodlands can mean to us and how we can re-imagine our relationship with our environment. There will be the opportunity to play and create in an arboreal wonderland, where the tonic of wildness rules supreme.
It's all taking place in the National Forest, the first forest to be created at scale in England for over 1000 years. Spanning parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire, the first trees in the National Forest were planted over 25 years ago, to transform a landscape that had been left scarred and derelict by the closure of the Midlands coalfield. It's a forest for the nation, a national asset that demonstrates a revolutionary approach to forestry, showing how well-designed woodlands can enrich the lives of people, businesses and wildlife, while helping to address climate change.
Highlights include the world premiere of Seek, Find, Speak, the outdoor theatre companion to The Lost Words, music headliners Jane Weaver and This Is The Kit, a keynote address from Stuart Maconie, the English festival premiere of Jony Easterby’s new interactive performance Tree and Wood, and the greenfield festival premiere of Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon.
I'm particularly looking forward to Marshmallow Laser Fest: In the Eyes of the Animal, where you can discover what it’s like to be an animal in the forest through the eyes of four woodland species in an immersive virtual reality experience (have a look at the video below for a taster).
There will also be a fire garden, forest films, a masked ball, storytelling, a coppice maze, woodland workshops, forest bathing, foraging, and a seven metre sculpture of the moon(!).
I'm delighted that Creative Countryside is supporting this not-for-profit festival with sustainability at its heart.
Fancy joining me in July? Get your earlybird ticket here.