If Five Go! down to the woods today, we’re sure of a big surprise!….
Gather round all nature lovers, day dreamers, big thinkers. Step into an incredible weekend festival of debate, celebration and reflection in the National Forest. Timber invites you to stand up and be counted as we rethink our relationship with trees and forests.
Timber is currently just a sapling, this little acorn of a festival that celebrates all things wild, was only planted in the National Forest last year. And thanks to some inspired folk, the forest will once again sing this Summer as Timber returns for a second year from July 5th-7th 2019 – fresh from winning Best New Festival at the UK Festival Awards. We feel incredibly privileged to have been invited to experience the magic of Timber for ourselves as part of the Timber Festival’s press team.
The unique site will host arts and performance, dance and debate, with music from Gwenno, Hannah Peel & Will Burns, Stealing Sheep, You Tell Me, Jesca Hoop and guest curator Elizabeth Alker from BBC Radio 3 and 6Music, to name a few.
Timber festival is the baby of arts organisation Wild Rumpus who will also be bringing their creative flair to Just So Festival in August. Read our preview of Just So Festival, here.
“Timber Festival is underpinned by an ambition to share our love of forests, to celebrate the transformative impact of the National Forest and its rich and diverse heritage and to provoke thoughts, discussion and inspiration about what it means to live sustainably. We hope our audiences join us for an incredibly playful and creative weekend whilst also helping us to manage and mitigate the impact of the festival on the environment, Wild Rumpus”
As a family we are trying to lessen our impact on the environment, and have written our top tips for a more sustainable festival season, which you can read here. We’re so excited that both of the Wild Rumpus festivals we are attending are shouting about sustainibility and the environment.
Timber promises a relaxed and chilled out vibe which I’m hoping it will deliver. As a family we are always busy, yes we go on lots of adventures but we’re also ready to slow down a little and breathe in our surroundings. This year will see Stanley start school and this is our last summer before hitting the school routine. I’m looking forward to just spending some quality time together in a beautiful place. Timber seems to be the perfect opportunity for us to relax and rejuvenate before we are thrown into the fantastical madness that is Just So!
Within the Timber site, there are 8 main areas to explore:
As the Crow Flies
As the crow flies, the fox strides, the hare runs… celebrate your animal self besides our open air fire. This area is all about wildlife by day, and wildfire by night.
The Common
Come feast at nature’s larder! Food and forage, cook and carouse at our wild food kitchen. With food stalls, bars and workshops, there’s definitely something here to tempt you.
Field Notes
The woods are speaking, will you listen? Stories, lessons and lectures from the heart of the forest. Expect the best in nature writing, storytelling and cutting edge ideas.
Elemental
The earth, the air, the fire and the water… get in touch with the fundamentals and explore big ideas at Elemental.
Halcyon Days
Come dance! Come play! Compete! Halcyon Days is our area for circus skills and woodland games.
Shivelight
Strong roots and spread branches, Shivelight is all about wellness. Stretch your body, centre your mind, in the dappled forest light. Shivelight is where you’ll find yoga, tai-chi, mindfulness and other wellness workshops led by expert instructors.
The Canopy
Harness and hone your woodcraft skills. Bring hammer and chisel. Create and cultivate woodland enterprise ideas under the canopy of trees.
The Eyrie Stage
Beats dropped from a great height, words to lift you to lofty places. The Eyrie Stage is dedicated to the best in spoken word and live music.
And here’s our pick of what each area has to offer:
IAN DOUGLAS – CAMPFIRE STORIES
Joined by some curious friends, stories will be woven through the wood smoke all weekend. Gather round for riveting storytelling inspired by British folk tales and world myths from Ian and mind-bending science and magic from the marvellous Dieter Wadeson.
Ok, ok we are a little biased here as we’ve had the pleasure of listening to Ian Douglas before, and we can’t wait to do so again!
PERFECTLY EDIBLE BINNER PARTY
Join Perfectly Edible UK at Timber this summer for their ‘Binner’, where they will be cooking up a vibrant 2-Course Dinner made entirely out of food that would otherwise have been sent to landfill.
This couldn’t be any more us if it tried, we are very proud to say that we have very little food waste here at DirtDigDino HQ. We have 4 hens that polish off any scraps we do have! We’re always trying to educate the boys about the importance of reducing waste.
SIMON WATT’S FROGS & FRIENDS
Frogs might be brilliant but, sadly, they are dying out. In this comedic lecture Simon Watt explores why frogs are better than most people he knows and how studying them has changed the world!
This sounds great, everyone loves frogs don’t they?
WILLOW MAZE
A community-based project headed up by one of our 2018 volunteers, Bill Piper. Come and see a woven-willow maze buried deep at Feanedock.
The boys love playing in mazes so we are definitely going to check this out! Plus it might give us a chance to grab a drink while they find their way out!
BHANGRA TOTS
Join Sohan Kailey for this Bhangra dance and music session especially for little ones ones and their grown ups.
James is a little groover and I think he’ll love this! I’m looking forward to throwing some Bhangra shapes too!
AYURVEDA
Have fun massaging your own or your child’s feet with natural, grounding oils, while discovering how the moon, sun & wind not only affect the weather, but your own feelings too, and enjoy an immersive discussion that celebrates the fun of being a truly beautiful human animal.
I think this will be a lovely little treat for me and Eli, he loves a bit of baby massage and a foot massage sounds like bliss to me!
GREENWOOD CRAFT
Peter Wood of Greenwood Days and Ian Varley of Rustic Carpentry will be set up with pole lathes and shaving horses for you to drop by and have a short try or make something to take away.
Ben will love this, he loves working with wood and will be interested in learning new techniques and/or traditional methods.
WOODLAND DJS
If you go down to the woods tonight, the Woodland DJs will be bringing soul, house and disco from all corners of the world.
If we can keep the kids going long enough we’d love to check this out! We are still clubbers at heart (we put the old in old skool!) and can quite often be found having a kitchen disco into the early hours after the boys have gone to bed on a Friday night!
So there you have it, we can’t wait for this to roll around next month, it’s only 5 weeks away! Eeeek bring on the fun in the forest!
Tickets are still available but selling fast, click here to book yours.
Disclosure: We have been invited to attend Timber Festival by Wild Rumpus as part of thier press team. Tickets are being gifted in return for blog coverage, a review of the event and promotion across my social media channels.
All images are credited to Wild Rumpus © and Timber Festival ™
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