There's a New Festival Coming to England's First Forest for 1,000 Years

The National Forest is the UK’s boldest environmentally led regeneration project. Over the last 25 years, more than eight and a half million trees have been planted across parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire, transforming miles of former farmland and an old coalfield into verdant woodland.

Next year The National Forest hosts Timber, a three-day festival celebrating woodland culture with installations exploring the interface between humanity and nature, which will feature three stages with an eclectic mix of folk and ambient music, DJs, poetry and yoga.

Created in collaboration with Wild Rumpus, award-winning producers of the Just So Festival, Timber will be powered by 100% renewable energy, making it carbon neutral. There will be foraging workshops and torchlight processions, reconnecting revellers with the natural world.

Inspired by artist David Nash’s Noon Columns (six temporal-based sculptures, through which the sun sends a shaft of light at true noon every day) Timber will hold special events to mark nature’s rhythms, such as dawn choirs and midnight gigs.

‘Timber is both a celebration and statement of intent,’ says John Everitt, chief executive of the National Forest Company. ‘It’s a celebration of how the National Forest has transformed 200 square miles of the English Midlands, and a statement of intent to create an international movement to champion forests. The festival will shine a spotlight on trees as a catalyst for change.’

Timber Festival, 6–8 July 2018 at Feanedock, early bird weekend camping tickets are £120 per adult, £40 per child, timberfestival.org.uk.
You might also be interested in: The UK’s 10 Most Unusual Festivals and The 10 Best Food Festivals in the UK.