A FESTIVAL to celebrate the natural world is returning to Emersons Green Park – with a new name.
The park’s friends group first staged the Three Greens Festival two years ago, and it returned last summer with extra activities.
Now the festival is back again with more new features – and a new name, Earthfest.
Taking place on July 1, Earthfest will include the walking tours with naturalists and traditional music familiar to visitors to previous festivals.
But the organisers have added new features, including the premiere of a specially-composed story, with music and dance, called ‘The Earth and Us’.
Lead organiser Chris Sunderland, of the Friends of Emersons Green Park, wrote the story, a “whirlwind tour of Earth history” with storyteller Michael Loader and musician Fiona Barrow.
Chris said: “What amazed me as we put this together was the sense that almost no one else is talking about the history of the Earth. Surely this is a story that must be told.”
As in previous years the festival will begin with a parade from the Langley Arms across the park to the festival site near the library, gathering from 9.30am for a 10am start.
Organisers are inviting everyone to join the parade and dress up in green tops and red hats in honour of the local ‘bird of the year’, the green woodpecker.
The festival will celebrate the Community Nature Reserve set up by Emersons Green Town Council, the Friends and other groups, which now has more than 200 gardens registered across the area, with bird box building and other workshops aimed at making the gardens involved even more nature-friendly.
Avon Wildlife Trust will offer wildflower plants and advice about growing them, and there will be a ‘Garden of Promise’, where people can leave a wildflower plant to be planted later by the Friends.
Music is set to include a ‘Song for the Earth’ by the choir of Emersons Green Primary School and performances by the Great Day Choir and Ham Farm festival organiser Emily Correa, on a flute made from a vegetable.
A walk to discover the “rhythms of nature” will be followed by a percussion workshop.
A competition called ‘I Live Here’, where people are encouraged to draw something that lives in the area and write something about it on a side of A4 is being held beforehand, with entries to be displayed at the festival.
Chris said: “We are aiming to break new ground this year, going deeper into the heart of what really matters to this generation and re-imagining our relationship with the Earth.”
More details of the competition, bookings and information about events can be found on the Friends of Emersons Green Park website or Facebook page.