THIS year’s expanded Earthfest in Emersons Green proved the creativity of the community, organisers say.
More than a dozen events were held over four weeks in May and June as part of the celebration of nature, which expanded from a one-day event for the first time this year.
Highlights included bat and swift walks, a rock competition, and a ‘no-dig’ allotment advice session attended by more than 70 people.
Lead organiser Chris Sunderland said: “Running the festival over a month instead of one day allowed it to include a much broader set of events and reach a larger, more diverse audience.
“One of the most exciting things about this year’s Earthfest was how much of it arose from the local community. It proved that we are truly a hotbed of creativity.
“The rock competition, for example, was a local idea. People bring in rocks and we ask a geologist to tell us about them.
“How enthralling it was to hear Mark Howson, from Bristol Naturalists Society, show us our rocks under the microscope, reveal how the fossil parts of them fizz under hydrochloric acid and tell us that some of them were over 400 million years old.
“Even Mark was shocked to see that one of our local people had brought in a dinosaur bone!”
Earthfest also featured a ‘sensory walk’ for the first time this year.
Chris said: “To everyone’s surprise this was led by a visually impaired guide from Westonbirt Arboretum, who told us his personal story even as he helped us encounter nature as he experiences it, with touch, feel, smell and hearing.
“The Earth Trail was also a first. The attempt to tell the story of the Earth from its beginnings as people walked around the park was a new idea and the music accompanying the words ‘lifted it to a whole other level’, according to one listener.”
The Friends hope to install the trail permanently in the park.
Chris said the living willow dinosaur was possibly the central figure of the festival.
He said: “It may have rained during the launch of the dinosaur garden, but young and old still turned out and made dinosaur footprints and little willow dinosaurs.
“Somehow, the dinosaur summed it up. The attempt to connect with Earth history, the sheer power of our imagination of the dinosaur era and the creativity of the community that had conceived the idea.”
The festival ended with a picnic in the park which included music from a flute quartet, Emersons Green Primary School choir and Brazilian music enthusiasts Clube de Choro.