24-28 February 2015
It took just two months from the first meeting to the full programme - surely a record for a week-long festival of any kind! In early October, my RSPB colleague, poet Matt Howard, and I sat round a table with other organisations to gauge interest in a festival celebrating the cultural ties that connect us to nature. Earlier in the summer Mark Cocker, Matt and I had shared a few beers, bemoaning what seemed like a progressive unravelling of these historic links. Mark phoned around and found plenty of takers for a meeting to discuss what we might do about it.
It was thanks to Dr. Al Cormack and his colleagues at Gresham's School, Holt, that what started as a tentative idea for 2016 will be a reality as early as February 2015! Each February since 2011 Gresham's have run a festival, which in the past couple of years has focused on nature. At the October meeting Al offered to open the programme to the group, and within a few days each organisation had come up with an event they will present in this, the first Norfolk Festival of Nature. Click on the Festival logo or visit the NATURAL LIGHT What's On page for full details.
It was thanks to Dr. Al Cormack and his colleagues at Gresham's School, Holt, that what started as a tentative idea for 2016 will be a reality as early as February 2015! Each February since 2011 Gresham's have run a festival, which in the past couple of years has focused on nature. At the October meeting Al offered to open the programme to the group, and within a few days each organisation had come up with an event they will present in this, the first Norfolk Festival of Nature. Click on the Festival logo or visit the NATURAL LIGHT What's On page for full details.
educational activities include a haiku competition and a nature writing workshop
In the programme are a number of high-profile artists and authors including writers Patrick Barkham and Mark Cocker, illustrator Sheila Tilmouth and audio-visual artist Kathy Hinde, whose work with the RSPB we featured here in September. Patrick Barkham will team up with the National Trust's Matthew Oates to present the Festival Lecture exploring Spirit of Place. The RSPB presents a concert of nature-inspired music, an evening of audio visual responses to nature, and poetry readings. The Hawk and Owl Trust, Norfolk Castle Museum and Art Gallery and Norfolk Wildlife Trust are contributing talks on subjects as diverse as birds of prey, landscape and nature painting and the future of nature itself.
Educational activities will include a schools' haiku competition sponsored by Festival partner Bray's Cottage and a nature writing workshop in the woodland environment of Gresham's.
Later in 2015 the Festival partners hope to present further activities throughout the county, so keep in touch for regular updates.
Educational activities will include a schools' haiku competition sponsored by Festival partner Bray's Cottage and a nature writing workshop in the woodland environment of Gresham's.
Later in 2015 the Festival partners hope to present further activities throughout the county, so keep in touch for regular updates.
Kathy Hinde presenting Piano Migrations at TEDx Aldeburgh. Kathy will team up with RSPB North Norfolk Manager and NATURAL LIGHT editor Laurence Rose to present an evening of musical and audio-visual responses to nature.
The Norfolk Festival of Nature is in association with Bray’s Cottage, Gresham’s School, Mark Cocker, Hawk and Owl Trust, The National Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norwich Castle Museum, Rialto Magazine, The RSPB, Wild Anglia and Writers’ Centre Norwich.
The Norfolk Festival of Nature is in association with Bray’s Cottage, Gresham’s School, Mark Cocker, Hawk and Owl Trust, The National Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norwich Castle Museum, Rialto Magazine, The RSPB, Wild Anglia and Writers’ Centre Norwich.
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