From Friday May 21 to Sunday May 23, you should get down to Braziers Park in Oxfordshire for the third annual Wood Festival. This festival is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, so you can enjoy good music without your carbon footprint going up a shoesize. Bonus. And with Frank Turner topping the bill, it looks like it will be a right corker. Get your tickets now as it’s bound to be tree-mendous (excuse the really bad pun)
Life’s a beech. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’ll try and refrain from using any more woodlike puns in this article.
Right, so WOOD Festival takes place at Brazier’s Park in Oxfordshire from Friday May 21 to Sunday May 23 and it is going to be massive.
Actually, scratch that last bit. Jungle is massive but WOOD is intimate. Do you see what I did there? Oh sorry. I’d even said that I’d refrain from any more jokes. But it will be intimate as they’re limiting the ticket numbers to just 800 people giving it a real community feel so you better get in there fast if you want a ticket.
Urm, right. Anyway, for all you people out there who want our planet to not overheat and to actually be habitable for future generations this festival is 100 per cent environmentally kosher.
WOOD comes from the creators of TRUCK (they obviously like their capital letters) – and could be considered its folkier, cleaner and greener younger brother. It's a celebration of music and nature.
Having been germinating their line up for the past few weeks, the first shoots are starting to come through and the organisers of WOOD are proud to announce FRANK TURNER who will be headlining this year’s festival.
He is supported by an amazing line-up including the folking brilliant PEGGY SUE, experimental folksters TUNNG, the ever popular Irish troubadour FIONN REGAN, 2008 winner of Radio2 Folk Award for best album MARTIN SIMPSON, friends of the festival DANNY AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD and all the way from America - FRONTIER RUCKUS. Also confirmed are ORA COGAN, TREVOR MOSS & HANNAH LOU, NICK COPE, CATE LE BON, KTB and DUSTY AND THE DREAMING SPIRES. There’s going to be loads more so keep an eye on the festival’s website to keep yourself in the loop.
WOOD is quite possibly Britain's greenest festival: it's powered completely on renewable energy, harnessing the power of the sun, the wind and even the people who attend the event (through a cycle-powered cinema and disco), there are composting toilets (no portaloos!) and a stage made of, you guessed it, wood. They intend to set a standard and encourage all other festivals to follow suit with greener production techniques.
The festival is also piloting the Industry Green certification programme to measure their carbon footprint and other impacts (by scientific means) and keep them as low as possible. This is in tandem with the green charity Julie's Bicycle who target festivals, venues and CD packagers, the creative industries where the biggest greenhouse gas emission savings can be achieved.
There will be opportunities for everyone (from children to grandparents!) to participate, with workshops covering everything from singing, woodcraft, yoga, knitting, story-telling, and thatching, to making wallets from orange juice cartons, campfire sing-alongs and the now famous fantastic kids tent and fancy dress parade.
There are plenty of opportunities to learn more about living a more sustainable lifestyle as well as joining in their lively lunchtime discussions and talks. The festival even has its own organic café serving delicious locally-sourced food and it's own pub, THE HIPPY ARMS selling locally-produced lager, ale and cider.
Weekend Tickets cost £70 for adults, which includes camping and all workshops. There's a junior ticket for ages 13-17 priced £50, children 12 & under can come along for free!
Don't forget you can also get a Supertrucker ticket – giving you access to both WOOD and it's bigger brother TRUCK, which takes place from July 23 to July 25.
You can check out the latest news about WOOD on their website thingy at www.thisistruck.com.
It should be poplar.
