TREETALK#4 JULY

Things are really shaping up for BTT2022. Schedules are being finalised and the programme is being created. We’ve been very fortunate to be able to offer 4 Cardiff Met University / Santander Bank sponsored internships for the past few years and this year we have; Meg Cox (Artist Liaison), Bekah Stone (Speaker Liaison), Hannah Styles (Graphic Designer) and Adebayo Oyeniyan (Health & Safety). These are great opportunities for the students to practice their newly acquire skills in real work situations and its also a tremendous help to us at this crucial stage of planning.

Spoken Word – Since we spoke last, there have been some exciting additions to the 2022 programme which we thought you’d like to hear about. There are two very distinctive, but related, themes running through this year’s festival spoken word line-up, the first being “Tales from the Land” and the second “Connections to the Land”. In the first theme on Saturday we will hear about the magical stories of Wales and two new additions to this line-up include award winning children’s writers, Claire Fayers (right) and Catherine Fisher (left). Claire’s recent publication “Welsh fairy tales, myths and legends” which answers questions like “why does the Welsh flag have a dragon on it? Should you ever trust the magical Tylwyth Teg? and what happens when you ask witches too many questions?

Catherine Fisher has written numerous best selling children’s fantasy books as has been described as a “writer of rare talent” by the Sunday Times. Catherine has won many awards for her work, including The Cardiff International Poetry Prize. Her book, The Oracle was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book Prize and Incarceron was The Times Children’s Book of the Year and New York Times Bestseller.

These two amazingly talent writers will be appearing in the Seren Barn on Saturday afternoon to read excepts from their books. It will be so amazing for children (and parents) to delve into this imaginary world of tales and fantasy in the magical ambience of the Seren Barn.

The Seren Barn

Festivals have been described as “thin places”; places where the “magic” happens, places where people can express themselves and allow their creative sides to run freely and places where new friendships between like-minded souls are formed. This year we have a new area called The Nest or Y Nyth, which will be the focus of people coming together to chat and share their stories with others. We especially think it will work as a gathering place for morning coffee.

Our well-being and permaculture area is also taking shape with massage and yoga, but also talks from individuals who practice alternative farming techniques and permaculture. The treatments sessions will be bookable at the Forest Barn during the festival using the sign up sheets and the short talks will be announced on the blackboards at the well-being area.

We also heard today that the Open Mic and Open Choir Sessions are returning to The Cwtch area. These were a great success last year and the great team from Sing Happy will be running the choral sessions again. We cant wait to see the final choir perform their new songs in front of the stage again!

The Cwtch 2021

FOOD and BAR. Lastly, we want to tell you about the Food and Bar provision this year. It takes a while to get this right and we feel that we are getting closer and closer to getting there. Finding good quality food traders is not easy, but I feel that we have source some of the best, including Fresh Rootz, The Bearded Taco, The Greedy Pig, Ice Green, Pwdin and Captain Brown’s Pizza. We are also having an organic smoothie maker on Saturday and Sunday. Drum roll…! now for the exciting bit, we will have what can only be described as a “CAMRA quality” real ale bar with over 15 breweries and cider makers represented over the weekend. This is not an easy thing to do and you have to work with people who understand and love beer, so hats off to Gareth Roberts (The Little Pen-y-bont Arms) and Rob Lilford (Tomos a Lilford Brewery) for making this happen.

The 2022 Food Traders Hall of Fame

Look forward to welcoming you to the forest and please invite your friends. We are nearly sold out, but it would be so nice if you could bring your extended family and friends network along to Between The Trees.

best wishes Andrew, Dawn and rest of the BTT Team.