Across three days, The Planting – Woodford Folk Festival's smaller sibling – gathers performers, speakers, stall holders and participants together to work on the land as well as reflect on nature, environmentalism, and community.
Part community camp, part music and ideas festival, all gardening, The Planting is basically a working bee to care for and rejuvenate the land.
After communal, early morning yoga, participants can take part in a plethora of environmental projects, from tending to Lake Gkula to joining the Weedos (who, clearly, take charge of weeding duties).
However, gardening crews aren't just given tasks. The work is also a learning opportunity. For example, the Bushfood Pod not only takes care of the food forests, they teach participants about the area's native edible plants and how to use them.
After a hard day mulching and pulling weeds, festival goers gathered at the performance space to listen to speeches on the many uses of hemp, or catch some live music.
Although a fraction of the size of the New Year festival, so, so much was on offer.
Presenters talked about native bees, lungfish, the importance of dark skies, frogs, fireflies, citizen science, and much, much more.
Musicians included the wonderful SAIJE, Troy Cassar-Daley , O'Leary & Rizzalli, Dizzy Days and good tunes jam sessions. Costa, the ABC Garden Gnome was everywhere, and as utterly delightful as ever.
The Planting is a family-friendly event, with kids joining appropriate working bee activities, riding their bikes around the camp grounds, jumping in the lake or heading over to the activities tents.
Kids and adults alike made clay creations, baked mud pies with Dirt Girl's gang, and used plants to die muslin bags.
More often than not, over at the chess tent, kids whipped their adults' butts at the board game, with parents from across the land suffering collective humiliation.
The Planting has something for everyone, including excellent food, albeit from just a handful of stands.
The native plum margarita made from a tree just a few steps from the stall was hard to go past as the sun went down and the music started to flow.
Families gathered 'round campfires, and conversations were struck up with strangers. In these stressful days, getting out into nature and fostering a sense of community is great for the soul.
