The Planting is back in Woodfordia this weekend, celebrating its 21st anniversary.
The Planting started as a free, tree-planting weekend but has now transformed into emerging cultural parklands at Woodfordia. The 2015 festival is working towards making The Planting an event in its own right, different from the Woodford Folk Festival.
The Planting aims to encompass the notion of knowledge sharing in the humanities, arts and earth sciences and also includes live performances, children’s activities, films, ceremonies and much, much more. Included in this year’s festival is the celebrated Community Tree Planting event. Woodfordia has been graced with the addition of 100,000 trees planted during past events.
As well as tree planting, The Planting also provides a number of environmental education projects such as: The Construction Of A Native Bee Wall and The Bamboo Forest Plantings. CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O’Shanassy, will also be present to give a talk about the power of people and discuss the role of community leadership. While CEO of OzHarvest, Ronni Kahn, will be presenting ‘Ronni Kahn: The Story Of OzHarvest’ to discuss her story, inspiration and experiences.
A variety of forums will also be taking place, including the Compost Beyond Talk, Follow For Money and Grown Up Principles Integrate Or Replace.
A large part of The Planting festival is the live performances. Tami Neilson, folk-country music artist from Canada/ New Zealand, will be performing with her band of first-class musicians to captivate the audience with her incredible voice straight from the deep roots of the country. Perch Creek will also be entertaining audiences with their energetic five-piece, who happen to be siblings, with folk, rock and roots music combined in an impressive style of collaborative song writing.
Also joining The Planting is Mr. Percival. Mr. Percival is an enigmatic performer who will be bringing his Singing Tent to the festival for the first time so everyone can join him. Melbourne duo The Twoks will be performing with their captivating, energetic and entertaining live show. And Sunshine Coast local, Sahara Beck, will also be joining them to entertain audiences with her rhythmic acoustic sound.
Six-piece band Kingfisha will bring their reggae and dub music combined with their love of Jamaican rhythms. Sparrow Folk will also be joining the action with their comedy-duo show that tackles topics from breastfeeding to relationships and the delicate nature of monogamous bedroom conversation.
Catherine Deveny is a comedian, writer and speaker who will be entertaining audiences with her creative segments. Desh Ramiah will be joining her in ‘The Great Planting Debate: That Two Heads Are Better Than One’, the annual challenge to lock horns and pitch wits in the name of being the most convincing side of the room.
A number of ceremonies will also be taking place including ‘Lighting The Winter Fires’ where all festival participants build a bonfire and burn it to celebrate the wintery days ahead. Another ceremony that will be taking place is the ‘Community Tree Planting Ceremony: The Irish Community’ which acknowledges Woodford’s long connection with Irish culture and people.
The Planting will also play host to a range of workshops and demonstrations consisting of a ‘Collaborative Garden Weaving’ workshop where Anaheke combines her love of contemporary weaving with the principles of permaculture. Tim Lang will also be conducting his ‘Design Your Own Permaculture Garden’ demonstration that guides you through the process of creating a design for your fruit and vegetable gardens.
In addition to this, Inga Simpson, the author of ‘Nest And Mr. Wigg’, will be discussing writing in: ‘Australia’s Nature Writer’ and ‘Masterclass: Nature Writing’. Helen Schwenke, an ecologist will be giving you the rundown on everything you need to know about catterpillars in ‘Caring For Caterpillars’. While Dr. Kirst Abbott will be hosting a forum on the complex and fascinating topic of ants: ‘School Of Ants’. There will also be bird walks, bushfood walks, butterfly walks and the Woodfordia ant walk held throughout the festival.
The Planting will welcome Matt Golinski, well known as one of the original team members of ‘Ready Steady Cook’, to take part in Sharmy’s Kitchen. Trevor Hart, from Cedar Street Cheeserie in Maleny, will also be holding a few demonstrations in Sharmy’s Kitchen.
But don’t forget the kids! A large part of The Planting festival is dedicated to children’s activities including face painting, play with clay workshops, poncho creations, stories with fairy Jem and chicken wire art demonstrations as well as basket weaving demonstrations, up and down, inside out music concert for kids and a treasure hunt.
There will also be relevant films for thought shown throughout the programme. Some of the films included are: ‘Common Weeds And Wild Edibles Of The World’, ‘Food Matters’, ‘Urban Permaculture’ and ‘Wang Wen Chih: Woven Sky & Mountain Spirits’.
Another segment of the festival are the yoga sessions including ‘Yoga Daily' where Glenda and Gerry from Time 4 Yoga share their passion in meditative sundown classes, and ‘QLD Morris’ where participants get the chance to experience a traditional English folk dance, the Morris.
The Planting comes to Woodfordia this weekend, 5-7 June.
