In July I went to a festival called the Land Skills Fair, near Cirencester. It was organised by the Landworkers' Alliance, a movement of farmers, growers, foresters, and land-based workers, centered around land, food, and climate justice. My forester friend went to it the previous two years and has often told me I should go, so this year I did.
(FYI this is a long post covering the whole long weekend, estimated 15 minutes reading time, so please do read it in chunks and come back to it if that's more digestible! It's broken up into days, and hopefully isn't too boring :) )
It's not a 'mainstream' festival. One of the speakers described it as a 'gathering of earth-honouring folk' - forestry workers, growers, regenerative/agroecological farmers, other land-based workers and aspiring ones, supporters, activists, weavers, dyers, storytellers, tanners, potters, tinkers, crafters, writers, singers, drummers, foragers, herbalists, educators, cooks, brewers, painters...... You get the picture.
We arrived on Thursday afternoon to give us time to set up tents before the Opening Ceremony. People gathered around the fire pit in the middle of the main arena, one of the LWA founders gave a passionate speech, a land justice worker gave a traditional welcome and blessing from her Yoruba faith, and everyone was led in a song: Cry, heart, but do not break / Your love is needed for the days to come / Cry hope, and then cry freedom / Cry justice till the work be done
Afterwards I bought a lamb souvlaki with tzatziki in pitta for dinner, from an organic free-range farm stall that had info boards up about exactly how the lamb was raised, and ate that (getting very messy fingers) standing around with my friends and new acquaintances listening to their conversation. Autism makes joining in difficult. Eventually we went to the little woodland venue for songs around the fire, where I stayed for a while before heading to the campsite.
Friday
Honestly, I didn't enjoy Friday and Saturday very much. The talks I chose to go to weren't what I hoped or expected them to be, some were more discussion sessions when I wanted to learn and be taught. I do wish I'd chosen differently and gone to other things instead.
'Valuing the work you do' - I'm not really sure why I thought this would be about finding ways to care about the work you do, which is something I've struggled with for much of my working life. Of course, this was a festival full of people who have actively chosen and are passionate about the work they do, many of them freelancers of sorts, so this talk was about money and figuring out a monetary value for your work so you can charge accordingly and afford to live. While it was interesting, and good for many people there, and of course it was great to see such an open conversation about what is often a taboo subject, it wasn't really relevant to me, although I suppose it's a good thing to bear in mind for the future in case I take a freelance route one day. But yeah, I could have gone instead to a talk on reforesting a sacred mountain in Colombia through community agroforestry, a practical session on processing acorns into flour, or on a guided tour of the farm.
'Landwork as a spiritual practice' - This began with a grounding breathwork meditation, connecting the self to earth and sky. We were asked what came up for us emotionally during that. I often feel perplexed by such questions as my alexithymia means I'm rarely able to answer with anything other that a wide-eyed shrug of 'nothing/I don't know'. What I did feel was that I wished I could be more open and feel connected and like I belong. Maybe I'm overthinking and that's still an answer. Anyway, then we split into smaller discussion groups to talk about the three questions the speaker posed: what does spirituality mean to you, can landwork be spiritual, and what do you need in your life/work to support you developing your spirituality? My group talked about the last question, and I quickly realised I didn't really know the answer to the first question but it was too late to move groups.
There was a little moment of connection, though. After sitting listening to everyone else, eventually I and another silent observer in the group were asked if we had any thoughts. I can't remember exactly what I said but it was something like I would need to know what spirituality means to me, to see examples of what land-based spirituality is for others, that I don't have many examples of spiritual people in my life or a community I'm part of, that even there among people who love the land I still felt on the outside and that I didn't quite belong. I opened up a little and that group of strangers held space for that, they received my ramblings with open hearts and quite sincerely thanked me for sharing and allowing that little moment of connection to be created. They reassured me that I did belong, that I do have a place even if I don't know what it is yet.
Lunch - In addition to several food stalls, there was a big main eating marquee catered by Two Trees Catering of Bristol. They had catered at the one-day Green Scythe Fair I went to in June so I knew the food was really good. Lunch was brown rice with roast butternut squash, greens, wakame (seaweed), tempeh (fermented soybean 'cake'), pickled onion, and a miso-tahini dressing.
'Learning from nature to transform our relationship with death' - Personal stories from and discussion with a burial shroud maker, a willow coffin weaver, a doula (someone who helps people with transitional times in life such as birth and death), and an ethical butcher and tanner. It was definitely interesting, and great to see so many people turn up to a talk about a subject generally avoided. Again, I was expecting more talking from the speakers and less audience discussion, and didn't really take much away from it, but many other people were deeply moved and benefitted from it.
'3 short films: Tales of forgotten crafts' - My first visit to the Green Room, an actual building connected to the farm shop and cafe a short walk away from the main festival area, used through the year for week-long residential visits for city children who may have never been into the countryside before. I'm passionate about traditional skills and ancient crafts so this was screening was a must. The films were about a chair-maker, a silversmithing training centre in Scotland, a printmaker, and a teapot-maker in Kashmir.
Film screening - There was a family-friendly film screening in the Green Room each evening. On Friday the audience was only a couple of adults so we decided to forgo Antz in favour of a documentary on Netflix called The Biggest Little Farm, which was great, a beautiful film about a couple who decide to leave Los Angeles for a 200+ acre barren farm and transform it into a richly biodiverse haven where they work in partnership with nature.
It was late by the time the film finished so when I went back to the main arena I just had a snack from my own supplies rather than buy dinner. The band in the Music Tent sounded good so I stood at the back listening to them for the rest of their set before heading to the campsite.
Saturday
I joined in the dance session on arriving in the main arena on Saturday morning, which I'm glad I did. It was just half an hour of simple steps to African-inspired music, but definitely a good way to start any day. I was the second person to join in but gradually more people turned up.
I wasn't sure which talk to go to after that. There weren't any details on the content, just titles. When the one I initially poked my head into, on the topic of common land, broke into discussion groups a few moments after I arrived, I left and went to one called 'Stockfree organic: farming for the future', but that turned out to be a talk on a particular way of farming without any animal inputs at all. It was interesting, but not for me, but I was too self-conscious to get up and leave, especially as I didn't know what else to go to and it had started raining.
After that I went to one that I had immediately decided I wanted to go to upon seeing the programme a couple of weeks beforehand - 'Finding a more authentic relationship with land in Britain and Ireland, through ancestry, craft, ceremony, and song'. The tent was packed full with maybe a couple of hundred people, and it was interesting - particularly hearing from a member of the Irish Traveller community - but, sadly, once again it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for and I couldn't really relate, couldn't pick out anything I could take away and start doing in my life. I wish I'd gone instead to a talk on the history of revolutionary folk songs followed by one on 'turning unused urban land into edible ecosystems'.
Lunch was caponata with a warm cornbread-like thing made from chickpea flour, and salad. On a cold rainy day I was sad to find that caponata is served cold/room temp, not hot, but it was still delicious.
After lunch I sat in on the beginning of a talk on 'Migrant experience and action against a hostile environment' before leaving for the 2pm willow basket weaving workshop. Something I've wanted to try for ages! It's trickier than it looks. I couldn't quite get my head around the first technique the instructor showed us, but as we moved higher up the basket we could switch to the simple forward-back weave which was much easier. My basket ended up being a little lopsided as I was concentrating on the weave rather than making sure the sides were a nice shape as I went, but it still turned out well! :)
After the workshop I headed to the Green Room, where I ended up quite happily staying for the rest of the afternoon and evening. First was a talk on a land revolution in South America, followed by 'Growing food among the diasporic community of Hong Kongers' by a young woman from Hong Kong living in Bristol and working to help her community grow familiar vegetables from back home. The family film screening was at 7pm and this time some families with children did turn up; we watched an animated fantasy film called The Secret of Kells, which was really good.
I did go and get some dinner in the main arena after that, a paratha with dahl from the Indian food stall. It was still raining so the eating area under an open-sided tarp was quite full and I sat on the edge getting sprayed with rain. Sadly (but unsurprisingly given the late hour) the dahl wasn't warm anymore, but the paratha - a flatbread made with potato and onion - was lovely and warm and was tasty on its own as well as with the dahl and tangy yoghurt. After eating I went to the Music Tent as the band sounded good, and again stayed there till they finished. I don't like being wet and muddy though, and my tent was small and cramped, so I got quite irritated trying to get out of my wet weather gear and into pyjamas.
Sunday
Thankfully, I really enjoyed Sunday. The improvement in weather definitely helped, it was dry and sunny but I still wore my wellies and waterproof trousers around as the paths were extremely muddy. I spent the morning in the Green Room for talks around environmental education which were really interesting.
'Transforming the education system' - Notes - Really good education should be transformative. "If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it." Solutions are already in place, we don't need to put energy into new ideas; find out what's already going on and how we can connect and support and work together - be like mycellium. Environmental / ecological education is often seen as 'extra', an add-on to the mainstream curriculum, or an optional extracurricular activity done outside of classroom hours. Need to bring awareness of Earth/nature being interconnected. Focus on school year 7/8/9 when they are starting to talk about employability, need to open up awareness of practical work and that it isn't mindless work but a different sort of intelligence. Mainstream education system is a product of industrial needs, is linear, reductionist, knowledge-centered. Need to widen circles of awareness and compassion. What do I have to offer, how can my skills/talents be of service? Need to educate young people wholly, to be whole beings who are curious and think critically, help them thrive, empower. Schools could have a 'Nature' teacher as well as Maths, English, Science, Languages, etc. - embody working in environmental skills as a real thing. Teach outside, in all weathers.
'Food systems learning in Higher Education' by Fatma Sabet of the University of Exeter - Notes - She organises annual visits to a local agroecological farm for different groups of students studying things like business, sports science/sustainable nutrition, biosciences. She acts as a "more knowledgeable other", not an expert like the farmer but knows more than the students and can facilitate. Agroecological farms optimise ecological processes while minimising impact. Food systems education means experiencing the system from production to consumption. Visits include a tractor-trailer ride around the farm, stopping at different fields to pick crops and do walk-and-talks. Lunch includes the veg harvested, then students help with a farm task that needs extra hands. Authentic task in authentic setting with authentic people and encounters - embodied learning, transformative learning, knowledge exchange can be a transformative power. The students see how much work is needed to give plants the best chance. The trips are good for the farmers and academics as well as the students - they have sparked curiosity and questioned their practices and how they can improve. Food systems education needs to be interdisciplinary and multi-skillset.
For lunch I had booked a ticket for the Sunday Feast, where people sit down at the same time on the long tables and eat a three-course meal together. The food was great, brought out on platters that were then shared between the table: antipasti, followed by slow-roasted lamb (or aubergine parmigiana for vegetarians/vegans) with veg and potatoes, with a selection of mini cakes for dessert. I was sat with two other people who were there on their own so we had a nice conversation. I hadn't seen my friends since Thursday night as we'd all been off doing different things and were camped in different areas, so it was nice to talk to people. One of them mentioned she'd been to the 'processing acorns into flour' session the day before and there was another one in the main arena after lunch, so we both went to that afterwards.
Putting a few handfuls of dry acorns into a bag and smashing it on the ground repeatedly to break the shells was good fun. And sitting in a circle around a pile of acorns removing the broken husks and the skin from the nuts, doing something with your hands that was fairly mindless and meditative after two days of taking in information, was really nice. The acorn flour they had in a jar smelled amazing, and the sourdough bread made with acorn flour tasted good - I definitely want to have a go at making them.
After about 45 minutes I left that to see if the drop-in cordage workshop was still ongoing (via the bar for a nettle lemonade, which was interesting but nice). Happily it was still going, and I spent half an hour or so sitting in another circle making cordage (string) from natural plant fibres of plantain and iris. Much easier than willow weaving, haha. I've already collected some ribwort plantain stems from the garden and hung them to dry; once they've dried, I can briefly rehydrate them to practice making cordage. I had to leave eventually to go and pack my tent up as I was getting picked up from the farm shop at 4:30pm. I stopped at one last tent on the way to look through the gorgeous wall of brightly-coloured British-wool socks made using natural plant dyes. It was a glorious rainbow of cheerful colour and promised cosy feet. They had sold out of the bright blue socks dyed with woad, but for some reason I was fixated on the woad so, rather than a lovely pair of autumnal-red socks dyed with madder, I chose a bright green pair dyed with woad and apple wood. Maybe it was just that I've heard of woad and love apples and orchards, and have only recently heard of madder. My overthinking autistic brain is a mystery sometimes.
I'm really glad I enjoyed Sunday, and was finally able to have a go at some ancient traditional skills that I've wanted to try for ages. I'd go to the festival again, and similar ones, it's all about things I'd love to learn more about and is a passionate community I'd like to be part of.
