Treehouse Festival 2021 PROGRAMME
Welcome to Treehouse
Festival
2021!
Welcome back to everyone who’s been here before. It’s nice to see some familiar faces. Welcome to all of you who are here for the first time. We hope you have a great week trying out new skills; becoming part of our community, making friends and mostly having fun. The Treehouse Festival week is not a holiday, it's a lifestyle. 2020 was a tough year for many of us. Yet out of all that happened there seems to be a renewed yearning for being outside; for connection; for community; for exploring the past and hoping for the future at the same time. We hope that Treehouse Festival will be part of that.
Roots of The Treehouse Festival Treehouse Festival grew out of a group of friends deciding to build a real treehouse in their spare time. Every summer they’d spend a week or so camping out at a farm in mid Norfolk, working on the treehouse’s spiral staircase, its balcony, or its roof - using only recycled materials. More friends came along to join in. After all, it sounded pretty fun! Eventually even more friends came, who didn’t particularly want to build but wanted to enjoy camping, making things and the community spirit that quickly became something very special. Soon, the week of camping became its own entity, while the magnificent treehouse continued to be built and thus the Treehouse Festival was born. The Treehouse itself is now sadly gone (ask Adam for the full story), but the values of community, heritage craft, and eco-building that brought it to life live on in the Festival. The purpose of the festival is to give people the opportunity to have a go at crafts they may never normally get to try. Some of these crafts are ancient and only a few people are left who practice them, we hope that Treehouse Festival goers become inspired and continue on these crafts for another generation.
This Year's Workshops A Day in the Life of a Saxon Weaver Copper-Bangle Making Green Wood Whittling and Knife Skills Calligraphy Kuksa Bowl Carving Bee-Keeping Basics Living in the Past - Creating and Living in a Reconstructed Iron Age Farmstead Textile Drop-In Sessions Nettle Cordage Spoon Carving Book Binding Finger Weaving Hand and Machine Knitting Reusable Sanitary Products Pots from the Garden and Paper Kiln Building and Firing Nalbinding Flint Knapping Glassblowing Make and Play Ancient Board Games The Art of Traditional Storytelling Berets and Baskets - Weaving in the Round Make Your Own Turkish Spindle Saving the World with a 3D Printer Blacksmithing Papermaking with Plant Residues Earth Painting Essential Sea-Shantying Forest School for Children Forest School for Older Kids The Treehouse Festival Communal Project - Making Woven Rings Acoustic Night Open Mic Night The Big Feast! IMPORTANT NOTE All of the workshops were confirmed when this guide was put together but, for all the reasons that you are now familiar with, we cannot guarantee their availability and there may be sudden changes or cancellations. No matter what happens we still think you’ve got a great week ahead.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SAXON WEAVER
with Jackie Bush - all week. Come and join Jackie as she recreates the duties and lifestyle of a Saxon weaver from the 10th century England. There will be demonstrations of weaving, spinning and Nalbinding (single-needled knitting popular in Viking Scandinavia and Saxon England). You can drop in at any time to watch her at work as well as having a go at some of the wonderful crafts yourself.
BEE-KEEPING BASICS with Patrick Laslett - date and time TBC (weather dependent). If you’ve ever thought about keeping bees and extracting your own honey then this is the workshop for you. Using the hive that is already on the farm you’ll start with an inspection of the hive before finding out about the practicalities, pitfalls, and pleasures of keeping your own bees. Full protective gear will be provided but it’s advisable not to wear sandals.
COPPER BANGLE MAKING
with Tim Morley - only on Saturday. Copper is one of the earliest metals to be used by the human race and has been made into jewellery for thousands of years. In the workshop you can make a personalised copper bangle either for yourself or as a gift. With simple hand tools you’ll make a unique copper bangle, textured and polished with your own personal message stamped into it.
GREEN WOOD WHITTLING AND KNIFE SKILLS with Chris Russell - all week. This is an opportunity for beginners to gain knife skills and make simple and intermediate items useful for camping or the garden. The session will introduce a range of knives, how to use them safely and look after them. You’ll also look at different types of wood so that you can harvest your own materials.
CALLIGRAPHY
with Tim Weatherstone - Wednesday and Thursday. The tradition of producing beautiful lettering with brushes, pens and coloured inks is as old as writing itself and has traditionally been practised all over the world. In this drop-in workshop you’ll be able to create your own finely-crafted lettering..
KUKSA BOWL CARVING with Nick Gosman - all week. A kuksa bowl is a small wooden cup with a handle, traditionally made in Sweden and Finland. You’ll be able to carve your own kuksa bowl from a block of wood.
LIVING IN THE PAST - CREATING AND LIVING IN A RECONSTRUCTED IRON AGE FARMSTEAD
with John and Sarah Rockliff - Tuesday. FIn 1978 the BBC broadcast a series called ‘Living in the Past’ in which volunteers lived for a year in an Iron Age settlement. It was an important programme as it was the first of many over the years in which families lived in a reconstructed past. Two of the participants in that original series talk about their year living as Iron Age people.
TEXTILE DROP-IN SESSIONS with Susan Cranmer - various days. Come and join Susan during the week to try your hand at using looms, spinning wheels and other spinning and weaving tools. If you’ve never heard of a lucet or a finger stick is then this is your chance to find out and have a go at using them.
NETTLE CORDAGE with Sara Pratt - various days. Stinging nettles have been used to make cord for thousands of years. Nettle stems stem are strong, freely available and, as you know if you look about you, abundant. In this workshop you’ll learn how to harvest, dry, split and weave the stems into your own natural string.
SPOON CARVING with Nick Gosman - all week. Using techniques that have been practised for hundreds of years you will be taught how to use woodcraft hand tools to fashion your own wooden spoon from a single block of wood.
BOOK BINDING with Alan Fitch - Monday to Friday. Join local book binder Alan to create your own handstitched leather-covered notebook to take home with you. The paper being used is deckle-edged which means the edges of the paper have a rough look to them.
FINGER WEAVING with Susan Cranmer - various days. Finger weaving is a form of braid-making that can be traced back to many ancient societies such as Viking Scandinavia or pre-colonial North America. No tools are required as your fingers are the tools! It can be used to make either a flat or round braid..
HAND AND MACHINE KNITTING with Kate Brittain - all week. IPop along during the week to learn the basics of hand knitting. If you already have some knitting skills then this is your chance to share and develop your skills alongside Kate, a knitwear and crochet specialist. There’s also a chance to have a go at using a knitting machine.
REUSABLE SANITARY PRODUCTS with Zoe Mitchell - all week. According to the Women’s Environmental Network the disposal of menstrual products generates over 200,000 tonnes of waste per year in the UK alone. Most of these products are plastic-based - which can take up to 1000 years to decompose. In this workshop you’ll learn how to make your own hemp-based sanitary products that can be used again and again.
POTS FROM THE GARDEN AND PAPER KILN BUILDING AND FIRING with Chris Russell - all week. In this two-day workshop you’ll learn how to make your own simply clay-based pinch pots and then to help build a kiln so that the pots can be properly fired. Be warned - making the kiln can get messy, as you’ll be working with paper and clay slip (liquified clay) so don’t wear your Sunday best!
NALBINDING with Chris Russell and Jackie Bush - Thursday. Sometimes called ‘knotless knitting’ or ‘single needle knitting’ Nalbinding is a bit like knitting or crochet but it’s older than either of them. It is still practised in parts of South America, the Balkans and Scandinavia. There’s also been a recent wider revival in this craft. You spend part of the morning making your own Nalbinding needle with our green woodworker and then in the afternoon you are with our ‘Saxon weaver’ learning how to use your needle.
FLINT KNAPPING with John Lord - all week. A unique opportunity to try your hand at what is the oldest traditional craft that has ever been offered by Treehouse Festival. Join John Lord, one of the best-known practitioners of the ancient art and craft of flint knapping - making different tools from pieces of flint. You’ll be shown all of the different tools that can be made from just one bit of stone and how Stone Age people used them to survive in prehistoric Norfolk.
GLASSBLOWING with Graham Reed - various days. During this workshop you will learn the basic skills of glassblowing. You’ll find out how to work with a burner and to blow rotate, manipulate and shape a piece of glass. At the end of the workshop you’ll be able to take away your own home-made glass object. All you need to bring is your own ‘puff’.
MAKE AND PLAY ANCIENT BOARD GAMES with Colin Hynson - various days. Find out how to play ancient board games from across the world and help bring them back to life by making your own set to take away. The games include Senet from ancient Egypt; the Royal Game of Ur, first played in Iraq over 2000 years ago; the Maori game of Mu Torere and Nine-Man's Morris and Fox and Geese from medieval Europe.
THE ART OF TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING with Jonathan Lambert - Wednesday. For thousands of years people have told stories to each other for entertainment, to explain the world around them and as a commentary on the events that affected them. In this workshop you’ll learn the basic skills of storytelling. The session includes work on developing your voice, movement and gesture as well as thinking about how to both adapt and learn stories to tell. There’ll also be a chance to tell a story in the evening at the open mic night or around the campfire!
BERETS AND BASKETS - WEAVING IN THE ROUND with Susan Cranmer - various days. ILearn the technique of circular weaving (or ‘weaving in the round’). You even be able to make your own beret or basket during the Festival and then, because no specialised loom is needed, at home as well.
MAKE YOUR OWN TURKISH SPINDLE with Susan Cranmer - various days. A Turkish Spindle is a kind of drop spindle which produces a "double-draw" ball of yarn that can be easily plied. The spindle that you’ll be making is a simplified version made from willow which will let you spin your own yarn.
SAVING THE WORLD WITH A 3D PRINTER
with Nick Hardman - date and time TBC. This is a talk by Nick Hardman, who used 3d printers to supply hospitals and care homes with thousands of face shields, ear savers and ventilator valves during lockdown, and now uses those same printers to make medical toys to help vulnerable children understand and normalise medical issues across the world.
BLACKSMITHING with Daniel Johnson - all week. Our blacksmithing workshops are introductory sessions for complete beginners who have never used a hammer on an anvil. You’ll learn the art of blacksmithing with hands-on personal instruction as you create your very own hand-forged item.
PAPERMAKING WITH PLANT RESIDUES
with Caroline Hyde-Brown - Wednesday. Learn the traditional Western form of making your own handmade paper. You’ll also get the chance to experiment with making paper using foraged agricultural and plant residue and cotton rags.
ESSENTIAL SEA-SHANTYING
with The Yard Sticks - TBC. Calling all seadogs, salts and landlubbers alike! Bring your best and your worst singing voices to the fire as we celebrate sailing songs of old. Warning - you’ll be singing them all year - or maybe at the Open Mic night.
EARTH PAINTING with Candide Turner-Bridger - all week, Making paint is one of the oldest discoveries known to humanity. In this workshop you’ll learn how to make your own mineral-based paints from grinding the earth to creating your own watercolours.
FOREST SCHOOL FOR KIDS A welcome return of the Treehouse Forest School. During the week the smallest Treehouse Festival goers will be immersing themselves in den building, making shelters for mini-beasts, nature crafts and lots of wild play. Please ensure that every young person has filled a consent form with the young people’s leaders from the first session.
FOREST SCHOOL FOR OLDER KIDS This is a first for Treehouse Festival. Many of the workshops taking place during the week are suitable for older children (10 and above) but some are not. We thought it would be a good idea to give the over-10s their own space with games, art activities, fire-making and cooking.
THE TREEHOUSE FESTIVAL COMMUNAL PROJECT - MAKING WOVEN RINGS with Susan Cranmer and Everyone - all week. In 2019 we had a community project that involved weaving a wall-hanging and this time we would like lots of people to get involved again - making woven rings for you to hang round the site. There will be an initial workshop to show people how to wrap up, but after that people can teach each other and can work on their ring projects at any time they like.
ECO-BUILD The festival came from a community of people creating a big Treehouse in an old oak tree, and afterwards came an Iron Age roundhouse – all made from skills we had learnt at the festival and materials we had gathered from nearby fields (or skips!). Each year is the opportunity to be part of a the ongoing projects on the farm using hand tools to create an eco-structure. Something that will stay put and become a location for a craftsperson for future years of Treehouse Festival.
Your Evening Entertainment All of our evening entertainments are listed below. We’ve left you plenty of evenings free so that you can just shoot the breeze around the camp fire, look up at the stars or just have an early night so you’re fresh and ready for the next day.
CINEMA IN THE BARN: TRADITIONAL CRAFTS ON FILM & TV
Tuesday night, 7.30pm start. This evening we’ll be showing films and TV programmes that explore both traditional and contemporary crafts from around the world. Turn up with a comfy chair, a cushion or a blanket then just sit back and watch.
OPEN MIC NIGHT Friday night, 8.00pm start in the Barn. Every year we have one evening where we get to entertain each other. Sometimes this is truly wonderful, sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it's something else. The community of Treehouse Festival is a pretty forgiving bunch, so why not have a go - music, stand up comedy, ventriloquist, spoons... or maybe try out that new skill of storytelling you learnt from the storytelling workshop! You don't need to be a pro, its just fun! Sign up is available near the Roundhouse.
ACOUSTIC NIGHT Thursday night, 8.00pm start, with Zaramo in the Barn. Come and join us on Thursday night as we light up the barn with a night of folk music, dancing and beer. The band is Zaramo. They play traditional Eastern European music that you’ll just have to dance to!
THE BIG FEAST!
Saturday, in the Barn What better way to celebrate the end of the Treehouse Festival than with a magnificent banquet at a huge table in a field? Join us on our last night as we sit together, eat delicious food together, drink together and talk and laugh together. Tell everyone your favourite Treehouse Festival stories and with your new friends and neighbours start planning for Treehouse Festival 2022.
FOOD AT TREEHOUSE FESTIVAL Hi, I'm Dean and I'm one of the chefs for the week, we’re heading up lunch and dinner (with lots of food preparation help from all of you) every day of the festival. We’ve got a new circus tent to do all of our cooking in as well. I've always had a passion for food and since I spent some time in Thailand, India, and Mexico, I've tried to develop some great veggie recipes with authentic flavours. I worked on an amazing falafel stand in Cambridge for several years and the owners, a Portuguese family from Medirá made such high quality love filled food, that it had a profound and lasting effect on my approach. My food philosophy is simple: It's all about enjoying yourself, getting creative and making something that's good for your body while also good for the Earth. Years ago on the farm we started with several camp burners, down on the grass and every meal was a massive challenge. Since then we've found our faithful yet temperamental army burner and she has never let us down, in fact we love her so much that this year she's got a friend to help out with the numbers. We source all our ingredients as locally as possible and we try to go organic with all our fruit and veg. One of the things I love the most is the new people we meet each year who volunteer to help with the food prep. Every year a team works with us in the open kitchen to chop vegetables, chat, laugh and sing in order to bring you all our amazing food. Then another team scrubs the dishes so we can do it all again the next day. We cater to all dietary requirements and the default for all the meals is vegan. We also tend to make a spicy and non-spicy version of the main evening meal but if you like a happy medium there's always the option to mix and match. One day I'm gonna make that recipe book!! ¡Provecho!
General Information Arrival and Departure Times We want you to be fresh and ready to start creating and crafting, so we open the doors on the evening of Sunday 15th August at 4pm - though no food is served on this evening. Catering and workshops start with breakfast on Monday 16th August, and the last meal served is lunch on the Sunday 22nd August. The event finishes on the afternoon of the 22nd, and there will be some workshops available during the morning. Please do not leave site in between these times unless it is an emergency, or previously agreed with Treehouse Festival. Workshop Sign Ups For those with limited numbers will be sorted out on arrival, using a fair, community minded system. We sadly cannot guarantee that everyone will do everything, but the community system ensures that everyone gets the chance to try something they are very excited about. If you change your mind about a workshop, or want to trade your place with someone else, please speak to Sequoia. Sign-ups and workshop info can be found near the Roundhouse.
Code for the Community We are a diverse community at Treehouse, please be respectful of others at all times.
Keep the campsite for snoozing! (Noise levels to a minimum, and keep reasonable hours)
This is a family festival; abusing drugs will result in you having to leave the site (with or without newly whittled spoon) Responsible smoking is alright everywhere but the camping field. Be considerate of others. Spent straights and those little plastic tubes that filters come in are super annoying to pickup so please do Adam (The litter guy) a favour and put them in a black bin! Please do not light fires in the camping field, there are designed camp fires which are just as nice! Drive safely, below 5mph and vehicle access on camp site only when you are setting up or packing down (or sleeping in a camper-van).
Litter Black bins are landfill (don’t want any of this!) and Green bins are recycling (a bit better). If something is card or paper, put it in a red topped bin, these are burnables and can be useful on the campfire. If you can create something out of your waste - that's the dream! Please take all single use plastics home with you. Litterers will be fed to the bees.
Crafty Rules Treehouse Festival is an amazing place to have a go, and to keep doing it, we need to stay safe! The axes, knives and other tools are dangerous and can cause serious cuts. Some of the workshops use (extreme) heat. If used correctly the chance of accidental cuts, burns or other injury is minimised. Some of the workshops will cover safe tool use for those who haven’t experienced that craft before. When you are working with tools on site you are responsible for your own safety. Use safe knife cuts and axe handles Maintain a safe distance – be aware of others around you. Don’t walk around with tools unsheathed/hot metal/glass/etc. Store tools safely when not in use. Always craft when fully alert and focused on the job. Do not carve after any alcohol. Take breaks often – walk around and stretch.
Young People and Crafts Children and young people are encouraged to participate in the main activities, though please remember they are designed for adults. This means that the tools may not be suitable. Children remain the responsibility of their parents/guardians at all times, and child participation is at the discretion of the workshop leader. In riskier activities, if young people are participating in a craft, their parents or guardian should not be using tools at the same time and giving full attention to supervision.
COVID-19 Precautions We want to keep you safe and we want to create a community that is natural and organic and not socially distanced or covered in plastic coverings. We have liaised with the local District Council and have put together a plan for COVID this year. You have the option of either a) Using the NHS Covid Pass App which you can find out about here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-covid-pass OR b) Completing a Lateral Flow test within 30 minutes of departure from the last place you leave to come to Treehouse Festival (this will need to be completed again if you need to leave the site and come back at any time during the week). These precautions, as with any other given by the team, are non-negotiable, and anyone not following the guidelines, as with any safety rule put in place, will be asked to leave Treehouse Festival with immediate effect. Most of the event will be outside and therefore COVID-secure, but we do ask, please, if you are showing any of the standard symptomatic signs for Covid-19, do not come to the event. If you've got any questions about these, find Sequoia who can discuss all measures for your safety with you in any detail required.
Onsite Practicalities Glass Like most festivals, we have to be careful with glass. The rest of the year Brandon House Farm is home to horses with soft and sensitive feet, which means that a broken bottle could cause a lot of harm. If you have anything made of glass then it would be great if you could keep it all in your camping area. Plastic We really hate plastic - pretty much in all forms. Sometimes it's necessary, but most of the time it's not. We would LOVE to make Treehouse Festival 2021 completely single use plastic free. This does mean that if you have brought plastic bags or food wrappers with you, it is very important you take them away with you again.
Hygiene We have a dedicated hygiene team who handle all measures to keep the site clean, and we do all we can to manage this. In addition to this, Treehouse Festival asks that all attendees follow these guidelines in order to keep themselves and others clean and safe. Wash hands between activities and before meals. Use only the designated toilet facilities to relieve yourself- if you are lucky enough to be able to pee in hedges, please keep this skill to yourself! Report any symptoms of illness to a member of the team as soon as possible. Keep tools and other equipment clean. Refrain from storing food or other perishables in tents. We have limited storage available but please discuss with the team if you have anything needing storing for the duration of the event.
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Thank you for coming to Treehouse Festival. We would love to hear what you thought of it, what could make it even better and what you have created, so keep in touch!