First Additions to the Timber Festival Line-Up
Plus a huge area dedicated to mindfulness, outdoor yoga and meditation, readings from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and author Raynor Winn, live music from The Destroyers, Keston Cobblers Club, Elle Chante, N'famady Kouyaté, Lucy Feliz, and more
Friday 7 – Sunday 9 July 2023, Feanedock woodland, the National Forest
Tickets on sale now at www.timberfestival.org.uk
Imagine watching live bands in a woodland clearing, dancing under the treetops at a midnight disco, doing outdoor yoga as birds sing in the branches, and relaxing in a luxurious sauna in the middle of the woods. That’s exactly what people can expect at a unique festival in the National Forest from Friday 7 - Sunday 9 July 2023.
Timber Festival, which takes place for the 5th year at Feanedock woodland near Swadlincote, is all about bringing people closer to nature and celebrating the positive impacts that the great outdoors can have on our lives. Festival organisers have announced the first additions to the line-up today and tickets are on sale at www.timberfestival.org.uk.
Timber has a huge area dedicated to wellbeing, mindfulness and relaxation, which will be even bigger and better for 2023. This year it includes a special ‘fire and ice experience’, where festival goers can unwind in a mobile sauna in the woods before taking a revitalising dip in an ice-cold plunge pool. Other wellbeing activities include yoga, meditation, gong baths, mindfulness walks and even forest bathing - the Japanese mindfulness practice of quietly sitting amongst trees.
Audiences can get even closer to nature on a guided bat walk around the festival site, and can do some old fashioned cloud-spotting as part of a unique performance from Gobbledegook Theatre.
Timber is known for its packed programme of talks and readings from some of the very best authors. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage will read from his new book Never Good with Horses, and will also take a spin on the decks in his now legendary tree-top DJ set. Raynor Winn, author of the bestselling book The Salt Path, will talk about her new book Landlines which follows a 1000-mile walk that she and her husband took through Scotland. Even more authors will be announced later in the year.
‘Timber Festival is a glorious celebration of nature and the amazing benefits of being outdoors’, says Rowan Cannon, Director of Timber Festival. ‘It’s such a unique festival - where else can you go on a morning mindfulness walk before relaxing in a woodland sauna, listen to authors and poets in the afternoon, watch amazing live bands playing as the sun sets, and then dance the night away as poet Simon Armitage spins the decks from a DJ booth in a tree house?’
It wouldn’t be a festival without incredible live music. The line-up includes Indie-folk band Keston Cobblers Club, Birmingham-based band The Destroyers, and also hailing from the West Midlands, singer Elle Chante whose experiences of complex mental health and disability inspire her music.
Celtic-inspired instrumental band Auka will share their passion for the natural world, especially that of their beloved Sheffield and the beauty of the surrounding Peak District. And multi-instrumentalist N’famady Kouyaté will play his modern interpretations of West African music, including a performance on the balafon, a traditional wooden xylophone.
Audiences can watch live recordings of Timber’s very own podcast Wilderness Tracks, in which guests from the worlds of music, acting and comedy discuss their top nature related tracks. The first guest to be announced for 2023 is award-winning poet, writer and broadcaster Raymond Antrobus - previous guests have included Phill Jupitus, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Testament. And Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement which brings communities together to reimagine and rebuild our world, will record a live episode of his popular podcast From What If to What Next.
There will also be talks on subjects from wild swimming to how to live more adventurously with kids, and debates from speakers from the worlds of environmental science, ecology and conservation.
Tickets are on sale at www.timberfestival.org.uk, from £20 for a child day ticket to £130 for an adult three-day camping ticket. Residents of the National Forest get a huge 25% off all tickets. Timber Festival is created by award-winning festival and event producers Wild Rumpus, in partnership with the National Forest Company.