3 Foot People Festival, Chelmsford, 24th - 26th June 2014

The Fairyland Trust attended the wonderful 3 Foot Festival at Hylands Park, Chelmsford in June.  The crew loaded up the vans and headed down to Essex on the 23rd, ready for three days of crown-making drop in sessions with pre-school children and their families.  The drive offered up some apocalyptic thunderstorms and even a broken fan belt, but the crew and kit arrived safely.  After some shower-dodging, the tents were up and ready to be decorated with native tree leaves and the Fairyland Trust information and photos to help teach families about magical times of the year, wildflower species and trees.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were beautifully sunny and were a blur of meeting and greeting excited children, measuring heads for willow withie crown bases and ushering families into the medieval tents ready to create crowns.  Once seated in the first tent, children and their well-behaved adults were introduced to the Fairy Calendar and given some leaves to add to their crown base.  With each leaf, the Crown Makers explained the folklore associated with the native tree and a little about the wildlife that inhabited the trees.  A few tree species later, the children were pointed through the secret tunnel to the adjoining tent.

The second tent was filled with photos of Midsummer wildflowers, and another of the Crown Makers showed the families how to create pretend flowers (we left the real ones to the bees and butterflies!) out of brightly coloured tissue.  Each flower also had associated folklore and some information about the creatures, magical and non-magical, that visited them for food.  Crowns were admired in the fairy mirror and met with giant grins from their reflections.  Some children were lucky enough to have wildflowers in their garden or near to where they lived so already knew a few species, others learnt a lot and wore their crowns with pride as they left the tent, knowing a more plant species and which creatures favoured them.


We sold Wildflower Seed Wands, recruited bakers and fundraisers for the Fairy Meadow Fund (http://www.fairylandtrust.org/fairy-meadow-fund.html for more info) and chatted to a lot of lovely folk about the work the Fairyland Trust does as a conservation charity for little people.  We also met a couple of friends, a Pygmy Shrew that got under our feet and a Puss Moth caterpillar that munched away on our willow leaves whilst we made crowns!  All in all, a pretty fantastic festival!


                       

Wands workshop at Holt Community Primary School

On Wednesday 7th May, one of the Fairyland Trust's medieval tents, complete with bunting, magically appeared in the beautiful nature area of Holt Community Primary School.  Reception class, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 all joined the Wand Makers, Caitlin and Vicky, for wand making workshops throughout the day.  The classes each learned about the story of the first Wand Maker and created some beautiful wands from native tree species to take home.

The children learned about folklore of native tree species and also heard about how these species are important for all sorts of animals, from creepy crawlies to birds and mammals - the Wand Makers were impressed with how much the children took on board.  After the final wand making session was complete, Year 2 and 3 joined the Wand Makers for a nature walk and to search for some of the tree species from their workshops.  The children searched for familiar plants (daisies, grass, bluebells, ivy) and learned folk lore and nature facts about not-so-familiar ones (rowan, cowslips, ragwort).  The Wand Makers were again impressed, the children had really listened to the story and information in the workshops earlier and were able to appreciate that the sticks of their wands came from trees that they often walked past without noticing.

The nature walk finished next to a huge hawthorn coming into bloom as it is the Fairy Queen's favourite tree and everyone sent some fairy spirits (dandelion seeds) off into the sky to spread some magic with their wishes.

Wand Workshops with Maldon Primary School

Wednesday saw the first Fairyland Trust school sessions of the year.  One of the medieval tents was awoken from its winter slumber the day before and loaded into the van with other Very Important Things such as pipe cleaners, coloured wool, feathers, eight different species of stick and a sprinkling of green fairy dust.  Emma and Vicky squeezed in too and set off to find Maldon Primary School in Essex.  The tent was erected on the school field in the late afternoon sun (and rather chilly wind) with the help of some eager teaching staff.  The staff were allowed home for their tea and us Wand Makers worked some magic to decorate the tent like a small piece of Fairyland.  The children arriving at school the following day were amazed; they had no idea how the tent had suddenly appeared on their field, although some may have suspected fairies had been at work.

The school had been studying fairy tales and folk lore over the week and everyone came in fairy tale costumes for the day, including the teaching staff.  Pirates rubbed shoulders with fairies and princesses, a musketeer chatted to Puss in Boots, and Shrek even made an appearance!  Four wand making sessions ran over the day with groups from Year 1 & 2, teaching the children about wand folk lore and the powers of our native trees.  Each group was asked about trees; it was decided that they were “good for lots of things”, but no one knew about the story of Flint, the first Wand Maker.  Flint’s story was read to engrossed listeners who learned about the different species of tress and their folk lore.  Once the wands had chosen their owners (a truly magical experience) the children added feathers and wool to decorate them.

Each of the eight tree species was discussed and its power revealed – hazel, favoured by wizards as the tree of wisdom and hawthorn, the Fairy Queen’s favourite and the tree of happiness, etc – and the children began to think about how their wands could power some wishes to help others in their class and families (“My Nanny lives far away, I’ll send her love with my apple wand”; “I have elder, I can protect the class from things, like… um, fire!”).  The children were gifted some ivy to prolong the wand’s life, learning that ivy gives life to wildlife through winter with its long-lasting berries, and finished off their creations with a good dusting of glittery fairy magic.  As the session ended, wands were given a test drive to make sure feathers sent wishes through the air properly, then the group returned to their class.

At the end of the day around 80 fairy tale characters gathered back on the school field together for a nature walk and, despite the cold and the spitting rain, everyone was keen to explore.  We found most of the species that had been talked about in the workshop, including a huge weeping willow wrapped in ivy, a small hazel (“can we look for nuts to be clever?”), fresh green leaves on a hawthorn (invoking another chorus of Pharrell’s ‘Happy’!), a huge sleeping ash (“that’s good for your brain, that one”), and even a tiny magic elder growing its way out of the top of an old, dead tree.

Each child was ready to head home and share their magic wand with their families; the wand label holding an identification photo, some interesting information and their species’ name for the others to read.  Teaching staff reflected on how impressed they were with the knowledge the children had picked up and how much everyone had enjoyed their day (one child adding, loudly, “Fairyland day has been the best of all the fairy days”).  With thanks echoed from each class, the Wand Makers waved the fairy tale characters off as they returned to their classes.  Using their last bit of magic, the Wand Makers packed the up van and disappeared back to Norfolk in a cloud of fairy dust.

Much mirth & merriment was had en route as we rushed through the metropolis to gain a congestion zone ticket only to discover that tickets cannot be purchased this way via shops. Following this fun few hours we met the wonderful crew &  spent all available daylight hours wrestling with a playful yurt that really had a spell put on it from playful pixies! Avoiding serious head injuries from falling poles we retired to preserve our energies for the lovely visitors who would no doubt descend on our enchanted woodland tomorrow.

Our day began with a cloud free azure blue sky which just accentuated our fairy queens beauty adding to the magic. The woodland trail was soon alive with the chatter of children & bird noise working its way to the magic of the wishing tree. The wishes were soon to envelope the tree with many sincere heartfelt thoughts of hopes and dreams. The young peoples faces & expressions showed that the magic is alive & well in their world and the grown ups present enquired what the trust was aiming to do for the children.Magic wands changed hands & wild flowers will hopefully flourish in gardens for little creatures  to enjoy.

The queen received  gifts and was pleased to see so many youngsters (including teenagers) not only eager to bring gifts & attend the queen but also expressing that they believed. The queen was flattered that children curtsied before her and several made references to her majesty!Comments were made suggesting dreams were believable, things are achievable and all you needed was a little magic. All the people we were so fortunate to have met had more than enough magic & the messages on the tree were testimony to that (ps the tree did manage to hold the weight of all the messages). Overall the three days down by the river at London zoo were magical and we are sure to meet  plenty of lovely visitors who are eager to attend the Real Halloween in October  at Holt Hall.  

Festival on the Farm, Gressenhall, Norfolk

Saturday 10th August, Festival on the Farm, Gressenhall, Norfolk
Today we had the pleasure of running fairy crown making workshops at a lovely family festival at Gressenhall Museum, the Festival on the Farm. We all arrived before 8 am to set up and decorate the Fairyland Trust area and medieval workshop tent, we were located in a lovely grassy area next to the orchards, alongside drumming workshops, knitting workshops, storytellers and much much more. Come 10 am the queues were mounting outside the festival entrance and we were costumed, decorated and ready to spread some nature magic. Our set up was much helped by the fine weather.
We ran four crown making workshops throughout the day, after the first one we were consistently booked up, with waiting lists. We were pleased to see a few familiar faces from the Fairy Fair and Real Halloween who had come and found us as they loved the workshops they had attended before. We also met lots of new friends, many of whom were keen to come and see the magic of the Real Halloween and Fairy Fair.

See Abbie preparing Hawthorn sprigs, said to be the Fairy Queens favourite, ready for the hordes of young crown makers to adorn their crowns

Hello FairyLand Trust followers!

Here is an update on the Camp Bestival weekend, Fridays blog post is by fairy Clare, and Danny the elf has written a retrospective post of his whole experience at CB!


Friday 2nd August

We were woken to the hypnotic sound of rain on canvas this morning, once again the world outside shrouded in mist. As on our first day here, the veil teasingly lifted, gradually revealing our beautiful surroundings and THE SUN.

It has been a wonderful day for the Fairyland Trust. All our Fairy Crown workshops were fully booked, the dapper Danny and Pete recruited some lovely supporters and the magical Dingly Dell now proudly hosts some amazingly imaginative and intricate Fairy Houses. Some beetles had already moved into one.

Kelly preparing string for general tying and fixing, or for washing lines. Even fairies have laundry!

Clare foraging for building materials.

 

Some of the lovely Fairy Houses

 



Spiderman modelling a lovely Fairy Crown

2 of our crew studying ‘The Natural History of the Unicorn’.

 

Paige briefing Luke in the art of Crown Making

It is a good feeling to know we have spread a little nature magic today. Seeing children and adults foraging amongst the twigs and earth looking for suitable materials to make fairy beds, doorways, crockery or chimney pots is a very lovely thing. As is watching 25 children listen in silent rapture to our Crown Maker show them how to make a harebell out of tissue paper.

This Fairyland Blogger will leave you with the image of a contented crew member strolling back to the camp at about 11pm, having seen Billy Bragg earlier on the Castle Stage (a glorious reminder of festivals gone by), and two children walking past with worn out parents, chanting "No sleep for us! No sleep for us!".

This really is a festival for the small people!

My experience of Camp Bestival 2013....   Danny

Wednesday

The Berlingo limped into the grounds of Lulworth Castle having come to the boil around 20 miles short of the site. After registration we located the rest of the crew and pitched the tent before having a bite to eat and a few drinks.

Thursday

After a brief gathering of the crew in the morning those without children headed onto the main site to put the finishing touches to the Workshop and check out Dingly Dell, The Fairy Houses  location.

A big thumbs-up to the rest of the crew who had obviously been hard at work on Wednesday whilst I was nervously poking the radiator cap on the Berlingo, wishing I knew about cars.

Kendra and myself took a wander through a military firing range with the children in a bid to locate a beach. We saw a pair of Buzzards and Freddie managed to find some ammunition rounds which I persuaded him to place (gently) back where he found them. The beach looked lovely but was sadly out of bounds due to unexploded shells and non-specific military stuff. The view was breathtaking however.

In the evening we all went onto the site and gathered foliage and treasures for Fridays activities.

Friday

I headed down onto site with two very excited children at 10am in the morning. With a bag full of snacks and sun-cream we roamed the festival. Freddie met up with his friend and they done a Comic book animation workshop whilst Rosie got her face painted.

After the kids had a go on the carousel it was time to report for my first shift as Booking-in fairy for the Fairy Crowns Workshop. My initial nerves soon tailed away. People seem genuinely interested in what the Fairyland Trust are doing and the children are enchanted by the workshops.

In the evening the family went down and watched Billy Bragg. I took a makeshift Trolley to transport Rosie and we went for drinks with friends at the furthest end of the Festival site before the long trek back to the crew site.

 Saturday

Saturday morning saw me heading back to drop Freddie at another animation workshop. Rosie got another face painting session in and we watched Mr Tumble doing some old school nose- parping and custard pie antics.

  I reported for my shift on Fairy Houses. Again this was my first experience of doing this. The wooded area was directly next to the main stage but seemed to have a calming effect on the crowds that entered. It was lovely to see families taking time out from the madness of a festival to build the houses together. It was great to see the imagination and energy of the children being reciprocated by the parents, especially the ones that had looked at me like I was a bit mad when I explained what we were up to.

We saw the Levellers on Saturday night. I watched them on the forecourt of the Castle. I’ve been meaning to see the Levellers since I was a teenager so this was great.

 

Sunday

The crew got together early to wish Ben a Happy 18^th Birthday and we all had slice of fantastic birthday cake which had been commissioned from the crew caterers.

 I clocked on for the early shift as a Booking-in Fairy for “Fairy Books”. It struck me that over the three days I began to recognise some of the children/parents hanging around the workshops and Fairy Houses area. We definitely had built a fan-base by this point. Again the shift was great fun and I only heard positive things about peoples experience with the Fairyland Trust.

 I also managed to listen to Dick and Dom doing a “Bogies” routine and the Wurzels whilst manning my post- both of which were a little surreal. I spent the afternoon watching some medieval  jousting action which led to the kids having a sword fight in front of the castle.

In the evening we saw a little bit of Alan Davies before meeting with some of the crew and watching the fireworks/projections from a cheeky “staff-only” location to the side of the main stage.

Monday

We were all packed-up early and making our way off-site by around 10:30am.

A massive thanks to the other crew members who put in a sterling effort with the set-up/pack down and to Clare who organised us in a serenely calm manner.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

This is another blog, written on Thursday and posted today by FairyLand helper Ben Reynolds.

After a reasonably good night sleep by the fairy crew we all woke ready to create a magical workshop space. In no time at all we had the medieval tent ready once again for Fairy Crowns, Magic Wands and Fairy Books, with enough room for the booking booth to accommodate all of our lovely seed wands.

Ready for action!

 

With everything set up and ready for tomorrow, some of us took a walk to try and find the beach! This proved harder than we originally thought; if you were thinking that a big, wet expanse of blue would be easy to find you would be wrong! At least, it’s not easy for us northern folk anyway, we climbed steep hills and cliff sides in the mid-day heat of Lulworth to try and get to the sea. At the very top we could see for miles around including a great view of Camp Bestival and the central point itself; Lulworth Castle. Whilst others turned back, others carried on, till eventually we could see the surf. However in our way was the steepest path that any of us had ever seen! So resting a while on the edge we agreed that getting back up this path in time for the morning workshop may prove difficult! So turning our backs on the beach we headed away back to Camp! On our walk we happened to come across some familiar flowers from some of the workshops, including Harebells, Yarrow and Field Scabious

The not so small hill we thought would be easy to climb.

Camp Bestival doesn't look too big from up here!

Fairy Abbie and I running on the hillside.

So close to the beach, but still so far!

Harebells, to let the fairies know there's a party.

 

At dusk, while it was nice and cool, some of us went off into the woods to collect foliage. It’s amazing what a little greenery can do to a tent! As the site has begun to darken once again and the littler members of the fairy crew are tucked away fast asleep, we have all begun to drift back to our crew camp. Even though we didn’t quite make it to the beach, the local countryside was more than enough as compromise and I think we will all sleep well tonight, ready for the first bit of FairyLand magic to begin at Camp Bestival tomorrow.

Well worth the climb!