Trees, bands and bees: Creating a buzz at Oxfordshire's Wood festival

Bees. When it comes to festival stars, few people would expect bees.

Glastonbury has The Who, Reading has Metallica and The Isle of Wight has Fleetwood Mac. Back in Oxfordshire for the first festival of the season, however, all attention is on the little stripy flying insects.

“It’s all about bees this year,” says Robin Bennett, founder of Wood festival – the environmentally-friendly music and craft weekend which gets underway tomorrow.

“This is our Year of the Bee,” he said. “Bees are central to life on the planet, but are under threat. We want to remind people they are important, and as worth saving as elephants .

“There should be a real buzz – and we’ve even got a Best-Dressed Bee contest!”

Launched eight years ago by Robin and his brother Joe, Wood was designed as an ecologically-friendly green alternative to the popular Truck music festival the pair ran at Steventon, near Didcot.

Taking place deep in the woods at Braziers Park, near Wallingford, it has remained an ideologically-inspired experiment in sustainability, with stages powered by solar panels and biofuel, composting toilets (no nasty chemicals), and wholesome workshops on foraging, weaving, wood turning and yoga.

Food and drink is locally sourced, and music is generally acoustic, veering towards folk, country and singer-songwriters.

Seven festivals on (it skipped one year), and Wood has grown into one of the year’s best-loved events, while sticking to its environmentally-sound roots and principals. “It definitely started as an experiment,” says Robin. “We didn’t know it would necessarily work, but what it’s become is a really popular family festival – which I suppose reflects our stage in life.”

The setting, among thick woodlands on the Chiltern hills is stunning, giving the event a rustic charm. “It’s a magical clearing in the woods where you can camp with your family, have a fantastic time and dream about a better world,” says Robin.

The line-up, for its famous wooden, live grass and wild flower-roofed, stage has also focussed on locally-sourced acts, while pulling in a handful of bigger national and international names.

This year they include soulful Americana boys the Treetop Flyers, alternative folk act Tunng, African crossover band Songhoy Blues, CC Smugglers, Spiro, Gill Sandell & Chris TT, Duotone, Josienne Clark and Ben Walker, Thomas Truax, Nick Cope and Robin and Joe with their country-rock band The Dreaming Spires.

Also playing are John Joseph Brill, Mike Gale’s dream-country-pop act Co-Pilgrim (which includes Joe Bennett on lap-steel), country-bluegrass-folk collective The Knights of Mentis, Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou, West African kora player Jali Fily Cissokho, Brickwork Lizards, Cooling Pearls and Tamara Parsons-Baker.

“We felt we needed some energy this year, so we have cranked it up,” says Robin.

“We have some energetic names to keep people dancing in front of the stage once the cider kicks in, but also some people like Jali Fily and Nick Cope, who are key to our identity. We are very loyal. If we like someone, especially people have helped us pioneer the festival, we are not going to cast them off. But we have to get new stuff as well.”

Up to 1,500 people are expected on site, making it the biggest turnout ever. Many will take part on a diverse range of workshops, which include practical skills like knot tying with more ethereal arts like shamanic journeying and radical midwifery. And bee keeping, of course.

“Knot-tying is massively popular,” says Robin. “It’s one of those basic skills we don’t have any more. You can also learn to make a wormery or grow tomatoes upside down... the tomatoes are upside down, not you.

“A lot of it is fun and practical, but not all, but if you want to enter a Best Dressed Bee competition, why not?”

Many festival-goers, as well as artists are local. “It is a lot like Oxford in the woods,” says Robin.

“People come back every year, but, like me, are always taken aback when they arrive. It’s the real outdoors and you can hear the birds and the breeze. There’s also a special feel to having all those trees around you; not just a plantation of fir trees but native old English trees.

“A lot of Wood is about the trees – that’s why we called it that.

“There’s a different atmosphere. It really is quite magical.”

CHECK IT OUT
Wood runs from tomorrow to Sunday night.
Tickets are £74 from woodfestival.com or the Truck store in Cowley Road, Oxford.

Pictured: Country boys Treetop Flyers