Newstead Treefest is a two day festival of Arts, Crafts, Music and Environment to be held on Pocket Park, Newstead Village.

Workshop activities take place from 11.00 – 5.00 both days and the main stage runs until 12.00 Saturday and 11.00 Sunday. The event is free to all. Treefest focuses on providing a showcase for local artists, performers, bands, DJ’s and agencies and engages the local community and visitors through hands on workshop activities in all areas.

Newstead Treefest was developed in 1999 as a celebration of the opening of community woodland in Newstead Village with the aims of engaging local people to create a sense of community and ownership in Newstead. This year Treefest is themed as a Celebration of Multi Culture as a response from the community to issues of racism and hate crime identified as a local issue by Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottinghamshire Police. Workshops, music and information stands will support this theme. The event will also link with the proposed purchase of Annesley/Newstead Pit Tip to support the development of a country park on the pit tips.

The event is designed and run by volunteers from the local community to provide activities for all generations and the themed areas offer workshops in Arts and Crafts in The Village, this years Environment Area, a range of workshops in the Teenage Area and Childrens Areas, free holistic therapies and peer massage training in the Health Area as well as music on the Main stage and in the Dance Area and Acoustic and spoken word in the Speakeasy Cafe, Around the site will be various Stalls, Street theatre, information tents from Agencies and more.

Over 100 volunteers will take part in making the event happen and will develop a range of skills ranging from achieving stewarding qualifications to Youth Awards. You can also join us for the launch of the Newstead Parish Plan, have lunch in the Speakeasy cafe with hundreds of people as part of the national Big Lunch initiative on the Sunday afternoon, or help the Holistic Health Team break the world record for participants in peer Massage

Activities taking place at Treefest include:

• Launch of Newstead Parish Plan on the Saturday afternoon.
• The Big lunch. Taking place Sunday in the Speakeasy Café (60x30 marquee) aiming to engage 250 people
• World record peer massage attempt led by the Holistic Health Team aiming to engage 500 people.
• Children’s area has 12 workshops, family theatre and a carnival procession through the village led by the local school opens the event. Multi racial costumes have been created at workshops at Newstead Primary School involving Newstead Womens Institute and Gedling Play forum.
• Environment area currently has 8 craft workshops aswell as the Speakeasy Café offering healthy, locally produced food, an acoustic and poetry stage as well as heritage displays and talks.
• Health area has HHT delivering 2 days of free therapy sessions in one marquee and peer massage training workshops in another.
• Main Stage open till midnight Saturday and 11.00pm Sunday, featuring established and new bands.
• Dance area has 2 dance tents offering a range of styles and links to Teenage area which has 8 workshops in DJ, beat boxing, music and arts. Work is ongoing with artists and local youth clubs to create backdrops, signage and abstract art works.

Volunteers are essential for running the event and those involved in Treefest come both from the local as well as wider community. Treefest has a volunteer policy and engages volunteers in every aspect of the event including management of areas, each area is run by a volunteer with a background in that area eg: Other involvement includes stewarding, running site information base, litter picking, recycling etc: Most volunteers come from Newstead Village or Greater Nottingham and this year over 100 people will volunteer at or in the run up to the event. Treefest is also working with the local CVS to offer volunteering opportunities.

Volunteer opportunities also include:

• 100 volunteers(minimum) take part.
• 16 volunteers to qualify for Security Industry Authority Level 2 Door Supervisor license.
• 50 volunteers (minimum) qualify for V Involved Award.
• 25 young people (minimum) achieve ASDAN Youth Award.
• 2 Volunteers shadow Event Manager as a prelude to qualification in Event Management. This year Treefest has commissioned an Event Manager to train Committee members.

Treefest is a an activity under review as part of the recently launched feasibility study into the Annesley/Newstead Pit tips Project. In addition Treefest are involving Rural Officers from Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire to carry out a wide ranging consultation and evaluation exercise at the event to ascertain how Treefest can better involve the ideas and aspirations of the local community.

If you want get involved as a volunteer, enquire about a stall or carrying out a workshop please get in touch at the link below. We look forward to welcoming you to Newstead Treefest.

Information available from www.treefest.co.uk