Kingsbridge Nature Festival, organised by Kingsbridge Climate Action, is a three-day celebration of the local environment taking place from Thursday June 20 to Saturday June 22. 

The festival offers a diverse programme of activities in and around Kingsbridge including nature walks, inspiring talks, visits to local wild places, wellbeing events, music, storytelling, citizen science and lots of art and creativity. The event opens on Thursday night for an evening of talks and an exhibition at Harbour House and closes on Saturday afternoon with a nature parade from the Market Square, after a day full of nature based activities in the Recreation Ground.

Festival Coordinator, Rosa Hannaford says “this event is a joyful and participatory celebration that we hope will amplify action for climate and nature in Kingsbridge, and act as a launchpad for new ideas, initiatives and projects. The festival is a very collaborative event, pulling in skills, knowledge and energy from all sorts of organisations and individuals locally.”

One of this year’s collaborators is James Carr from Drum Devon, who is creating a community samba band for the nature parade on the Saturday of the festival:

“I’m happy to be supporting the Kingsbridge Nature Festival this year. I grew up near Kingsbridge so it’s great to be back working with the local community to put together our own, unique Samba-Junk band. Brazilian Samba has a long history of bringing communities together to raise spirits and draw attention towards a common cause. I am also excited to be working alongside ‘Till the Coast is Clear’ - using plastic junk collected from the sea, we can draw attention to the devastating impact this pollution has on the coastline and marine ecosystem.”

The festival is supported by Kingsbridge Town Council, Ward Councillors from South Hams District Council, The Halleria Trust, Kingsbridge Arts Society and Harbour House Centre for Arts and Wellbeing.

Festival Partnership with Harbour House Centre for Arts and Wellbeing

Opening on the first night of the festival, Harbour House will be exhibiting a project called “Crepuscular Creatures” – a moving image work that celebrates the diversity of local nature which is active at dawn and dusk: species which are known as ‘crepuscular’.

This exhibiton is the culmination of ten month’s work by a group of year twelve students from Kingsbridge Community College, who worked with Harbour House over this time as part of their sixth form enrichment programme.

They worked with a local sound artist, Jodie Saunders, to create field recordings of local nature spots, and of animals and birds at local sanctuaries.

They also collaborated with Kingsbridge Natural History Society members to create a ‘sound scavenger map’; a free interactive activity which encourages community members to get out into Kingsbridge and to listen to its abundance of nature sounds.

Harbour House Director Amy Dickson says “We are delighted to be collaborating with Kingsbridge Climate Action again on their fantastic Nature festival and to be showcasing the work of the brilliant young people who have been part of our Creative Leadership programme.”

You can find the full festival programme online