The 2023 Green Festival has been hailed a great success by the organisers. The aims of the festival were to engage with as many people as possible from as wide a background as possible, with a particular focus on young people and local businesses. With this in mind, the packed week long programme had something for everybody.
Linda Bunting, chair of the Green Festival organising group said, "We wanted to make sure the festival was as inclusive as possible and covered many environmental issues to appeal to a wide audience. Our aim was to avoid just talking to those who are already well aware of the climate and ecological threats we face and reach out to as wide a group of people as possible. We feel we did just that."
The Festival got off to a terrific start on the Saturday with the opening by a LUSH Director (Rowena Bird) and the Mayoress, Diane March (see picture), followed by a performance by Wimborne Community Theatre that dealt with the pollution threat to our rivers. Visitors to the Minster Green had the chance to talk to a whole range of local environmental groups, as well as enjoying some freshly squeezed apple juice. Planet Wimborne marked the start of the festival by publishing a new Green Trail for the town, which you can find in various shops in the town and on the Planet Wimborne website (https://planetwimborne.org/articles/planet-wimborne-launches-new-wimborne-green-trail).
During the week there were arts and crafts events, as well as talks on marine pollution, electronic waste and conservation by local experts. The festival ended with the planting of trees at Dogdean SANG. Feedback from those attending over the week was overwhelmingly positive.
One of the highlights of the festival was the talk by Megan McCubbin, of Springwatch fame, who delivered an inspirational talk on how we all have a role to play in protecting the natural world, no matter how small we feel the thing we are doing is.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and the BID organised events, providing an opportunity for businesses to showcase what they are doing to adopt more sustainable habits.
The organisers would like to thank all those who helped make the festival such a success and look forward to working with them to grow the festival for next year. If you would like to get involved in and/or have an idea for next year's festival please email: planetwimborne@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you.
