Well Read at Wasing

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a multi-award-winning writer and broadcaster known for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food and his concern for the environment. He has earned a huge following through his River Cottage TV series and books, as well as campaigning documentary series such as Hugh’s Fish Fight, Hugh’s War on Waste, Britain’s Fat Fight and War on Plastic with Hugh and Anita. A new River Cottage series, River Cottage Reunited aired in June 2022.

His broadcasting has earned him a BAFTA as well as accolades from Radio 4, The Observer and the Guild of Food Writers and his award-winning books, include the best-selling River Cottage Cook Book and River Cottage Veg Every Day. Hugh’s latest book How to Eat 30 Plants a Week was published in May 2024.

He continues to work as a journalist, writing occasionally for the Guardian, Times and other national newspapers. He is a vice president of Fauna & Flora International and a patron of Switchback, a charity that helps young offenders find opportunities in the catering industry.

Clare Balding CBE

Clare is an award-winning broadcaster and writer, who was awarded a CBE for services to broadcasting and charity work in Queen Elizabeth II's final birthday honours list. She is a lead presenter for the Olympics, Paralympics, Winter Olympics, Wimbledon, the Commonwealth Games and Crufts on the BBC and Channel 4. In 2023, she commentated on the King's Coronation for BBC TV and hosted the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. She has championed women's sport and has also presented factual documentaries on the history of women's football and sporting icons of the 20th century. For more than twenty years, she has hiked across the countryside for the BBC Radio 4 series Ramblings. Clare is a best-selling author whose titles include My Animals and Other Family, which won the National Book Awards Autobiography of the Year.

Melissa Hemsley

Melissa is a former private chef turned best-selling author, real food activist and sustainability champion who is passionate about spreading the power of feel-good food. She's all about bringing it back to basics and shares lots of ways to cut back on ultra-processed foods and celebrate more real foods. Melissa has published six cookbooks over the last 15 years, including Eat Green, Eat Happy and The Sunday Times bestseller, Real Healthy - Unprocess Your Diet With Easy Everyday Recipes. 

Satish Kumar

Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. A world-renown author and international speaker, Satish founded The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity that seeks to inform and inspire a just future for all. He was the Editor of the charity's change-making magazine, Resurgence & Ecologist, for over 40 years, making him the UK's longest-serving editor of the same magazine. He continues to serve this publication as Editor Emeritus and by writing for each and every trailblazing issue of this much-loved and acclaimed magazine which has been described by The Guardian as the 'spiritual and ecological flagship of the environmental movement'.

Jim Murray MBE

Jim Murray is an actor, director, conservationist and artist known for Masters of Air (2024) and The Crown (Prince Andrew). Murray first came to prominence as an artist in 2023 with his acclaimed inaugural exhibition In Flow, where his dynamic abstract paintings were hung in conversation with John Constable’s The Dark Side. Murray draws huge inspiration from the rivers and oceans he is fiercely passionate about, and as such his paintings are full of drama, energy and movement.

Rivers have long been a source of inspiration and strength for Murray, who, like the poet Ted Hughes, shares a deep connection to the world that dwells beneath their surface. Fifteen years ago, Jim Murray lost his daughter EJ to congenital heart disease. As a passionate fly fisherman, the river offered healing during this difficult time in his life. For that alone, he says, he owes our rivers everything. Since then, Murray has become a leading voice alongside singer Feargal Sharkey and fellow actors, fighting for the protection of waterways and endangered wild Atlantic salmon.

Lucinda Miller

Lucinda Miller is the clinical lead of NatureDoc and has over 25 years’ experience as a family Naturopath and Functional Medicine practitioner. She runs a UK-wide team of Nutritional Therapists specialising in child nutrition and neurodivergence.  Her work focuses on understanding the nutritional and metabolic interactions between the gut microbiome, the immune system and brain function.  Her particular passion is the importance of children’s health and how early years nutrition can build strong foundations for future health.   She is also a coach and mentor for kids with ADHD and Autism. Lucinda is the author of three bestselling books: The Good Stuff, I Can't Believe It's Baby Food! and Brain Brilliance. She is a mum of three and lives in Wiltshire, UK.

Jay Griffiths

Jay Griffiths is the author of many books, such as Wild: An Elemental Journey, Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape, Tristimania and Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time. She won the Discover award for the best first-time author in the USA; the inaugural Orion award and the Hay Festival International Fellowship. She has broadcast and written widely, on subjects such as Radiohead and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her work has received widespread accolades, including from Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, Don Paterson, John Berger, Philip Pullman, KT Tunstall and Nikolai Fraiture.

Lucy Jones

Lucy Jones is an award-winning journalist and the author of four books including the bestselling Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild (a Times and Telegraph Book of the Year) and most recently Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood, which was longlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and a New Yorker and New Statesman Book of the Year. Her first book, Foxes Unearthed (2016), won the Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Her writing on ecology, health and science has been published by BBC Earth, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, GQ and the New Statesman. 

Poppy Okotcha

Poppy Okotcha is a trained horticulturist and regenerative grower, passionate about inspiring people to engage with and connect to the natural world. With her joyful Instagram content, poppy teaches people how to grow and forage their own food, whilst living and eating consciously - for personal, community and planetary health. As a young black woman, Poppy also advocates for those who are underrepresented and marginalised in the world of horticulture and environmentalism. Poppy has been featured on BBC2’s Gardeners’ World, and is a regular contributor to the Royal Horticultural Society podcast. She was also the ecological expert on Channel 4’s The Great Garden Revolution.

Patrick Galbraith

Patrick Galbraith was born in Scotland in 1993. His writing has appeared in The Observer, The Spectator, The Times and The Telegraph. He was editor of Shooting Times for seven years. He is now a columnist for Country Life and The Critic. Currently, he works as a commissioning editor at the independent publisher, Unbound, where he also runs Unbound’s literary magazine, Boundless. His non-fiction debut, In Search of One Last Song, was called the most important book on the countryside in years.

Sarah Langford

Sarah Langford is a criminal and family barrister turned bestselling writer. Her second award-nominated book, Rooted, describes her journey into the world of regenerative farming woven alongside the stories of the farmers who taught her what it meant to fall in love with the land. She regularly appears on panels as both speaker and chair and as a guest on podcast and radio programmes. She writes for a range of publications on issues of agro-ecological farming and sustainability.

Marie Derome 

Marie Derome is a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist and a Lecturer in Infant Observation & Child Development at Exeter University. She trained at the Tavistock Clinic in London and worked in CAMHS in Bristol. She now supports parents who are struggling to bond with their babies in her independent clinic in East Devon. Before her career change, Marie worked for the BBC World Service as a Foreign Correspondent and wrote for the French newspaper Liberation. Marie, who is originally from France, is married to the broadcaster and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. They live on a small farm in Devon where they have brought up their four children. 

Alice Vincent

Alice Vincent is an internationally-published writer, broadcaster and multi-platform storyteller. Her books include Hark, the bestselling Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival and Rootbound, Rewilding a Life, which were longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. She is a columnist for The Guardian and The New Statesman, and also writes for Vogue, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times and The Observer. 

Rebecca Dennis 

Rebecca Dennis is an author, Integrative Somatic Breathwork Trainer and Practitioner, and the Founder of www.breathingtree.co.uk Practising for nearly 20 years, she is renowned worldwide for her knowledge of somatic breathwork and body-based therapy. She supports communities, individuals and workplaces in better understanding their patterns, healing the past, regulating their nervous system, releasing physical tension and emotional blockages. Rebecca’s approach blends breathwork, bodywork, counselling, trauma therapy, bi-lateral processing, nervous system regulation, parts work, shamanic and mindset tools for a holistic approach, recognising the interconnectedness of the body, mind, and spirit in the healing process. Her bottom-up approach encourages healing from the inside-out, understanding the language of the nervous system and helping others build resilience in life, work and relationships. Rebecca specialises in treating issues such as burn out, stress, PSTD, CPTSD, anxiety, addiction, depression, sleep, focus, fatigue and autoimmune illness. She is the Sunday Times bestselling author of And Breathe, Let It Go, and Breathe – A Practical Guide To Breathwork, as well as securing a spot in the top three for her podcast, And Breathe. 

Hannah MacInnes

Hannah MacInnes is a broadcaster, journalist and podcast host. She presents frequently on Times Radio and is host of How to Academy's live programmes and podcast. Her interviewees include Bill Clinton, Melinda Gates, Jane Goodall and Louis Theroux. Hannah also hosts the Nibbies (British Book Awards) Podcast, The Klosters Forum Podcast and interviews on-stage and hosts at major literary events and climate summits. She has written for the Radio Times, the Evening Standard and TLS. Before going freelance she worked for eight years at BBC Newsnight.

Lulu Urquhart

Crowned best in show at RHS Chelsea in 2022 for Urquhart & Hunt’s ‘A Rewilding Britain Landscape’ (featuring foraged logs sculpted by beavers), Lulu Urquhart is a plantswoman, geomancer, land listener, organic & biodynamic landscape designer & earth-acupuncturist with a passion for traditional plant-lore, sacred land, reigniting of ancient ways and obviously...rewilding!

With her design partner Adam Hunt, their work with landscape design & ecological restoration focuses on connecting with subtle earth energies and ecology for re-establishing healthy biomes and using beauty in nature to enhance our human experience.

Lulu has worked on over one hundred gardens across the UK and Europe. These gardens have been of varying sizes for both public and private clients. Of particular note are the estate of Woolsery on Exmoor, a regenerative farm estate celebrating Syntropic farming and rewilding the soil as a base for deeply nutritious food systems. The Giardini Pistola in Puglia is a beautiful garden with a series of six terraced gardens; planted with a plethora of grasses, perennials, roses, fruit and trees - all drought and Xylella resistant plants. Another is Cambridge city mosque, an eco-architectural phenomenon with a public sacred garden, full of the plant jewels inspired by the Ottoman, Persian and Islamic empires. They have worked on creating and designing several landscapes for well-known retreats and healing spaces, such as 42 Acres, with a premise to listen to the land to encourage balancing and healing at the core, thus providing the most activating conditions for the strongest resonance for healing humans on that land too.

Adam and Lulu are working on their first book that talks to wilding as a human opportunity and responsibility; as our part of being the restorer species. They colourfully inform readers about all the possibilities of ecological restoration in the garden setting.

Jane Owen

Jane Owen has travelled the world writing about plants, people and landscapes from the Chinese/Tibetan border to the late Bunny Mellon’s estate in Virginia to Charles Jencks’s Garden of Cosmic Speculation and Edward James' surrealist plot in Mexico. She is a Contributing Editor to the Financial Times, a Yale Poynter fellow (2015), and won gold for her 2010 Chelsea Flower Show garden designed to raise awareness about Baka pygmy land rights.  Jane’s work as a TV presenter includes BBC2’s prime-time series Garden Through Time. She has written six books including Eccentric Gardens (Pavilion); Gardens Through Time (BBC Books) and 100 Ways to a Beautiful Garden.

Lucy Cooke

Lucy Cooke is a New York Times best-selling author, National Geographic explorer, TED talker and award-winning broadcaster with a Masters in zoology from New College Oxford, where she studied under Richard Dawkins. Lucy’s first long-form book The Unexpected Truth About Animals was short-listed for the Royal Society prize and has been translated into 20 languages. Lucy’s latest best-seller, Bitch: What does it mean to be female, was published in 2022 to widespread critical acclaim. Shortlisted as one of the best books of the year by the Telegraph and Guardian, Bitch was adapted into the Radio 4 series Political Animals and is currently being developed for television. Lucy is a fellow of Durham university and has recently lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Princeton and a host of other international universities. She has written, produced and presented high profile documentaries for BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery. She is a columnist for BBC Wildlife Magazine and has also written for the New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, Telegraph, New Scientist and Scientific American.

Andy Cato

Farming has been Andy’s full focus for 15 years, ever since an article he read about the environmental consequences of food production turned his life upside down—it ended with the line “if you don’t like the system, don’t depend on it.” A quest to become self-sufficient led to a fascination with the soil, plants, and the miracle at work in the few inches of topsoil that sustains us.

He sold the rights to the songs he had written to buy a farm and attempt to join the ranks of those building new kinds of farming systems. It was a brutal lesson: he was farming heavily depleted soils, trying to bring diversity back into his fields against all the odds. This led him to founding Wildfarmed, a food and farming business that grows regenerative wheat to make flour, plus barley and oats, with his co-founders George Lamb and Edd Lees.

His belief is that food and farming are our greatest points of urgency to deal with the multiple crises we face. If we can give a largely urban population quality food from nature rich landscapes, that allow them to participate in restoring nature and health, it’s an incredibly powerful and hopeful message.

Henry Mance

Henry Mance is the chief features writer at the Financial Times, and author of the book How to Love Animals and Protect the Planet. He has written for the FT on changing diets and rewilding, among other topics.

Freya Bromley

Freya Bromley is an author living in London. Her work explores love, loss and the restorative power of nature. Freya’s memoir, The Tidal Year, was shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2023. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Condé Nast Traveller, Financial Times and National Geographic Traveller.

Jackie Higgins

Jackie looks to the animal kingdom to understand our species. She thinks of zoology as a mirror we can hold up to offer a fresh perspective on what it means to be human. Growing up by the sea in Cornwall meant that Jackie’s fascination with nature started at a young age. At Oxford University, she was tutored by Richard Dawkins. Studying animal behaviour, evolution, ecology, and conservation, amongst other things, she graduated with an MA in Zoology. Later, she also studied art history, specialising with an MA in Photography. Jackie has worked in the BBC Science Department making programmes broadcast across all four BBC channels and abroad.  Mostly, she produced episodes for their flagship series Horizon across diverse subjects: from hidden ecosystems in The Secret Life of Caves and The Lost World of Lake Vostok, to ancient hominids in The Mystery of the Human Hobbit, and more distant ancestors, such as those that crawled out of the Devonian seas to colonise the land in The Missing Link.  Jackie also covered medicine and health in Sexual Chemistry, We Love Cigarettes, The Atkins Diet (a Royal Television Society nomination for Best Science Documentary), and SARS: The True Story, during which she filmed the World Health Organisation fight our planet’s first coronavirus pandemic. She is the author of three books on photography as well as the much praised Sentient, in which she returned to her fascination with the natural world. 

Yuval Zommer

Yuval Zommer graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Illustration. He worked as a creative director at leading advertising agencies before becoming the author and illustrator of highly acclaimed non-fiction. Yuval's stunning 'Big Book of...' series encourages children to explore and care for our natural world. The series has now been published in 25 languages and has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards internationally, including the UKLA Book Awards 2018 & 2019, the English Association's Nonfiction Award 2017 & 2019, and the Made For Mums Award 2018 & 2019.

Eleanor Mills

Eleanor Mills is a campaigner, Founder, bestselling-author and award-winning journalist and editor. Her book Much More to Come: Lessons on the Mayhem and Magnificence of Midlife, published by HarperCollins in August 2024 is a Times bestseller and she is the founder of Noon.org.uk – a platform and community of women in midlife, she calls them Queenagers. Eleanor’s mission is to change the narrative around older women in our culture to something more positive and fit for purpose which befits their pioneering status. To do that she became an entrepreneur at 50 setting up noon.org.uk in 2021. Her The Queenager newsletter is a Substack bestseller and her community has a 100k reach. Prior to that, for 23 years, Eleanor was a senior executive on The Sunday Times; the paper’s Editorial Director, award-winning Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine, Saturday Editor of The Times, a columnist and she has interviewed everyone from David Cameron and Theresa May to Sheryl Sandberg, Harry Styles and the Dalai Lama. She was Chair of Women in Journalism UK from 2014-2021.  She still writes regularly across UK newspapers and magazines, appears regularly as a commentator on TV and Radio and gives regular keynotes for global corporations on gendered-ageism and getting to gender parity and runs programmes within companies to help them retain their Queenager talent.

Tiffanie Darke

A seasoned fashion editor, journalist and activist, Tiffanie is the author of What to Wear and Why, Your Guilt Free Guide to Sustainable Fashion. Following stints as editor in chief of Sunday Times Style and Harrods, Tiffanie finally thought to ask where her clothes came from. What she discovered horrified her, and she set up about unravelling the complex stories behind materials, labour and waste that the industry she loves so much.

Focussing on the designers, creatives and brands that are doing good, she co-founded AGORA, a store at Six Senses Ibiza dedicated to responsible luxury. Her work has been published in  The Guardian, The Financial Times, Vogue, Glamour and The Telegraph.  

Tom Baxter

Tom Baxter, is the founder of The Bristol Fungarium, producing the UK's first organic certified medicinal mushrooms. Ever conscious of the unfolding ecological collapse that confronts us, Tom chose to make the fateful move away from city chatter to find meaning through working the land in 2008. After a few educational years establishing his organic vegetable farm and following 2 decades of largely unsuccessful excursions foraging for mushrooms, from the foothills of the Pyrenees to the Siberian steppes, Tom experienced a revelation during a mushroom cultivation course he attended in 2018. In 2019 he downed tools on the farm and invested all he had into creating The Bristol Fungarium, producing the UK’s first organic certified medicinal mushrooms.

Tom Middleton

Tom is a multi-award-winning sound and sensory designer, pioneering audio therapeutics to aid sleep, relaxation, pain management, and cognitive performance. He co-founded White Mirror, a wellness innovation consultancy and sensory design studio, focusing on health-promoting content and experiences. With a background in electronic and Ambient music and a career spanning over 3 decades, Tom has collaborated with industry icons and continues to perform live. He’s also a sleep science expert, neuroscience researcher, and explores archeo-acoustics and sonic ecology, known for helping millions with therapeutic audio for Calm, Apple Music, Breathonics and Moonai. Tom remains committed to highlighting the urgency to preserve natural acoustic ecosystems threatened by human development and urbanization.

Caroline Bennett

Caroline opened the UK’s first conveyor belt sushi restaurant, Moshi Moshi, in 1994 in London’s Liverpool Street Station, which has just celebrated its milestone 30th birthday. Its opening was inspired by her time living and working in Japan in the finance industry. It was while trying to source blue fin tuna for the restaurant in the late Nineties that she learned how endangered the species was, among others, as well as the lack of traceability in fishing.

Caroline's long-standing commitment to ethics, sustainability and seafood provenance continues even more powerfully today. She ensures fish is sustainably sourced from small-scale fishermen on British shores while continually campaigning for environmental and marine preservation, which put the restaurant way ahead of its time.

She is a Trustee of Open Seas a charity seeking to ban inshore trawling, and has been pivotal in the new LIFE certification, a logo on packaging telling consumers they’re buying ethically sourced fish. It will help differentiate the low-impact caught fish from industrially trawled fish. Currently it is in its pilot stage, and is supported by chef and food campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and clothing company Patagonia.

Lynne Page

Lynne Page works across Film, TV, Music, Musicals, Commercials, Plays and Opera. IN 2010 she was nominated for a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Olivier Award for her work on the West End and Broadway’s La Cage Aux Folles starring Kelsey Grammer.

She has worked for Warner Brothers, 20^th Century Fox, Working Title, Netflix, the National Theatre, the RSC and extensively in the West End and on Broadway, and has coached artists including Renée Zellweger, Christopher Walken, Lady Gaga, Vince Vaughn, Claudia Schiffer, Alfred Molina, Brandon Flowers and Kanye West.

Gui Alves

Gui Alves is a brazilian world class multi-instrumentalist and integrative music therapist who transforms the stage into a rainforest. With his 7 strings guitar, weaves brazilian rhythms and medicine songs in a unique looping atmosphere. Adding elements of body percussion and collective improvisations, a space of co-creation and connection is created. His biggest pleasure is to make people make music, offering therapeutical music education for +20 nationalities. 

Chiara Gilmore

Chiara Gilmore is a singer-songwriter known for her moving and soulful folk music. Shared straight from the heart, her poetic songs impart her deep reverence for the human experience and the natural world to which we all belong.

Crafting her songs with honesty and feeling, this powerful wordsmith offers something truly raw and memorable. 

Drawing on the timeless influences of artists like Joni Mitchell, Gilmore has a unique ability to skilfully marry the vulnerability of youth with that familiar old-soul wisdom, leaving gentle footprints in your heart and being.

With her authentic and ethereal voice, Chiara Gilmore invites listeners to journey to space of deep connection and meaningful reflection. 

Her songs softly awaken the collective remembering of ourselves as nature and call us to reclaim a life lived in harmony with the earth that sustains us.

Joshua Dugdale

Joshua Dugdale is the Custodian of Wasing Estate in the heart of the Berkshire countryside. As the 7th generation of the Mount family to care for the estate, Joshua is deeply committed to preserving the land for future generations. A passionate advocate for sustainable and regenerative rural practices, he led the estate's conversion to organic farming in 2018, aligning with his belief that farming and environmental regeneration must go hand in hand. The estate's land and livestock are certified by the Soil Association, and Joshua is proud to produce high-quality, environmentally conscious food.

Tania Park

Tania is a Forest Bathing Instructor, Massage Therapist and the Wellbeing Coordinator at Wasing. Having found huge support in her personal journey through yoga, meditation and breathwork over the last 20 years, she is passionate about offering people the chance to take a pause from the fast pace of our modern world, and to rest, recharge and reconnect to themselves, and our natural world. Having first visited Wasing over a decade ago, and now calling it home, Tania feels a deep connection to this beautiful land and is honoured to be able to share the healing and restorative benefits of nature, whether that be through cold water immersion at the wild swimming lake, or mindful time spent in the woodlands.

Geoff Greentree

Geoff Greentree has been holding Sweat Lodges for several decades. He constructed his first Lodge in London and subsequently trained in USA and Mexico. While working in San Francisco in the late 1980’s he began training in the Sweat Lodge. He is a Shiatsu teacher and practitioner and was working in research into Chinese Medicine’s efficacy for HIV/AIDS with Palo Alto university. Part of this research highlighted the positive health benefits of the Sweat Lodge which then became incorporated into the study, enabling Geoff to apprentice for several years as a Lodge keeper. Subsequently Geoff has held Lodges in many locations internationally and for the last decade and a half at Wasing. Geoff incorporates his extensive knowledge of health, nutrition, symbolism and ceremony into the Lodge experience. Geoff believes that the ancient technology of the Sweat Lodge is an essential tool for all cultures, particularly useful for sharing our prayers, aspirations and aligning us to nature and to our own essential nature. For releasing the old, creating space to vision the new in our lives.

We're delighted to bring you a wonderful array of authors, guest speakers and workshop facilitators for Well Read. Please note that the timings, for now, are approximate.

SUNDAY 25 MAY 2025

8am – The campsite opens (Sunday and Monday Full event ticketholders only)

9am – The Woodland venue opens

MAIN STAGE

10.30am – 11.45am - Sunday Papers Review with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Andy Cato, Satish Kumar and Sarah Langford, moderated by Financial Times Chief Features Writer Henry Mance.

12.30pm – 1.30pm - Nurturing our babies and their parents Lucy Jones, nature writer and author of Matrescence, and Marie Derome, Child Psychotherapist and author of What Your Baby Wants You to Know, discuss how parents, families and society can best look after their babies and support their caregivers. 

2.00pm – 3.15pm - The Body Ecology with Melissa Hemsley and Lucinda Miller. We all worry about the disruption of the ecosystem in our soil, sea and air - but what about sustaining our own internal ecosystems? Melissa and Lucinda discuss which foods help to nourish your internal terrain, the environment where your cells live and thrive. They discuss how consuming too much ultra-processed food downgrades your health and teach which foods and key nutrients can enhance your health and internal ecosystems, including your microbiomes, metabolism, hormone balance, cognitive health and immune function.

4pm – 5.15pm - Interview with Clare Balding Hannah MacInnes talks to the award-winning broadcaster and writer about growing up locally, her presenting work including 25 years presenting BBC Radio 4's Ramblings, the pressure of performance and how she juggles her writing with her other work - plus a look at her new novel coming out this Autumn

6pm – 7.15pm - Is it Okay to Eat Fish? As our fish stocks are collapsing, and our oceans and rivers are becoming more polluted, is it still possible to justify eating fish and seafood? Chef and environmental campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and oceans activist and artist Jim Murray, MBE, give their perspectives on this perennial dilemma.

9 – 10pm - Live Music with Gui Alves. Multi-instrumentalist Gui brings a vibrant presence through the seven-string guitar, caxixi, drums, and other hand-played instruments—offering immersive sonic landscapes that support both stillness and ecstatic release. His approach blends the contemplative and the celebratory, inviting participants into a fuller experience of connection, presence, and joy

10pm - Forest Nocturne with Tom Middleton: A live ambient performance to down regulate the nervous system, uplift the spirit and prepare for deep restful sleep, featuring Rebecca Dennis who will guide the music and breathwork finale. With sounds gathered from the surroundings, melodies and harmonies generated live and overlaid with the sounds endangered species to remind us how we must be kinder to the planet and all species we share it with.

LAKE STAGE

9.15am - 10.15am - A Breathwork Journey in to the wisdom and stories we carry within with Rebecca Dennis

10.45 - 11.30 - Sentient: What Animals Reveal about our Senses with Jackie Higgins

12pm - 1pm - How Animals Heal Us: with Jay Griffiths and Lucy Cooke. A revelatory look at how animals can have a role in our healing from the individual to the collective, and how this could guide us in creating kinder and healthier societies

1.30pm – 2.30pm – Hark: How Women Listen - Feeling heard in a world grown too loud Alice Vincent in conversation with Hannah MacInnes; the author and columnist discusses with Hannah MacInnes her personal quest to rediscover sound as something alive and vital and restorative

3pm – 4pm - Rewilding, Ecological Restoration and our Wellbeing: the Debate with Lulu Urquhart, Patrick Galbraith and Lucy Jones, moderated by Financial Times Contributing Editor, Jane Owen. 

4.30pm – 5.30pm - Regenerative Farming with Joshua Dugdale and Sarah Langford

6pm – 8pm – Radical Love. Satish Kumar introduction to his latest film Radical Love. 

SACRED GLADE

1.30pm - 2.30pm - Dance Choreography with Lynne Page

10.30pm – Sunday only ticket holders depart

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Wild Swim & Sauna - 10am - 11am / 11.30am – 12pm / 1pm – 2pm / 6.30pm – 7.30pm / 8pm – 9pm - Book here

Children's Bushcraft - 10am - 1pm / 1.30pm - 4.30pm - Book here (Ages 6-11 Years)

Woodland Meditation – 4pm – 6pm - Book here

Sweat Lodge - 10am - 1pm (Build A Sweat Lodge Workshop) 6 - 9pm (Sweat Lodge) - Book here

MONDAY 26 MAY 2025

MAIN STAGE

9.30am – 10am - Folk Singer Chiara Gilmore

12.30pm - 1pm - Children's Nature Art Workshop Join best-selling author, illustrator and environmentalist Yuval Zommer for a fun nature art workshop to celebrate the launch of The Big Book of Nature Art! There's creative potential in the everyday treasures around us - from twigs, seed pods, petals and leaves through to loo rolls, pencil shavings, takeaway cutlery and kitchen string. Using natural, recycled and found materials you'll get to create your own nature art

3.15pm – Forest Family Dance with Tom Middleton: An eclectic, ecstatic and energising DJ set of pure uplifting anthems to unite everyone in dance to celebrate being present and to cultivate a deeper connection with the self, others and nature

LAKE STAGE

9am – 10am –  The Tidal Year: writer Freya Bromley discusses the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding and hope. Bring your swimwear if you wish to swim as part of this experience

10am – 11am - Melissa Hemsley interview with Hannah MacInnes

11.15am – 12.15pm - A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow us: Poppy Okotcha, in conversation with Lulu Urquhart, discusses her memoir of a relationship with an ever-changing garden, of setting down roots and becoming embedded in nature, and of how tending to a patch of land will not only grow us as individuals, but can also help to grow a better world

12.30pm – 13.30pm - Much More to Come: pivoting into purpose and a joyous new chapter in midlife. Eleanor Mills in conversation with Tiffanie Darke

2pm - 3pm -  How modern science is confirming the traditional folk usage of fungi with Tom Baxter & Joshua Dugdale

4pm – Festival closes

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Wild Swim & Sauna - 8.30am - 9.30am / 10am - 11am - Book here 

Children's Bushcraft - 10am-12pm - Book here (Ages 6-11 Years)

Children's Nature Art Workshop 12.30-1pm - Book here

BOOK TICKETS HERE

FULL TICKET (SUN & MON)

25-26 May 2025

Adult 13+ £80 | Accessible £80 | Child 0-12 Free

or

1 DAY TICKET (SUN ONLY)

25 May 2025

Adult 13+ £55 | Accessible £55 | Child 0-12 Free

or

1 DAY TICKET (MON ONLY)

26 May 2025

Adult 13+ £30 | Accessible £30 | Child 0-12 Free

WELL READ VEHICLE PASSES

If you are bringing a vehicle, please purchase a vehicle pass in advance here

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Wild Swim & Sauna - Book here

Children's Bushcraft (Ages 6-11 Years) -  Book here

Children's Nature Art Workshop - Book here

Woodland Meditation - Book here

Sweat Lodge - Book here

For enquiries, please contact events@wasing.co.uk

During Well Read, you can book in an hour’s Wild Swim & Sauna session to rest and rejuvenate your body and soul.

These sessions offer you the chance to swim in our invigorating wild swimming lake and enjoy our beautifully crafted, woodfired Scandinavian sauna, with our friendly wellbeing hosts on hand throughout your visit.

Please note that these sessions are available only to Well Read ticketholders with a valid ticket for the day on which you are booking the Wild Swim & Sauna session.

Sessions run during the following times:

Sunday 25th May 2025

10am - 11am

11.30am - 12.30pm

1pm - 2pm

6.30pm-7.30pm

8pm - 9pm

Monday 26th May 2025

8.30am-9.30am

10am - 11am

BOOK NOW

T&C’s apply

During this year's Well Read literary festival, we are offering you the chance to explore the ancient woodlands at Wasing and be fully immersed in the healing properties of nature.

In today’s modern times it is so easy to become disconnected from our natural world.

Modern living can easily trigger the sympathetic nervous system, and without the chance to reset we can see an increase in chronic stress disorders.

Being immersed in nature reconnects us to the rhythms of the natural world and helps foster recovery from mental fatigue.

Mindful time spent in nature has been shown to boost our immune system, improve sleep, increase energy levels, reduce stress, and improve mental wellbeing.

Based on the principles of Shinrin Yoku, also known as Forest Bathing, you will be guided through the woodlands, immersing yourself in nature, whilst engaging your senses.

These sessions will offer you the chance to slow down, be present and mindful, and to reconnect to this awe-inspiring planet.

Please note that this session is available only to Well Read ticketholders with a valid ticket for the day on which you are booking the Woodland Meditation session.

T&C's apply.

BOOK HERE

Mud & Guts connect children with the natural world around them. It is about dirty knees and happy grins; triggering the imagination in the greatest playground of all. With their hybrid of bushcraft tutoring, natural world education and good old-fashioned games, there is enough to keep minds and bodies engaged and enthralled. Activities will include den building, fire lighting and animal tracking as well as loads of games, and of course, filling our pockets with collectables such as the roundest pebble, tickyliest feather & stickiest stick. 

Sessions are for children aged from 6-11 years old, in groups of up to 16 children. 

Please note that parents and guardians are unable to attend these sessions due to safeguarding policies. You will need to drop off & collect your child at the meeting point. 

Session dates & times are:-

Sunday 25th May 2025 10am – 1pm £28 per child

Sunday 25th May 2025 1.30pm – 4.30pm £28 per child

Monday 26th May 2025 10am – 12pm £20 per child

If you have any queries, please email events@wasing.co.uk 

Please note that these sessions are only available to Well Read literary festival ticketholders.

T&Cs apply.

BOOK HERE

Children's Nature Art Workshop

Monday 26th May 2025 - 12.30-1pm at the Lake Stage

During Well Read Literary Festival, join best-selling author, illustrator and environmentalist Yuval Zommer for a fun nature art workshop to celebrate the launch of The Big Book of Nature Art! There's creative potential in the everyday treasures around us - from twigs, seed pods, petals and leaves through to loo rolls, pencil shavings, takeaway cutlery and kitchen string. Using natural, recycled and found materials you'll get to create your own nature art.

Wasing are delighted to be offering these sessions free of charge, please book your space online as numbers are limited.

You only need to book a ticket for each child attending.

Please note that this workshop can only be accessed by Well Read Literary Festival ticketholders 

We are excited to be welcoming Geoff Greentree to Well Read literary festival to hold a transformative Sweat Lodge and allow you to experience this ancient ritual he has been sharing for decades.

Geoff incorporates his extensive knowledge of health, nutrition, symbolism and ceremony into the Lodge experience.

Geoff believes that the ancient technology of the Sweat Lodge is an essential tool for all cultures, particularly useful for sharing our prayers, aspirations and aligning us to nature and to our own essential nature. For releasing the old, creating space to vision the new in our lives.

On Sunday 25th May 2025 from 10am-1pm Geoff will be holding a workshop to build the lodge, sharing his knowledge and explaining the process.

The Sweat Lodge itself will take place later that day, from 6pm-9pm.

Please note that these sessions are only available to Well Read ticketholders with a valid ticket for Sunday 25th May 2025.

T&Cs apply.

Visit our friends from Hungerford Bookshop in the woodland yurt to discuss all things literary, meet authors & guest speakers for book signings following their on-stage appearances and place book orders.

You can discover more about Hungerford Bookshop here

Camping

Access to our campsite is included with Well Read full tickets on a bring your own tent or campervan basis.

If you are bringing a vehicle, please purchase a campsite vehicle pass here

The campsite facilities include toilets & access to drinking water.

Animals, fires & BBQs are not permitted at the campsite.

For any queries, please email events@wasing.co.uk

The Retreat at Elcot Park https://www.retreatelcotpark.com

Malmaison, Reading https://www.malmaison.com/reading

Holiday Inn, Reading https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/gb/en/reading/reaws/hoteldetail

Pentahotel, Reading https://www.pentahotels.com/hotels/united-kingdom/reading

Hotel Novotel, Reading https://all.accor.com/hotel/5432/index.en.shtml

Travelodge, Central Reading https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/64/Reading-Central-hotel

Travelodge, M4 Services Eastbound, Reading https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/238/Reading-M4-Eastbound-hotel

Travelodge, M4 Services Westbound, Reading https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/65/Reading-M4-Westbound-hotel

Hilton, Reading https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/lhrhrhi-hilton-reading/

Crowne Plaza, Reading https://www.cp-reading.co.uk/

Hotel Ibis, Reading https://all.accor.com/hotel/5431/index.en.shtml

Parkside International Hotel, Reading http://parksideinternationalhotel.com/

Best Western, Reading Calcot https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotels-in-reading/best-western-reading-calcot-hotel/propertyCode.83831.html

The Cedars Hotel, Reading https://www.hospitalityuor.co.uk/accommodation/cedars-hotel/

The Vineyard, Newbury www.the-vineyard.co.uk

The Hare & Hounds, Newbury https://www.hareandhoundsnewbury.co.uk/

The Chequers Hotel, Newbury https://chequershotelnewbury.co.uk/ 

Travelodge, Newbury https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/508/London-Newbury-Road-hotel

Berkshire Arms Hotel, Midgham https://www.chefandbrewer.com/pubs/berkshire/berkshire-arms/hotel/

Mercure Newbury West Grange Hotel, Newbury https://www.westgrangehotel.com/

Premier Inn, Grazeley Green www.premierinn.com

Premier Inn, Newbury www.premierinn.com

The Lodge, Newbury Racecourse https://www.thelodgenewbury.co.uk/

The Elephant At The Market, Newbury https://theelephantatthemarket.com/

Orida Hotel, Newbury https://newbury.oridahotels.com

Donnington Valley Hotel & Spa, Newbury https://www.donningtonvalley.co.uk/

Donnington Grove Hotel, Newbury https://www.donnington-grove.com/

Travelodge, Chieveley https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/56/Newbury-Chieveley-M4-hotel

Bunk Inn, Curridge https://www.thebunkinn.co.uk/

De Vere Wokefield Estate, Reading https://www.devere.co.uk/wokefield-estate/

Sandford Springs Hotel & Golf Club, Kingsclere https://www.sandfordsprings.co.uk/

The Hind’s Head, Aldermaston https://www.hindsheadaldermaston.co.uk/

The George & Dragon Hotel, Tadley https://georgedragonhotel.com/

Bel & The Dragon, Kingsclere https://www.belandthedragon-kingsclere.co.uk/

The Wellington Arms, Stratfield Turgis https://www.wellingtonarmshampshire.co.uk/

Hampshire Court Hotel, Basingstoke https://www.thehampshirecourthotel.co.uk/

We don't partner with any other venues offering accommodation, nor make recommendations on where to stay. Travel to Wasing from other accommodation venues & return journeys should be organised in advance by the ticketholders. Please visit the "Getting Here" section for details of local taxi companies.

Getting to Well Read:

By Road

Well Read is located at Wasing Estate, Wasing Lane, Aldermaston, RG7 4LY which is near Reading in Berkshire.

When approaching the venue, please follow event signage. The entrance is approximately ½ a mile from Aldermaston village. The exact location can be viewed at the What3Words location here

If coming from the M4, whether coming from the East or the West, please leave the M4 at Junction 12.

If coming from the North, leave the A34 at the M4 J13 Chieveley junction and take the M4 East. Leave the M4 at Junction 12.

If coming from the South, leave the M3 at Junction 6 (Basingstoke) and take the A339 North then the A340 through Tadley.

Please expect to experience a higher volume of traffic than normal.

Pick up & Drop off

If you are being dropped off or picked up by friends, family or a taxi, please follow the signage to the dedicated pick up and drop off point. Please do not get picked up or dropped off in other locations as a traffic management system will be in place and routes may be blocked.

By Taxi

Here's a list of local taxi companies. Due to high demand, please ensure that all taxi journeys are booked in advance. Please note that it is a 10-15 minute walk from the taxi drop off point to the festival and vice versa. 

AAA Cars, Reading http://www.taaaxi.com/ Tel 0118 950 4030

Atlantic Cars, Reading https://www.atlanticcars.co.uk/ Tel 0118 910 1010

Bliss Cars, Reading https://www.blisscars247.com/ Tel 0118 986 0001

Kennet Cars, Reading https://kennetcars.com/ Tel 01189 86 66 66

Ace Cars, Reading https://acecarsreading.co.uk/ Tel 01189 67 67 67

Eco Cars, Reading http://www.taxiinreading.co.uk/ Tel 01189 660 331

Yellow Cars, Reading https://yellcars.com/  Tel 0118 9666 555

Cabco, Newbury https://cabco33333.com/ Tel 01635 33333

Go Green Taxis, Newbury https://www.gogreentaxisltd.co.uk Tel 01635 800 990

Broadway Cars, Newbury  http://www.broadway-cars.com/ Tel 01635 847784

Ave Cabs, Newbury https://www.ave-cabs.com/ Tel 01635 31212

Jars Cars, Basingstoke  https://jarscars.co.uk/ Tel 01256 819844

A& Cars, Basingstoke https://www.aandachauffeurcars.com/ Tel 01256 976888

Delta Cars, Basingstoke http://www.deltacarsbasingstoke.com/ Tel 01256 242428

Compass Executive Cars, Fleet https://www.compassexecutivecars.co.uk/ Tel 0118 970 2233

Tadley Cars, Tadley https://www.tadleycarsprivatehire.co.uk/ Tel 0118 327 4260

By Rail

The nearest train stations are:-

Midgham is 2 miles (5 minutes) - N.B. This station doesn’t have a taxi rank

Aldermaston is 2.5 miles (6 minutes)

Thatcham is 5 miles (11 minutes) 

Theale is 7½ miles (15 minutes) 

Newbury is 9½ miles (25 minutes) 

Reading is 11½ miles (25 minutes) 

Basingstoke is 11 miles (25 minutes)

Please ensure that you book a taxi from the train station to Wasing and all return journeys in advance due to high demand. 

By Air

The nearest airports are:- 

London Heathrow (38 miles)

Southampton (44 miles)

London Gatwick (72 miles)

Taxis:

Please visit the "Getting Here" guide for contact details of local taxi companies. We recommend booking all taxi journeys in advance due to high demand during festivals.

Trains:

Please visit the "Getting Here" guide for a list of all local train stations. If you are planning to travel to Well Read from the station and vice versa by taxi, we recommend booking all taxi journeys in advance due to high demand during festivals.

Accommodation:

We won't be offering tipi tents or rooms for Well Read but full event tickets (Sun & Mon combined tickets) include access to our campsite on a bring your own tent or campervan basis. 

Entry Information:

Please ensure you are wearing suitable footwear for undulating woodland. This is a rural site so it's best to leave your stilettos at home! Please ensure you leave enough time to undergo security checks.

Accessible:

You can view our Accessibility Guide here

Car Parks:

Please follow event signage on approach to the venue and once through the gate, please follow instructions from the car parking stewards.

Car parking is in a grass field.

To park, you will need a vehicle parking pass which you can book by clicking here Please ensure you book your parking ticket in advance.

Event Schedule:

You can view the timings and line-up at www.wasing.co.uk/wellread Please note that timings are approximate & subject to change. 

Children

All children require a ticket to enter. Under 12s are free of charge but still require a ticket to enter. Child tickets can be purhcased here

Animals

Animals, with the exception of registered assistance dogs, are not permitted. If you are bringing a registered assistance dog, please bring proof of registration to the Box Office.

Cash

Please note that The Woodland At Wasing is a cashless venue & all payments must be made by card.

Prohibited items:

You are allowed to bring umbrellas to The Woodland but may be asked by event staff to put them down if they are blocking the view or affecting the enjoyment of other ticketholders. As we cannot always rely on British weather, please make sure you have appropriate clothing fit for rain or shine.

The event is set within a natural environment with grass underfoot so please ensure appropriate footwear is worn – leave your high heels at home!

Seats and chairs of any kind are not permitted into the events. This includes seat sticks and inflatable seats. You are permitted to bring a blanket to sit on, although you may be asked to pack this up when the show starts.

Food and drink bought from outside is allowed within the campsite but cannot be brought into The Woodland however there will be a range of delicious food and drink traders inside the venue. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available. Free drinking water is available so please do bring an empty reusable bottle or 1x sealed 500ml plastic water bottles.

Glass is not allowed into The Woodland.

It is strictly prohibited to bring into the venue any weapons, knives, guns, sharp objects, alcohol, illegal substances, legal highs, fireworks, pyrotechnics, sparklers, fires, BBQs, smoke bombs, confetti canons, air horns, lasers or flares.

Bags larger than A3 will not be permitted. All bags will be searched at dedicated security points. Personal searches may also be conducted at this point.

Animals, with the exception of registered assistance dogs, are not permitted. If you are bringing a registered assistance dog, please bring proof of registration to the Box Office.

Drones are strictly prohibited. 

Commercial or professional photography, videography or dronography is not permitted.

Tickets provide access to the event listed on your ticket only. Access to any other area of the Wasing Estate or any other event taking place on site is not permitted.

Please place any rubbish in the bins provided or take it away with you.

Contact Us

Please email events@wasing.co.uk

Press & Marketing enquiries: Contact Faith Knight Head of Marketing & Communications via marketing@wasing.co.uk

We're delighted to bring you a wonderful array of authors, guest speakers and workshop facilitators for Well Read. Please note that the timings, for now, are approximate.

SUNDAY 25 MAY 2025

8am – The campsite opens (Sunday and Monday Full event ticketholders only)

9am – The Woodland venue opens

MAIN STAGE

10.30am – 11.45am - Sunday Papers Review with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Andy Cato, Satish Kumar and Sarah Langford, moderated by Financial Times Chief Features Writer Henry Mance.

12.30pm – 1.30pm - Nurturing our babies and their parents Lucy Jones, nature writer and author of Matrescence, and Marie Derome, Child Psychotherapist and author of What Your Baby Wants You to Know, discuss with Xanthe Steen how parents, families and society can best look after their babies and support their caregivers. 

2.00pm – 3.15pm - The Body Ecology with Melissa Hemsley and Lucinda Miller. We all worry about the disruption of the ecosystem in our soil, sea and air - but what about sustaining our own internal ecosystems? Melissa and Lucinda discuss which foods help to nourish your internal terrain, the environment where your cells live and thrive. They discuss how consuming too much ultra-processed food downgrades your health and teach which foods and key nutrients can enhance your health and internal ecosystems, including your microbiomes, metabolism, hormone balance, cognitive health and immune function.

4pm – 5.15pm - Interview with Clare Balding Hannah MacInnes talks to the award-winning broadcaster and writer about growing up locally, her presenting work including 25 years presenting BBC Radio 4's Ramblings, the pressure of performance and how she juggles her writing with her other work - plus a look at her new novel coming out this Autumn

6pm – 7.15pm - Is it Okay to Eat Fish? As our fish stocks are collapsing, and our oceans and rivers are becoming more polluted, is it still possible to justify eating fish and seafood? Chef and environmental campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and oceans activist and artist Jim Murray MBE join Joshua Dugdale to give their perspectives on this perennial dilemma.

9 – 10pm - Live Music with Gui Alves. Multi-instrumentalist Gui brings a vibrant presence through the seven-string guitar, caxixi, drums, and other hand-played instruments—offering immersive sonic landscapes that support both stillness and ecstatic release. His approach blends the contemplative and the celebratory, inviting participants into a fuller experience of connection, presence, and joy

10pm - Forest Nocturne with Tom Middleton: A live ambient performance to down regulate the nervous system, uplift the spirit and prepare for deep restful sleep, featuring Rebecca Dennis who will guide the music and breathwork finale. With sounds gathered from the surroundings, melodies and harmonies generated live and overlaid with the sounds endangered species to remind us how we must be kinder to the planet and all species we share it with.

LAKE STAGE

9.15am - 10.15am - A Breathwork Journey in to the wisdom and stories we carry within with Rebecca Dennis

10.45 - 11.30 - Sentient: What Animals Reveal about our Senses with Jackie Higgins

12pm - 1pm - How Animals Heal Us: with Jay Griffiths and Lucy Cooke. A revelatory look at how animals can have a role in our healing from the individual to the collective, and how this could guide us in creating kinder and healthier societies

1.30pm – 2.30pm – Hark: How Women Listen - Feeling heard in a world grown too loud Alice Vincent in conversation with Hannah MacInnes; the author and columnist discusses with Hannah MacInnes her personal quest to rediscover sound as something alive and vital and restorative

3pm – 4pm - Rewilding, Ecological Restoration and our Wellbeing: the Debate with Lulu Urquhart, Patrick Galbraith and Lucy Jones, moderated by Financial Times Contributing Editor, Jane Owen. 

4.30pm – 5.30pm - Regenerative Farming with Joshua Dugdale and Sarah Langford

6pm – 8pm – Radical Love. Satish Kumar introduction to his latest film Radical Love. 

10.30pm – Sunday only ticket holders depart

SACRED GLADE

1.30pm - 2.30pm - Dance Choreography with Lynne Page

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Wild Swim & Sauna - 10am - 11am / 11.30am – 12pm / 1pm – 2pm / 6.30pm – 7.30pm / 8pm – 9pm - Book here

Children's Bushcraft - 10am - 1pm / 1.30pm - 4.30pm -  Book here (Ages 6-11 Years)

Woodland Meditation – 4pm – 6pm - Book here

Sweat Lodge - 10am - 1pm (Build A Sweat Lodge Workshop) 6 - 9pm (Sweat Lodge) - Book here

Finding The Wild Inside Workshop with Nicola Chester - 6pm - 7.30pm - Book here

MONDAY 26 MAY 2025

MAIN STAGE

10am – 11.30am - Melissa Hemsley interview with Hannah MacInnes

12pm - 1pm - Much More to Come: pivoting into purpose and a joyous new chapter in midlife. Eleanor Mills in conversation with Tiffanie Darke

1.30pm - 2.30pm -  How modern science is confirming the traditional folk usage of fungi with Tom Baxter & Joshua Dugdale

3pm – Forest Family Dance with Tom Middleton: An eclectic, ecstatic and energising DJ set of pure uplifting anthems to unite everyone in dance to celebrate being present and to cultivate a deeper connection with the self, others and nature

LAKE STAGE

9.30am – 10am - Folk Singer Chiara Gilmore

10am - 10.45am –  The Tidal Year: writer Freya Bromley discusses the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding and hope

11am - 12pm - A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow us: Poppy Okotcha, in conversation with Lulu Urquhart, discusses her memoir of a relationship with an ever-changing garden, of setting down roots and becoming embedded in nature, and of how tending to a patch of land will not only grow us as individuals, but can also help to grow a better world

12.30pm - 1pm - Children's Nature Art Workshop Join best-selling author, illustrator and environmentalist Yuval Zommer for a fun nature art workshop to celebrate the launch of The Big Book of Nature Art! There's creative potential in the everyday treasures around us - from twigs, seed pods, petals and leaves through to loo rolls, pencil shavings, takeaway cutlery and kitchen string. Using natural, recycled and found materials you'll get to create your own nature art

4pm – Festival closes

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Wild Swim & Sauna - 8.30am - 9.30am / 10am - 11am - Book here 

Children's Bushcraft - 10am-12pm - Book here (Ages 6-11 Years)

Children's Nature Art Workshop 12.30-1pm - Book here