With a theme of ‘gratitude’ this year, the serene Candleston Wood Campsite will soon host the eighth annual Between The Trees Festival, a unique four-day event combining music, art, and nature – with its organisers particularly proud of the latter. Billy Edwards explores how deep this environmental consciousness runs.
In its eighth year, Between The Trees is a four-day festival which takes place far from a phone signal. Held at Candleston Wood Campsite, Merthyr Mawr among a cornucopia of Welsh wildlife, your soundtrack comprises around 40 musical acts, as well as spoken word, dance, and other artistic activities.
The theme of 2024’s BTT is gratitude – due to the organisers’ intention to inform visitors on how to feel gratitude for the world around them, and to improve both the natural environment and their own mental health. Across numerous spots and stages, the festival proves to be conscious of its environmental responsibility, even down to the staff lanyards and festival wristbands produced from laser-engraved wood and organic thread.
Pentraf Paramaethu (Permaculture Village) is a new area for this year that will host talks and workshops on the topic of permaculture. A relatively new theory in the study of nature, one of the key details of its land production is that it is regenerative: a practical method that prioritises the preservation of agricultural ecosystems for the benefit of both future generations and the plants, insects and animals that roam our grasslands. Therefore, this area will include classes about which wild plants could find good use in the kitchen, or as natural health remedies.
A series of guided walks aim to take campers deeper into the woods, with geographical details filled in by nature practitioners. One will be led by Martin Hawes – BTT’s resident fungi enthusiast, with 40 years’ foraging experience under his belt. There’s plenty to study, with at least 12,000 varieties to be found in Wales, and it will likely prove key to the festival, as fungi complement the aforementioned concept of permaculture. They play a significant role at the heart of most ecosystems by recycling dead material and keeping the soil fertile.
A series of craft workshops will also take place. These range from the ancient art of willow weaving to more contemporary methods of blacksmithing and metalwork. Woodwork is another particularly regenerative activity, as it repurposes the natural product of dead wood for new uses. If you’re not brave enough to try producing your own, these experts will also sell their own productions on stalls. Welsh company Dryad Bushcraft will also be on hand to teach expedition survival skills, from lighting a fire to building an outdoor shelter.
Another area, Micrographia hints at its activity in its name: home to various microscopes with which visitors can analyse local insects, plants, fungi and pondlife in order to comprehend the ways they can help them. Provided with the help of the adjacent Merthyr Mawr National Nature Reserve, it’s an area well-suited for wildlife discovery: sand has settled on top of its age-old limestone cliffs, creating exceptional terrain for insects, fungi, and plants not usually found in Wales to inspect under the glass.
Another aspect of the festival is its Well-Being Centre, which aims to reconnect the inner psyche of its visitors to the natural world. It will host yoga sessions as well as tai chi and qigong, both exercises with roots in Chinese martial arts. Qigong is one movement repeated to feel a benefit in one part of the body, such as moving your arms in a windmill motion to stimulate blood circulation. On the other hand, a session of tai chi focuses on the body as a larger vessel with a greater variety of movements. Therefore, qigong is slightly more accessible, yet both are beneficial to all fitness levels.
One key attraction of the festival is its talks, hosted in the Seren Barn. These are conducted by a series of naturalists and scientists, providing information on the latest theories being studied and stories of their experiences. These range from Elizabeth Chadwick, head of Cardiff University’s Otter Project, on how tracking the species informs our understanding of freshwater aquatic systems, to explorer Will Millard, best known for numerous BBC series such as Hidden Wales and My Year With The Tribe. He’s in attendance to present The Magic Of Water and to teach children about the various creatures that inhabit freshwater environments around the British Isles, with the help of attractive live specimens.
“I’ve got portable aquatic tanks with tropical fish and Welsh native species. So, things like minnows, sticklebacks, rudd, very small carp…” says Millard. “Beautiful fish that, when you place them in front of children and say, ‘these are the fish species that you’ve got in the rivers and ponds outside your house,’ it blows their minds. They don’t realise that they were ever even there!”
Will’s first Between The Trees festival was last year, as there was finally a gap in his schedule allowing him to attend. He became so smitten with the event – “undoubtedly” a highlight of his year, a weekend spent with “really wonderful people” – that he cleared his calendar to return.
“You are literally between the trees and Merthyr Mawr. The twinkling lights in between when you’re walking through, especially at night, are really special. The venues are really well spaced out; there’s not too many people, but enough for it to be a really good atmosphere. There’s anything from natural history that you wouldn’t normally get to hear about to people who have done mainstream books with big publishers. It’s a real eclectic collection – I absolutely love it.”
The Millard family is currently based in Sully. What does he find so appealing about Wales? “It’s a mix of landscapes. You know, I grew up in the south-east of England, and everything was quite similar. Now, I absolutely love the Severn Estuary: the bird species, the kayaking – I can fish on the beach a minute from my doorstep. Then I can go an hour inland and be in mountains and forests. If you were to draw like a two-hour radius, you could take every sort of wilderness habitat in Western Europe, which is incredibly fortunate.”
Will considers the opportunity for serenity in Wales, citing its landscapes as a comfort after the stresses of thick jungles and isolated cultures he has sometimes found on televised adventures abroad. “In these spaces, you’re undisturbed by the outside world. Me and my friends will fish for a whole day in the shadow of Pen Y Fan and won’t see another soul. You come away from just a day’s fishing, and you feel like you’ve been on holiday for a week.”
It’s clear that Will and Between The Trees are a perfect match. Clearly smitten by his surroundings, he desires to illuminate just how idyllic Wales can be to his young audience so they can experience the same thrill of exploration as his own.
“I’m someone who’s grown up around water; I’ve always been fascinated by it. But I understand that the ability to look at the water and understand it just comes naturally to me. I’ve never found a kid who isn’t fascinated by water. But I think that’s because they don’t have that handbook which allows them to demystify this hidden environment. If you look at a river, unless it’s crystal clear, it feels like you’re kind of looking into a chocolate river, almost! I want to demystify that, and help children realise they can engage with the wildlife in their environment.”
Between The Trees, Candleston Wood Campsite, Merthyr Mawr, Thurs 22-Sun 25 Aug
Tickets: £170/£55 under-18s/FREE under-5s; day tickets available. Info: betweenthetrees.co.uk
words BILLY EDWARDS
