Festivals are becoming big business nowadays and because of that, it’s easy to think that hand in hand with your wristband and wellies weekends comes commercialism; high priced alcohol and tickets that cost a month's wages. Treehouse Festival doesn’t just fight this expectation, it smashes it completely. A week-long festival that’s based on the community not commercialism, skills sharing not ticket scalping.
The Treehouse Festival is a small, independent week-long summer festival set on a farm in Norfolk. Central to the festival is a fully catered community who create and build projects together, learning forgotten skills from experts and each other. To date, they have built a magnificent treehouse, a thatched Iron age roundhouse, a smokehouse—to smoke their own homemade cheese and currently are building a lake house made from recycled wood, which can be followed on social media! At the festival, you can join in eco-building projects and become part of the ever-evolving festival landscape. Each project stays on site too, so you can come back year after year and continue to see the site evolve with your help.
Throughout the week there are lots of free workshops running, each taught by an expert in the field. Ben Wong, a local blacksmith who specialises in miniature armaments runs a forge and teaches blacksmithing throughout the week, you can drop in at any point and have a go or spend the whole week making a beautiful knife to take home and use in your kitchen. Or if green woodworking is more your thing then you can join Oli in his outdoor wood workshop and make a beautiful hand carved bowl and spoon to take home and use for salads that will last you forever. How many other festivals do you know of where you can take home almost an entire kitchen set to last the rest of your life and all for free?
Every aspect of the festival is based on the principle of the free exchange of knowledge and while not exclusive to treehouses or crafts every aspect links into the ethos of promoting a more eco-friendly way of life. Old crafts are preserved and teach a respect for the surroundings while upcycled building projects show how to live sustainably within the planet, even the catering which is both volunteer run and free is vegan and ethically sourced.
If you want to find out more about an experiance that could turn your world perspective on it's head and teach you something new you can visit the festival's website here http://treehousefestival.co.uk/
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Learning new traditional skills every day.
The new Lake House - under construction. Made from recycled and salvaged materials.
The iron age roundhouse - built entirely by festival goers
Design is always a factor.
Views from the Swamp Hut
No festival is complete without live music and a party
Camping is encouraged for the full week`s immersion
Traditional basket weaving taught at the festival
A bodgers workshop, where traditional green woodworking methods are taught
The festival community gathers for an evening`s meal outside the iron age roundhouse
Traditional scything taught, for ethical weed and land clearance
Beekeeping lessons from a master beekeeper
A Master smith teaching students how to forge
Views from the secret tree house attic
Another keen student hard at work
