In 2011, we introduced the Food Hall to Treefest for the first time. This year we have more exhibitors plus two local celebrity chefs who will be giving live cooking demonstrations twice daily.

Big changes in the Food Hall, with two local celebrity chefs. Both chefs will be cooking using local produce, and hopefully some Westonbirt venison. There will be two demonstrations daily.

Rob Rees MBE, the Cotswold Chef, has over 25 years experience and has cooked all over the world in palaces and embassies, so we are very pleased and proud that Rob has agreed to cook and entertain you. Rob will be cooking on Sunday and Monday.
www.thecotswoldchef.com

Charlotte Pike of Go Free Foods runs an award winning bakery which is free from wheat, gluten and dairy, and believe me, her chocolate brownies taste amazing, and we are very excited that Charlotte is bringing us something different. Charlotte also writes a blog for Hello Magazine, so check that out. Charlotte will be cooking on Saturday.
www.gofreefoods.co.uk

Foodstation. Sam has been bringing his fabulous Mediterranean food to events at Westonbirt for several years, and is always very popular. The product ranges from a large variety of olives, baklava, turkish delight, nuts, dried fruit, and a range of confectionery. All yummy and great for that mid-morning snack while you are browsing – and don’t forget to take some home with you.
www.foodstation.wordpress.co.uk

The Wiltshire Chilli Farm is new this year, and will be bringing along their range of chilli sauces, oils, jams and chutneys. All the products have been grown locally in Wiltshire at Jamie and Julie’s chilli farm. They grow a large variety of chillies including very hot ones such as Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax and Ring of Fire – ouch!
www.justchillies.co.uk

Peradon Organic Farm is new this year and comes to Treefest from Devon. The land there has been farmed by the same family for several generations. Jon and Louise will be selling a selection of their award winning organic meat and will be cooking up tasty organic Angus burgers and sausages.
www.peradonorganicfarm.co.uk

Vowley Farm is also new this year, and is very local, based at Royal Wootton Bassett. As well as selling free range and rare breed meat, Lorraine and her team will also be cooking up sausages and bacon rolls for when you get peckish. They will be giving a daily sausage-making demonstration on the Food Hall stage, which should be very entertaining. They are also recommended in Rick Stein’s “Guide to food heroes of Britain”.
www.vowleyfarm.co.uk

Bristol Cider is back this year. Based in Bristol, they have over 80 varieties of cider in their shop and they only sell cider from local producers. This year you can also buy a glass of cider to drink while you wander around the exhibitor stands as well as buying cider to take home. New this year they will also be bringing along Cider Brandies, Cider Aperitifs, Cider Chutneys and ornamental traditional cider jugs.
www.bristolcidershop.co.uk

The Garlic Farm are from the Isle of Wight. I visited the farm when I was on holiday a couple of years ago. You can walk around the fields and see the garlic growing, then pop into the shop and taste the chutneys etc. A must for next time you visit the Isle of Wight. With over 30 year’s experience of growing garlic, they are largest specialist garlic grower in the UK; you can even purchase bulbs to grow in your garden. I grow their elephant and solent wight garlic, and it’s very tasty.
www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk

Useful links
Visit the Treefest website for more info and great value early bird tickets:
www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt-treefest

Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum go free to Treefest.
Find out how to become a member…

The 4014 Project brought fantastic musical variety and talent to Treefest in 2011. They’ll be returning this year to work their magic, sourcing the best local local singers and musicians. Here, Jon Ponting from 4014 explains what this project is all about.

The 4014 Project is working with Westonbirt Arboretum to provide local music for Treefest, but you may be wondering who or what this mystically named Project actually is.

It was established in 2005 by husband and wife duo, Jon and Ellie Ponting following a very successful experiment at the Rose & Crown in Malmesbury – an open mic night had been organised as part of the town’s carnival schedule. It was the first time a night like this had been held in the town; both musicians and appreciative crowds alike had a fantastic evening.

From that one event, The 4014 Project grew momentum with equally popular music nights held in other nearby towns such as Tetbury, Cricklade and Royal Wootton Bassett.

It then branched out into other areas… a website containing contact details for performers, venues and music businesses… a regular radio show produced for community stations and playing nothing but local music… a place where singers and guitarists could try out new material, keep in touch and try out collaborations.

The 4014 Project isn’t a well-known name publicly, but if you speak to musicians – especially around the Cirencester, Malmesbury, Swindon region, you’ll soon find fans who will be willing to sing its praises.
There are several unique elements to The 4014 Project:

- It’s not a business, and certainly not there to make a profit
- the main focus is keeping music local, regardless of style
- The main focus is on more rural areas, where musicians find it harder to get gigs

These objectives seem to fit in very nicely with the ideals of Treefest, which must explain why we’ve been invited back for a second year.

The strange, numerical name signifies how Wiltshire and Gloucestershire musicians have been linked together – the clues are there if you look hard enough!

Useful links
Visit the Treefest website for more info and great value early bird tickets:
www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt-treefest

Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum go free to Treefest:
Find out how to become a member…

The 4014 Project:
http://4014.co.uk/

The 4014 Project brought fantastic musical variety and talent to Treefest in 2011. They’ll be returning this year to work their magic, sourcing the best local local singers and musicians – Jon Ponting from 4014 shares some of what they’ll be bringing to this year’s festival.

With more than thirty sets scheduled on the 2012 Treefest music stage, we’re bringing you a fantastically varied mix of talents over the three days, while keeping to our remit of melodious, local folk and acoustic artists.

Highlights include The Roving Crows who have not one but two Irish Music Awards for their original Celtic foot-stomping sound. The awards might be Irish, but the Crows are most definitely Gloucester based.
We’ve got a large selection of soloists including Gaz Brookfield whose tales from his Westcountry exploits and incredibly catchy and real; the Lonely Tourist is a Bristol based Glaswegian who you may have heard on Radio 2 or 6Music in recent months.

For those of you who enjoyed the music last year, we’ve asked a handful of artists to come back for a second year. These repeaters include the Grubby Jack trio with their distinctive folky roots sound; Talis Kimberley performed her bizarre and wondrous tales last year, she’ll be back with her full band; the Swindon based Bateleurs are coming back to Treefest – with an additional band member and new EP to share with you.

We’re also mixing in some Americana and country sounds with the likes of Tetbury’s Heather Bristow, Blind River Scare and Somerset’s very own Southern Folk duo.

But we’re not stopping there- we want to showcase a couple of more unique sounds, such as the rare acoustic metal sound of Bristol’s Oxygen Thief, and the bizarre-yet-perfectly matched Cirencester duo of world folk guitarist Dylan Qioniwasa and local rap artist Pep “SneakZ” Bell.

And that’s about as close to my 300 word limit as I’m going to go – but if you want to see the complete Treefest musical line-up for 2012, complete with timings, pictures, weblinks and descriptions, go onto www.4014.co.uk and click on the Treefest links.

Useful links
Visit the Treefest website for more info and great value early bird tickets:
www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt-treefest

Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum go free to Treefest:
Find out how to become a member…

The 4014 Project:
http://4014.co.uk/