Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum

The Big Top is up! Nearly time for Treefest!

Posted: August 22, 2012 at 12:08 pm Author: Julie McKellar

I can’t believe it, after 12 months of working on Treefest, we are now only 4 days away.

Treefest site taking shape

It always gets more exciting when marquees start to appear, and that happened on Monday when the Food Hall and indoor craft marquees were put up, and now Cherry, Maple and Redwood Avenues are all up, in the lovely blue and white stripes.

Yesterday the Big Top arrived and it’s nearly finished. I don’t think I’ve ever stood in such a large tent, it’s going to be amazing in there listening to the bands and sipping a cold beer, pity I’m working!

The tipee has just arrived for the children’s story telling and puppetry in the Family Theatre, and the helter skelter is half built. Tomorrow the carousel will arrive. There is a real buzz in the air every time I walk out onto the site.

But there is still lots to do. All the festival flags need to go up and I’ve lost count how many we have. We already have some up on the roadside, which look very cheerful as you drive past the arboretum.

The food hall is now very full with 4 more exhibitors coming on board recently:

Bee Mercy who are providers of raw honey. A range of rich tasting raw honey containing all the natural health giving qualities.

Cotswold Gold who produce Extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil which is grown and produced on the farm in the Cotswolds.

Their oil has been used on stage by lots of celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, James Martin and Raymond Blanc to name but a few. Also Raymond Blanc now uses this oil at his cooking school, must be good stuff!

In July of this year, they won “Best Food Producer” in the Cotswold Life Food and Drinks Award.

The Spice Trail is passionate about quality herbs and spices.

They stock nearly 100 different types and this is increasing all the time, if you want it and they don’t have it they will try and source it for you.

Their herbs and spices originate from all corners of the globe from Cheshire to China, Germany to Guatemala, Canada to Croatia and not forgetting of course India, the Spice Capital of the world!!

The Kooky Kitchen produces quirky cookies and bakes with strange shapes and lots of different tastes. They will also be serving Vietnamese coffee on ice. That’s were I’m taking my coffee break!

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