Join us for our Midsummer Magic Festival. In celebration of our woodland ecology and cultural heritage, this special event will see acclaimed folk musician Jackie Oates leading our Voices in Harmony pop-up choir as they sing the specially composed Tree Shanties first performed in the wood two years ago, alongside more traditional harmonies and sing-along songs for children and the young at heart of all ages. We are delighted that exciting new dance group Mayfly Morris will also be joining us.
The event will take place on 15th June 2024 from 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM in Harmony Woods and will feature a variety of activities, performances, and educational opportunities for all ages. "Midsummer Magic" aims to bring the community together through music and nature and be fun for all the family!
Gates open at 12:30pm for a picnic in the woods (please bring your own along with folding chairs and blankets to sit on). A nature trail will be open from 1:30pm till 4:30pm (except during the performance), to showcase the beautiful wild spaces within Harmony Woods. A guided walk will take place from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM and 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, led by our Ecology Intern, Katie Sell. The the live performances will follow (2:30pm till 3:30pm).
An pop-up intergenerational (we hope some younger singers will join us) choir performing pieces inspired by nature and the environment, led by acclaimed folk musician Jackie Oates and the jigs, rhythmic stepping and stick wielding of Whitchurch-based Mayfly Morris. This will be followed by an Afternoon Tea provided by Andover Trees United from 3:30pm till 4:30pm.
This is an event not to be missed!
Date: 15th June 2024
Time: 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Location: Harmony Woods, Andover (What3words: stuck.suddenly.trickled)
Admission: Over 16s £10 (includes Afternoon Tea) - Under 16s £5 (includes Afternoon Tea) - Under 12s go FREE! (£3 for Afternoon Tea)
Enquire: Email terri.forbes@andovertrees.org.uk
About Jackie Oates
Jackie Oates is an English Folk Musician, Singer, Performer and Educator. Jackie lives in Oxfordshire with her young family. See her website for more information here.
About Voices in Harmony
‘Voices in Harmony’ has been planned jointly by contributing artists Justin Wiggan, Paul Sartin and Jackie Oates and Andover Trees United. Through a series of workshops and performances the project will lead children and adults on a musical journey in celebration of woodlands, including the Ash Trees from which Andover partly derives its name*. Collected stories and memories gathered in response to meetings with trees will be combined into new Tree Shanties, which will be performed alongside traditional folk song by an intergenerational choir in Harmony Woods, accompanied by the made-audible responses of the surrounding trees.
*Andover: A crossroads for millennia, small groups settled here, creating homesteads and fortifying areas on the hilltops but all that really survives of those pre-Saxon times is the town's name: from 'Onna-dwfr', 'Anna-dwfr', or 'Andefera', 'the river of the ash trees’ or ‘place by the Ash-tree waters’.
