Summer’s here, and the warmer weather makes it so much easier for us all to get closer to nature in the open air.
Residents of Newcastle and its surrounding areas have the opportunity to escape the city and do just that this weekend, at the region’s Community Green Festival, which started in 1995 to oppose development plans on Leazes Park.
Now in its 16th year, the festival has been going strong ever since – on the ground that its organizers have so far saved from the bulldozers. So what’s on the agenda for this year’s event?
Highlights will include the Biodiversity and Green Gardens; a celebration of the ecology of the North of England. Part of the BBC’s Breathing Places campaign, the biodiversity gardens will be a great spot for families to interact with wildlife (including National Trust celebrity Trusty the hedgehog).
The event provides a great opportunity for teaching children to appreciate nature, but it’s also a good old-fashioned fun day out. Alongside the more educational activities, there’ll be storytelling, face painting, arts workshops and book sales.
While children work off their energy in the kids’ area, their parents can relax in the healing zone, which has been lovingly prepared for stressed-out city types by Conrad Freese of ‘A little Yogi’. Here, you can expect to find a wealth of calming holistic therapies, from massage and reflexology to aromatherapy and Kinesiology. Drop-in yoga classes will also be running throughout the weekend.
Saturday 5th June and Sunday 6th June,
Leazes Park, Richardson Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Image: Akuppa
