Summer Festival: Pollinate

Information

Join us for our Summer Festival, Pollinate. A daylong event taking place in our gardens, fields and studios, the Summer Festival is a day in which we celebrate in the food and drink production of Angus.

As well as visiting our stallholders, there will be a fantastic programme of workshops, talks, art and music. The arts and events programme is curated with Laura Mansfield of Feast Journal and focuses on our theme of Pollinate. This year we are building on our music programme. From the early afternoon into the evening join us for live music curated by SHHE.

The festival creates shared moments of learning, discussion, music, dancing, food and joy. This year we are focusing the programming on our yearlong theme of Pollination. Pollen grains and spores come in a vast range of shapes and sizes - spiked, smooth, oval or amorphous, yet all of them are encased in a protective outer shell called sporopollenin. This shell, a natural polymer, is one of the toughest biological materials found on earth, the diamond of the plant world. Drifting with the wind, battered by rain, floating in water, or carried unknowingly on the hairs of animals and insects, the sporopollenin-rich walls function as a protective armour, ensuring pollen grains survive intact. Focusing on the detail of sporopollenin as well as reaching beyond it, this year's programme, Pollinate, reflects upon the world of biomaterials, inquiring into what we can creatively learn from microscopic plant matter.

We will also present an expanded sound programme, welcoming artists who each have a practice deeply rooted in land, language, and culture. Exploring the fluidity and temporality of sound itself, our programme invites us to open and expand ears; to traverse sonic surroundings, both known and new. Just as this year’s theme encourages us to examine our environments more closely, through sight and smell, our sound offering encourages us to listen deeply, as a means to better understand our interconnectedness.