Plenty? A Festival For All

**SAVE THE DATE**

Saturday 7 - Sunday 8 October 2023 @ 12pm – 4pm

Join us for Plenty? 2023, an intergenerational festival of live music, performances, talks, workshops and apple-pressing that explores the systems that we are enmeshed in, provides opportunities for exploring new ideas around ‘plenty’ and creates a community that extends beyond us into the natural world around us.

Checkout the 2022 festival below...

Plenty? is not just about having a lot - it’s understanding when we have enough and feeling satisfied with that. And when we have an abundance like an apple harvest, what to do with it - because sharing might become the most important word in our futures. Together we shall explore these ideas through art, music, hands-on activities, physical theatre and audio-immersive storytelling.

Join Happiness Collectors in a series of fun, physical tasks to collect some much-needed happiness. Encounter film screenings in the solar powered Moving Images Caravan. Participate in discussions led by trailblazing artists and environmental thinkers, visit our Communities’ Tent to get involved in apple pressing and creative activity run by organisations from across the North East. Take a foraging tour, and explore participatory art installations and demonstrations across the site and discover unexpected connections in our |Matter| Earth, Materials+ Making exhibition which will be open all weekend.

Plenty? a festival exploring more and less brings people and communities together to create an abundance of joy, well-being and sharing of collective experiences. It is a space for showing how creativity can be used to explore the world around us and a chance to be part of a catalyst for how we build a more liveable future that will last for generations.

Embedded in Plenty? is an ethos of shared resources; inviting new commissions of work from local emerging artists, donations from friends, borrowing and recycling! We would encourage where possible for audiences to car share or leave the car at home, as we try and reduce our carbon.

Click here to find more stories of Plenty?

Check out some of the artists involved below...

APPLE PRESSING

Come together for apple pressing with experienced cider maker Christian Stolte. Use your pedal power to turn the fresh-pressed apple juice into a delicious smoothie with our bike powered smoothie maker rented from Wheels of Fleet - a community bike project that support up-cycling and reconditioning of donated bikes to hire.

DISCUSSIONS

Our participatory discussions explore contemporary issues and debates around the ideas of ‘Plenty’ - How do we live with the least effort for the optimum effect? How can nature’s abundance and diversity on that open up new ways of thinking and living? From landscapes to ecosystems, more than human species to transition justice, we will explore our place in the world and how this connects to our purpose and shared futures.

TOOLS FOR MUTUAL FLOURISHING: HOW TO LIVE WELL WITH PLANETARY BOUNDARIES

Join Luke Delvin, member of the Enough! Scotland collective and Executive Director of the Centre for Human Ecology for a discussion exploring community and ecosystems.

Using insights from human ecology, degrowth and traditional knowledge, together we’ll examine how to create lifeways that nurture, regenerate and restore self, community and ecosystems – and have a great time doing it!

THE FAR ORCHARD – DEVELOPING NETWORKS OF CARE

Join public artists Jo Hodges and Robbie Coleman for a drop-in session based on their latest participatory arts project – The Far Orchard. This participatory session will explore how we can use networks of care to help restore and reinforce a sense of community, wellbeing and connection with the natural world. Hands on participatory activities, suitable for all ages - will explore the idea behind The Far Orchard and the value of rethinking traditional ways of doing things.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND; THIS LAND IS MY LAND: REIMAGINING A JUST TRANSITION

Join poet, Fin Hall, social anthropologist Annabel Pinker, writer and teacher Michael Malay, and climate activist Scott Herrett in this two-part session as they weave together storytelling, sound, image and embodied practice. Recognizing that we must reshape our relationship with nature in response to ecological devastation - journey with them to discover how transition justice both locally and elsewhere might be reimagined.

MOVING IMAGES

Moving Images is an eight-seater, solar powered cinema inside a converted 1980’s caravan; screening cutting edge, non-mainstream films to rural and urban communities. It’s travels around the South of Scotland and beyond has brought it to Plenty? through a specially commissioned programme of films that respond to the festival's themes. Moving Images programme will run regularly throughout the day and offers a unique space to immerse yourself in films that spark discussion and inspire.

Moving Images present three short films that explore ideas of Plenty? Festival through sea weed harvesting in Northern Scotland, questions and thoughts about solitude, pulsating rhythms and Ukrainian rituals to remedy ecological anxieties. Including; ‘See Weed’ by Julia Parks, ‘An Exercise in Solitude’ by Beverley Hood and ‘Rite of Return’ by Ayla Dymterko.

Their attendance at Plenty? has been generously supported by EcoArt.

SAOIRSE HORNE: REFLECTING RHYTHMS OF PLENTY?

Look out for artist and in-house audio archivist Saoirse Horne (aka Lamium project) as she roams across the festival gathering audio field recordings. With ears to the ground - the weather, people and habitats of Plenty? culminate in REFLECTING RHYTHMS OF PLENTY? an intuitive live sound performance.

DANIEL SERRIDGE: WILD GARDEN STORY TOUR? MORE OR LESS!

Join Dan Story Man as he leads you on an Interactive Storytelling walk through our Wild Garden. The only problem is – he doesn’t quite know which way to go. That’s because it’s down to you! As Dan tells tales of characters who foolishly seek greater treasures or fewer responsibilities, you’ll be faced with choices; do you want more? Or less? Each journey will be unique to the audience who take part and leave you questioning whether you’ve gained or lost anything.

LEANNE TOWNSEND: FORAGING WORKSHOP

Join wild foraging expert Leanne Townsend for a 90-minute journey exploring the natural habitats of the Barn. Learn the principles of foraging- safety, sustainability and ethics, and find yourself identifying a diverse range of wild plants growing in the area and discover the ways that wild food can be incorporated into your diet and prepared in delicious recipes. 

HANNAH AYRE: PLEDGE TO THE PLANET

Become a craftivist and create your own mini banner with Artist Hannah Ayre. The workshop will be a space for discussing lifestyle changes small and large, which we can all make. Suitable for beginners or those more experienced with textiles Hannah will guide participants through techniques to bond scrap fabric. Once made the banner can be released into the wild – for your community to see or taken home as a reminder of your commitment. Suitable for children 7+ should be accompanied by an adult.

HAPPINESS COLLECTORS

The Happiness Collectors need YOU! The world’s supplies of happiness are running low and they need your help to top them up. Join the Happiness Collectors on a journey of sounds and silliness to learn the best ways to collect happiness - and most important of all, how to pass it on! A fusion of physical theatre and audio-immersive storytelling for family audiences. For ages 4+

REBECCA DUNN

Experience the sonic rhythms of North East based Songwriter and Community Growing Practitioner Rebecca Dunn who weaves folk songs and original compositions into her live performances. With her ukulele and haunting voice, Rebecca’s work reflects our connections to the natural world and explores themes that bridge the gap between earth, culture, community and belonging.

ARTHUR COATES AND KERRAN COTTERELL

Arthur Coates and Kerran Cotterell are an energetic duo carving out a name for themselves with their unique style, rooted in Quebecois traditional music fused with songs from North America and around the British Isles. Join us as they perform with twin vocals, Fiddle, Guitar, Bouzouki and Foot Percussion and tracks from their new show ‘Trap Door to Hell’.

Plus, as part of Plenty? festival we have two nights of fantastic music at the Barn courtesy of Hamish Napier Trio and Old Blind Dogs!

HAMISH NAPIER TRIO: THE WOODS

Friday 21 October 2022 @ 8pm

Hamish Napier is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist and composer inspired by the heritage and nature of his native landscape of Strathspey. Join us as he performs his award winning album The Woods (Album of the Year, Scots Trad Music Awards), funded by local habitat restoration project Cairngorms Connect. Inspired by the flora and fauna of Scotland’s native forests, Hamish’s music is innovative, incorporating sounds from jazz, electronica and classical music, while also celebrating and respecting Scotland’s rich musical heritage. Humorous, engaging and heart-warming, Hamish’s performances are often interdisciplinary, incorporating poems and stories about nature, folklore and communities. The Woods is the third album in his Strathspey Pentalogy - a 5-album exploration and celebration of his homeland, following on from The River and The Railway.

Hamish, who plays wooden flutes and piano, will be joined by two of Scotland’s finest folk musicians, Patsy Reid (fiddle) and Innes Watson (guitar and viola).

OLD BLIND DOGS

Saturday 22 October 2022 @ 8pm

The musical evolution of Old Blind Dogs began in Aberdeen in 1992 with roots that grew from the eclectic music scene that flourished in the Granite City during the early 90’s. Four musicians from very different musical backgrounds came together to create a full-time professional touring band with the aim of showcasing the rich tradition of songs and tunes of the North East of Scotland on an international stage. Like many of the early flag bearing Scottish folk bands the Old Blind Dogs line up has faced inevitable changes over the years but the core values at the band's musical heart continue to beat strong.

The current line up consists of original member Jonny Hardie (fiddle/vocals), Aaron Jones (cittern/guitar/vocals) and Donald Hay (percussion/vocals). After the recent departure of piper Ali Hutton the band with be joined for their remaining Scottish concerts of 2022 by the brilliant piper/whistle player Mike Katz, formerly with The Battlefield Band. Together they comprise one of the hottest live tickets on the traditional Scottish music scene today.

As recent inductees to the BBC ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 'Trad Music Hall of Fame' the 'Dugs' are celebrating thirty years on the road in 2022 with the launch of their fourteenth studio album 'Knucklehead Circus’ released in Winter 2021. A joyous, uplifting and fun album full of compelling energy and intoxicating rhythm on which ‘OBD' continue to innovate within their tradition while faithfully revealing its essence. Here’s to many more years of Old Blind Dogs!

Plenty? a festival exploring more and less brings people and communities together to create an abundance of joy, well-being and sharing of collective experiences.