Forest Fun Festival August 7, 2010

The 2010 festival will be on Saturday 7th August from 10am – 4pm at Beechenhurst Picnic site. We will be presenting a broad mix of music, performances, storytelling, creative activities, sports activities, and much more.

The programme is created for children and young people aged between 0 - 18 yrs old, funded by Big lottery money and organised by The Forest of Dean District Council.

This will be the third Forest of Dean Fun Festival and we hope it will be brilliant. Our dream is to provide a free fun-filled event giving children and adults a wide range of fun playful activities to take part in.

The programme for the day will include activities such as a Bikeagility course run by the Forestry commission with a specially made obstacle course.

Artists Tom Cousins and Scott Farlow will be on hand with the Sculpture Trust to help build structures using the same material as artist David Cotterrell is using to build 'Hill33', the brilliant new sculpture that is about to be launched, - but in miniature.

The District Council sports team will be on hand throughout the day to run lots of sports related activities and competitions. You will be able to play bungee volleyball in the new inflatable arena or take part in lot of sports day activities like the egg & spoon race or sack race. Come and join the disco party & take part in the dance off competition at the Dance mat arena or have a go at our obstacle course made especially for bikes.

Artspace will be providing the Arts & crafts Tent with continuous creative workshops with lot’s of simple ideas for things to do in the summer holidays- learn to make mobiles with leaves and acetate, god’s eye weavings, lanterns, 3D creatures out of wire and more

You can have a go at Diabolo, juggling, static trapeze and many more circus skills or get into drama with games and activities, mime techniques and clowning. Exploring the outdoor surrounding, play with character and places, materials and location to create short pieces of drama, stories and performances to share

A new and exciting activity for the festival this year is BattleSports which combines the fun of laser tag and paintball. Safe and high adventure, weapons are realistic, long range and pain free. · The infra-red technology used means that there are no projectiles, so no-one gets hurt when ‘shot’.

We also have fencing workshops throughout the day, you can have a go at this activity, and it’s another one that is new for this year, catering for all levels from complete beginners.

If you would like to learn a little more about gardening you can make a composter & see the wormery. There will also be flower pressing & other garden based activities to take part in.

There will be a Playranger area where you can make your own pedalled powered smoothie, join in with a giant painting or chill out in some sand with a giant sandpit that will be brought in for the day!

Children & parents can relax in a quiet comfy area, read from a large selection of books or listen to traditional stories plus some mystical and magical ones. This area is provided by the library service.

If you would rather have some noise Ninki Nanka will be performing and holding a workshop in African drumming and a performance area will feature music from local youth bands.

Plus much more including, face painting, giant games, juggling, and walkabouts