Bog Day Launch of Peat-Fest South-West - a celebration of our peatland connections
Bog Day Launch of Peat-Fest South-West 2025 - a celebration of our peatland connections.
We are launching Peat-Fest South-West on Bog Day, Sunday 27th July, a day to revel in the brilliance of bogs around the world, and in our South-West region.
Celebrate the launch of Peat-Fest South-West on a special free day of activities at Sterts Arts and Environmental Centre in Cornwall including tea and cake!
· Watch live performances by Far Flung of “The Mossy story” written by Micha Columbo
· Help us make moss inspired pompoms to add to The Mossy Carpet
· Listen to a bog in silent disco mode with RE-PEAT.
· Use Virtual Reality to explore peatlands around the country and beyond with the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.
· Join an exploratory walk with Art and Energy ‘in search of bogs’ from Minions
· Meet some of the people involved in caring for peatlands across the South-West region.
There is something for everybody to enjoy at this launch party! People can stay all day or pop in.
The Art and Energy collective is working with peatland restoration and cultural organisations across the South-West region. Together, with funding support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, they will invite thousands of people to join in with Peat-Fest South-West this summer and autumn to encourage a love of peatland landscapes.
Peat-Fest South-West is a region-wide celebration aimed at raising awareness of Peatland heritage through interactive youth-focused events, intergenerational skills exchange, creative engagement, and digital storytelling. From Somerset and Dorset, Dartmoor and Exmoor down to Cornwall, people of all ages will be invited to experience the power of peatlands and celebrate why they are so special in a series of public events.
RE-PEAT has been engaged as a key delivery partner for this project, with specific responsibilities for youth engagement, co-creation of youth focused activities at events, capturing young voices for the development of a regional peatland heritage manifesto.
Quotes from our project team:
“During Peat-Fest South-West we are all finding new and creative ways to encourage people to love their peat landscapes. Peatlands do so much to improve our air and water quality, reduce flooding, and improve wildlife. We hope by the end of this Peat-Fest, more people will care for our precious peatlands.”
“It is so exciting that we can work with young people around the region and invite thousands more to fantastic boggy, curiosity-generating events and hear our peaty heritage stories loud and clear.”
“The depth of peatland heritage is as deep as the peaty fens, with experience and voices to be heard during Peat-Fest South-West from workers of peat in the Somerset Levels, farmers of upland peatland landscapes, insect lovers, climate researchers and artists, to archaeologists and landscape restorers.”
The South-West is not as renowned for its peaty landscapes as some other parts of the UK, but peatland covers up to 10% of the land throughout the region. Peatland stores more atmospheric carbon than woodlands. It plays a vital role in water security. These environmental benefits are under threat with as little as 3% in a healthy, biodiverse, and functioning state.
Peat-Fest South-West will ensure that peatlands will grow in people’s hearts and minds with activities to join in with in all the peatlands across the region.
In the long-term, this regional celebration will strengthen the network of young people, groups and organisations working together for the benefit of peatlands and raise public awareness of the benefits of boggy landscapes at a time of climate change and ecological decline.
Notes to editors:
Peat-Fest South-West launch.
Location: Sterts Arts and Environmental Centre, Upton Cross, Liskeard, Cornwall, PL14 5AZ
Timing: 27th July, 11.00 am – 3.00 pm. All activities are free.
Eventbrite booking - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celebrate-peat-fest-south-west-at-our-launch-event-in-cornwall-tickets-1412550278909?aff=oddtdtcreator
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. That’s why as the largest funder for the UK’s heritage we are dedicated to supporting projects that connect people and communities to heritage, as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
Over the next 10 years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLottery #HeritageFund
About Art and Energy
The Art and Energy Collective is an award-winning not-for-profit group of artists, makers, thinkers and tinkerers who want to use our skills to respond to the climate emergency. We specialise in designing participatory and collaborative artworks that help people connect with nature and our energy systems, taking steps towards a brighter greener future. We like using up-cycled materials where we can. The use of renewable energy often features in our artworks.
Recently we have been working on a programme of work called ‘How to Bury the Giant’, the carbon giant of our times. Part of this has been the making of an enormous peat inspired Mossy Carpet of woolly mossy pompoms and textile tufts, made by thousands of people using old donated yarns. Each pompom represents the small moss-like resilient actions we take for our environment and shows that by working together we can make a difference. https://www.artandenergy.org/
Follow Art and Energy:
Facebook www.facebook.com/ArtAndEnergy
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/art_and_energy/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-art-and-energy-collective
#artandenergy #peatfestsouthwest
About RE-PEAT
RE-PEAT is a youth-led collective changing hearts and minds for and through peat. Our diverse backgrounds span art, science, and activism, united by a shared love for peatlands and a commitment to protecting them. Since RE-PEAT began as a small group in 2020, we've grown into a group of about 20 members. Some of us work for RE-PEAT on a paid basis, while others contribute as volunteers.
https://www.instagram.com/repeat.earth/
https://www.facebook.com/repeatearth/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/re-peat/
Key collaborating organisations or partnerships
IUCN UK Peatland Programme
Avalon Marshes Partnership, Somerset Levels
Dorset Peatland Partnership
Exmoor National Park
Dartmoor National Park
National Trust (Dartmoor team)
Southwest Peatland Partnership (Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor)
For further information, images and interviews please contact:
Naomi Wright – hello@artandenergy.org 07807900843
Rachael Milliner - RE-PEAT - rachael_milliner@re-peat.earth
