Woodland of Wonder – April 2024

Woodland of Wonder is a new community arts festival, produced by Broadmead BID with Sparks Bristol, John Wesley’s New Room, and the Methodist Church. It ran during the Easter school holidays from 3-6 and 10-13 April (Wednesdays to Saturdays).
Woodland of Wonder celebrated the natural world and invited all ages to enjoy exhibitions and allowed creativity to flourish with nature-themed craft workshops and photography walks, plus performances from stilt-walking trees! All activities were FREE, although the photography walks did need to be pre-booked on Eventbrite.
Over 200 people, children and adults, took part in the free craft workshops at Sparks Bristol and John Wesley’s New Room and in the photo walks led by Adrian Wyatt (Xross Purposes) and many more visited the art exhibitions in the two venues, enjoying the creativity of the local schools and groups that took part, as well as commissioned work by Farrah Fortnam and Cherie Ford. The treemendous Treants from The Invisible Circus, stilt-walking trees who performed on Broadmead and The Horsefair on the two Saturdays of the event, were very popular with all ages.
We’ve had some great feedback and have been especially pleased by the number of people saying how thankful they were to find something free to do with their children while they were off school.
Marketing and promotion
In addition to featuring on the Bristol Shopping Quarter, Sparks Bristol, and John Wesley’s New Room websites and social media accounts, and being added to many relevant Facebook pages and groups, Woodland of Wonder was advertised in the Easter edition Primary Times, a free magazine distributed to families of primary school children via their schools, and in Metro (Thursday 28 March), the UK’s highest distribution freesheet tabloid newspaper, which is available on buses and in public places. It was also promoted via Bristol 24/7 in one of their daily newsletters, in two editions of the ‘Things to do in Bristol this week’ newsletter, and in April’s ‘Things to do in Bristol this month’ as well as in their Instagram story. Finally, it was added to the ‘What’s on’ guide on the Visit Bristol website and they posted about it on social media.
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