MCA’s fourth Hug Green Arts Festival was the biggest and – we think – the best we have yet held. Well over 500 people came though the Foxlowe Arts Centre’s doors in Leek to enjoy a full day of music, poetry, arts and crafts. The sun shone and visitors of all ages flocked from across the district and beyond. The Foxlowe ran out of food for the first time in anyone’s memory.
This year, the central theme was the importance of trees. Participants ran tree-themed activities throughout the day, including the opportunity to construct a tree mandala and drop-in workshops making eco-prints with leaves. The latter were so popular that people did not want to leave.
There was an astonishing variety of things to do with wood on offer. Storylogs saw visitors making small ash logs to create pyrographed artworks; Cheshire Bodgers showed how to – bodge! Anthony Hammond demonstrated willow weaving; Heather Smith whittled; while our own Peter Oakley put on display the gentle beauty of the pole lathe. For those with energy left there was a guided tree ID walk, as well as the launch of the Leek Tree Trail (thanks to Chris Thompson).
This year, our friends from Dane Valley Climate Action had a stall for the first time. Few have done more for trees in this area than that wonderful group of volunteers, with over 5,000 new trees planted since they began in 2019. Meanwhile, the Foxlowe rang to music provided by the Alton Handbell Singers, One Million Fingers and the Phoenix Singers.
It was particularly thrilling to see so many young people at Hug this year. Not only did they take part in the full range of activities, including the ever-popular parachute game, but the Bromfield Room was crowded with youngsters, there for the prizegiving for MCA Youth Action’s Spring Arts Competition. That competition had attracted entries from an even wider range of schools and individuals than ever before.
The theme for HuG next year will be grasslands and verges. The Moorlands is rich with grassland habitats and enhancing these valuable spaces has always been a particular focus for MCA. But, for this year, it only remains to thank all those who contributed so much in time, effort and in some cases, financial support.
This includes OUTSIDE Arts, SMDC’s Community Climate and Nature Action Fund, and Staffordshire County Council Climate Change Action Fund via Cllr Charlotte Atkins. The biggest thanks of all, though, go our own Lindsay Trevarthen, whose tireless energy and vision made this year’s HuG the astounding success it was.