Communities were brought together for a week of events across Southampton and a one-day festival in Ringwood celebrating the wildlife on our doorsteps.
More than 500 people attended last weekend’s New Forest Thrive festival (4 July) at Carvers Recreation Ground in Ringwood.
The festival was full of performances, including acrobatic storytelling from ‘Joli Vyann’, drumming workshops and a ‘story in a suitcase’ from African Activities, celebrating the New Forest’s link to West Africa through the migration of the rare nightjar bird, and animatronic bees from the Bee Circus.
New Forest inclusive cycling charity PEDALL also ran a go kart-style cycle loop adding to its 10,000km for £10k summer-long fundraising challenge.
Urban Wild took place between 23 and 31 May and featured a packed schedule of events celebrating Southampton’s environment and community connections to nature in the city. Almost 1,000 people attended events across the week, including around 600 at the opening event on Southampton Common, Urban Wild on the Common.
This year’s theme: ‘Reimagining Southampton’, called on people across Southampton and the surrounding areas to imagine a city that integrates nature into decision-making. Most events were family-friendly, free or low cost, including art and photography-based events, guided walks, pond-dipping, conservation activities, and a supper club including low carbon and locally sourced food. The week finished with a guided walk along part of the River Itchen, linking with the newly established group Southampton River Rights, which is calling for a River Rights Charter to be established to protect the river from further pollution and overuse.
Southampton National Park City (SNPC) chair, Christelle Blunden said: ‘It was fantastic to be able to bring Urban Wild back for a second year. We’re excited to see the creative products of the week, which include short films, collages, written word pieces and small sewing items reflecting the everyday nature that can be found in the city.
‘Many of these creative projects have had input from young people in Southampton. Urban Wild was incredibly important for bringing together many organisations that are working to make Southampton a greener, healthier place to live, and showing how unified we are in our mission to achieve full National Park City status.
New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) member and chair of the YouCAN partnership board, James Wylor-Owen said: ‘Both New Forest Thrive and Urban Wild showcased the importance of local community in responding to the climate and nature emergencies and how we can start by connecting with and making space for the nature on our doorsteps.
‘You can be inspired by nature whether in the National Park or its urban surrounds. Climate action, nature and people don’t stop at the National Park boundaries and that’s why it’s important we foster those connections with each other now to build more climate change resilient communities for the future.’
New Forest Thrive was led by the NPA, while Urban Wild was organised by SNPC, with support from the NPA. This is the second year both events have been run as part of the wider NPA-led Youth for Climate and Nature (YouCAN) scheme, made possible by the National Lottery Community Fund. Find out more about YouCAN.