Manchester Festival of Nature
Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor
Heaton Park has one of the busiest programmes of events for any green space in Manchester. However, it’s so well suited to everything, can you blame people for wanting to make use of this beautifully curated civic garden. Join Manchester Nature Consortium for a day festival celebrating the natural species found in the area.
The festival begins at noon with the legendary Pollinator Parade taking place at 1pm. This particular highlight in the day sees hundreds of people of all ages, sizes and interests dressed as the most Manchester centric natural symbol, the bee, parade through the park with the assistance of a brass band. It’s a celebration of a highly important and threatened species as much as it’s a declaration of civic pride.
Other activities happening throughout the afternoon will include natural dyeing, mindfulness, forest bathing, a giant Jenga, wildlife recording, wind spinners, woodland games, willow weaving, seed bombs, scavenger hunts, den building, sphagnum squeezing and some clever research games from MMU. For anyone else who has never heard of sphagnum squeezing before, it is the practice of squeezing the particular type of sphagnum moss, a plant that maintains a massive ecosystem of algae, microorganisms and unicellular organisms called Diatoms.
The festival aims to educate and inspire people to connect with the living world around them as well as provide an afternoon of wholesome entertainment and fun for all ages. There will be live music throughout the day to keep the vibes going and plenty of organisations to learn from. Backed by the Wildlife Trust, there’s plenty of ways for you to get involved in more local nature based activities on a day to day basis which you can find out about at the festival.
It’s easy to see Manchester as an urban metropolis that hasn’t managed to exist sympathetically with the natural world. However, there’s plenty of species to be found here that often go overlooked and under appreciated. Sometimes it just takes someone else pointing them out for you to realise.
