Forestry Commission - News - forests strike the right note

Concerts in English forests by international acts including KT Tunstall, Status Quo and Crowded House this summer aim to raise thousand of pounds to support the woodlands as well as entertaining more than 100,000 people.

The Forestry Commission’s Live Music programme - now in its ninth year - has featured Massive Attack, Paul Weller, UB40 and Pulp. It raises valuable cash to plough back into local woodlands to pay for a variety of environmental and social projects to enhance the visitor experience. For a full programme and to buy tickets for the concerts go to www.forestry.gov.uk/music

The tour has grown from one site in 2000 to seven beautiful woodland venues in Kent (Bedgebury), Suffolk (Thetford), Gloucestershire (Westonbirt), Nottinghamshire (Sherwood), North Yorkshire (Dalby) Staffordshire (Cannock) and Cheshire (Delamere). More than 117,000 people attended the Forestry Commission concerts in 2007 and numbers keep growing each year.

The concerts are a vital part of Forestry Commission’s drive to attract more and new people into Britain's forests and to help protect England’s precious woodland resource. Woodlands make unique and inspiring venues for concerts, and the events are loved by the artists and audience alike.

Elbow, who are appearing at Delamere Forest in Cheshire on Friday 14 June commented 'We always love playing gigs in unusual places. We've never done a gig in a forest before so we're really looking forward to it.'

All profits from the concerts are put back into local projects and give valuable support to the Commission’s work. In recent years, these have included habitat creation for endangered butterflies; health projects to encourage the young and old to get out and about in the natural environment and installing woodfuel heating systems to help us contribute towards the fight against climate change.

Mike Taylor, Concerts programme manager, said. “The Forestry Commission is committed to showing the importance of woodlands to new audiences, and making them relevant to people in new ways. We have to encourage people to enjoy woodlands, to feel at home there, and to learn about them through experiencing them and looking at them in different ways. The best way of getting people to engage in the importance of woodlands, and to teach them about respecting their environment, is not to preach at them, but to ensure they value and feel for the environment around them. What better way to do this than through quality live music in a beautiful woodland setting.

“Up to 24% of concert-goers stay overnight helping to support the local economy and as many as 13% of the visitors arrive on foot or by public transport. As part of our Climate Change commitment, we are reviewing how we can reduce the carbon impact of these events. During 2008 we will be carrying out a green audit of our concert programme to look at ways we can reduce energy consumption and waste and find other ways to improve the environmental performance of the concerts.”

For more information about the Forestry Commission’s Live Music programme for 2008 and the environmental and social projects that the concerts provide money for please contact Jo Fowler, Forestry Commission England Press Officer on 01223 346034, 07833 672903, or go to www.forestry.gov.uk/music

Notes to editors

Forestry Commission England is the government department responsible for protecting, expanding and promoting the sustainable management of England’s woods and forests and increasing their value to society and the environment. Forestry makes a real contribution to sustainable development, providing social and environmental benefits arising from planting and managing attractive, as well as productive, woodlands. For more information go to www.forestry.gov.uk/england