Wood HQ – the team behind the award-winning Wood Festival, a sell out success in May – have created something new for lovers of music and creativity: SeptemberSong Tickets: www.woodhq.org/buy-tickets-all-events
Septembersong, taking place this year on 6-8th September at Braziers Park, Oxfordshire. Because who wants the summer to end so soon?
The big idea behind Septembersong is to celebrate song, creativity and connection. The principles behind the Wood Festival remain at the core – connecting with nature, running events in the most sustainable way possible and building community through music and the arts.
Septembersong is about connecting with each other, through song and meditation, through walking and talking, listening and and keeping still. There will be plenty of music, great local food and drink, after-hours dancing, seasonal cocktails and a campfire sing-a-long, in the beautiful surrounds of Braziers Park, Oxfordshire.
After last year’s event featured artists including Michele Stodart (Magic Numbers) and Jody Stephens of 70s legends Big Star, this year will see intimate musical performances from:
Danny and the Champions of the World, one of the country’s best-loved live bands and multiple UK Americana Award winners, who are about to return with a ground-breaking new album on Loose Music.
Lunatraktors, creators of MOJO Magazine Top Ten Folk Albums in 2019 & 2021, with what they describe as ‘weird musical performances in the Anglo-Celtic tradition.’
Dan Whitehouse, who continues to renew, reinvent and reimagine – touching listeners with his observations and moving them with his sensitivity and impeccable songwriting.
Dan will also be leading a songwriting workshop, in association with Company of Song, called ‘Song Fishing’, designed to connect with your inner child and focus on the activities of writing as a playful experience, a kind of performance in itself.
Pete Astor, the songwriter behind Creation Records legends The Loft and The Weather Prophets, and more recently Ellis Island Sound and The Wisdom of Harry.
Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou, a husband and wife duo who have recently restarted their much-loved musical partnership.
Hannah White, another UK Americana Award winner and founder of London’s cherished independent venue the Sound Lounge.
And after last year’s acclaimed live recreation of Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ LP, this year Robin and Joe Bennett, the musical brothers who host the event, will be putting together an all-star live performance of ‘Grievous Angel’ by Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris, 50 years after it was first released.
As well as musical performances, the event features interviews with songwriters, community singing workshops and campfire singalongs for all to participate, yoga and meditation, an ‘old ways makerspace’, and local food and drink.
Old Ways Makerspace
The Old Ways Makerspace consists of demonstrations, exhibitions, workshops, talks, and activities to introduce and/or remind us all of time-honoured methods of making, doing and being that work in collaboration with nature and each other. It is about reawakening to the delicate web we inhabit, and understanding that what we do affects everyone and everything. Activities already confirmed for 2024 include basket-weaving, barefoot walks and forest-bathing, sourdough breadmaking, and ‘circling’ (authentic relating).
This year sees the introduction of a Junior Makerspace for younger attendees, making Septembersong an event for all the family.
Septembersong is a unique opportunity to get closer to the creative process in a special countryside location. Weekend tickets are available at early bird price of £109 until the end of June so act now to secure your place.
For those who aren’t big on camping, pre-pitched bell tents can be booked in advance, complete with comfortable beds. All tickets and glamping options can be found at https://septembersong.info
‘Winter Bookender’ tickets, which get you into both Septembersong and next year’s Wood Festival are also excellent value at £199. Given that Wood Festival frequently sells out, this is a great option.
Getting there:
Braziers Park camp field is in the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire. Located just off the A4074 between Oxford and Reading. The location is also on a regular bus route and can also be reached by train and a short bus journey (Goring Station).
About Wood HQ
The Wood HQ team have been running Wood Festival since 2008.
Wood has won the prestigious A Greener Festival international award for sustainable events, as well as numerous sustainability certifications, and ‘best festival’ awards from everyone from Festival Kids to The Oldie, and is renowned for its music and workshops lineup, punching above its weight for such a small event.
The event uses permanent wooden site infrastructure – stage, composting loos, and even showers – in the campground attached to Braziers Park, a unique and historic house and conscious living community sited in the Chilterns in South Oxfordshire, close to Wallingford, Henley and Reading.
The backstory:
The Bennett family at the heart of Wood HQ first got into music festivals 25 years ago, when teenage brothers Joe and Robin Bennett started Truck Festival in Steventon, Oxfordshire.
Joe and Robin started Wood Festival in 2008, working with their wives Claire and Megan, as a new kind of festival, a more family and eco-friendly event.
Now the mission to create community through music and the arts has led to the creation of Septembersong – because summer always seems to end too soon…
