Celebrate, Educate, Integrate
As the festival season comes to a glorious end and autumn begins to wrap its cloak around us, the time has come for the team behind the River Festival and the UK River Summit to take stock, reflect on the year, and look to the future.
Our last event, The River Festival, took place on the 14th and 16th September in Chalabre - a vibrant village in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Now in its second year this event is a true celebration of rivers and the people and communities that live near them, play around them, and look to protect them. Chalabre and specifically the River Festival venue is on the confluence of three rivers and so has a special significance. Its rivers have also suffered much interference from man which threatens their flow and the local biodiversity.
This was one of the subjects covered by le Chabot who opened the River Festival this year with talks around local river issues and some of their current campaigns. It was important for the River Festival team to address local issues that would engage the community. Naturally the talks were all in French. However, there is a significant international community in Chalabre who are equally invested in the rivers there so translation was expertly done by French actress and Cambridge University alumni, Lise Delamarre.
After a soulful lunch by local chef, Arlette Kelly Brown, the afternoon celebrations and activities began. A true community collaboration, the music, workshops and masterclasses were all offered by local organisations and individuals. Amongst the varied programme on offer free for all to participate, Lea and Anjali led the crochet workshop making dreamcatchers, Aine led the Irish dancing workshop, Sophie and Pedro of renowned Heartwork therapies led the Gong Bath and artists Gareth Jones, Di Crispin and David Cross exhibited their work in L’Abattoir. The spirit of this event is truly special – very celebratory and run by volunteers keen to contribute their time and expertise to this colourful event.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was warm and the large plane trees with their camouflage dappled trunks provided just enough shade in the mid-afternoon sun. The sound of the river close by reminded us of the focus of the day. As the afternoon’s activities and workshops draw to a close, Nicolas and Mirella Kersting with their team, began to set up the five fire stations for the evening meal. It was an evening celebrating the 5 elements and each fire station had a chef contributing a dish to the meal.
A huge focus of the River Festival and the UK River Summit is food – about how it is grown, where it is grown, using seasonal produce and people coming together to share and enjoy. The rivers in close proximity to L’Oasis is one of the reasons why the soil is so rich here. The bountiful harvest of figs and vegetables from L’Oasis garden all contributed to the fire-cooked feast. What a delight to be able to offer the produce of the garden to the local community and people with a passion for rivers, prepared by top local chefs. Jean Paul and his wife Nathalie who were at the dinner contributed the two lambs that were used that had spent the season roaming in wild and eating local herbs such as thyme and rosemary.
Finally, the BDQ beer flowed and the DJ played. The sun had set over another successful River Festival and it was time to party.
