Tag: swimming

Ruth Philo writes…

I am very pleased to welcome you to the new River Stour Festival and thank you for dropping by on our website. We now have leaflets ready for distribution across the whole of the Stour Valley in Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire and will be putting these out in December and January. Further events are being added as the year progresses so please check back on the website from time to time to see the updated programme.

The festival came about through a project The River Runs Through Us that I have been working on with sound artist Stuart Bowditch, which has involved a series of public walks and swims in 2017 as well as research for a short film that we are making about the river, supported by Arts Council England and the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project. It has been a fascinating project to undertake and we have met so many different people involved with the river in a myriad of ways. Stuart has been keeping a blog about the project on the website theriverrunsthroughus.uk where you can read individual stories. The Stour Valley is a rich area in many ways, geologically, historically, artistically and there are layers of connections to be found. There are the obvious ones with major artists John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough but there are many others to be found that not everyone knows about, with artists, writers, swimmers, walkers, historians, musicians, foragers, botanists, wild life people, birders, fishermen and women, archaeologists, sociologists, boating people, landscape and food specialists. In working on the project we visited other rivers including the Waveney and the Thames, both of which have festivals and I thought our river was equally deserving of being celebrated. I found a lot of other local people and organisations thought the same, so together we have formed a steering group to put on a festival that not only includes our own events but those by other organisations in the valley, curated together to make a rich celebration of place in the Stour Valley over the year.

In 2017 we ran public walks and swims on a number of topics, all of which sold out, including a Witchcraft Walk in Manningtree by Professor Alison Rowlands, a Wildlife Walk in Nayland by Darren Tansley of the Essex Wildlife Trust, a Painters Walk out of Constable Country by artist Simon Carter, a Foraging walk in Wrabness by forager and mushroom grower Matthew Rooney, a Wild Writing walk from Wissington to Wormingford with Dr James Canton, an East Country walk by Professor Jules Pretty and a couple of Wild Swims with the Dedham River Swimmers. These were all such rich experiences, where everyone could share their own experiences out in the landscape. The festival will build on these. I hope that you will join us on some of the events in 2018. You might event want to come onboard and help us with the festival organisation, we are currently looking for someone with financial experience who might help with our funding plans, but also other forms of help such as distributing leaflets, helping with events and publicity – if you are interested please get in touch through our contact page.

Ruth is a painter and filmmaker and is both the director of the festival and its originator. See her work at http://www.ruthphilo.co.uk