Ketton Green Festival ‘biggest and best’ yet

Visitors went back to nature at a festival which champions the environment - labelled the ‘biggest and best’ of its kind yet.

More than 500 people of all ages learned about many important aspects of our surroundings when they headed to Hall Close for the Ketton Green Festival yesterday (Sunday, June 8).

Now in its fourth year, the festival has grown from half a dozen stalls to more than 25 this year, with a wide variety of goods for sale, including plants, bird boxes, arts and crafts.

Pushing the importance of recycling, there were also handymen and women to offer electrical goods and bike repairs, as well as a toy swap section.

A duck race raised more than £300 for Ketton Primary School, whose Year 6 pupils were selling drinks made from produce grown in the school gardens.

“What was really nice to hear was lots of different conversation going on between like-minded people, from tree planting to putting solar panels on roofs,” said David Lewis, of Ketton Climate Action.

“We had a little repair stall where people could get their electrical equipment fixed and it sparked a whole debate about how we should have more of these more regularly, and people coming forward who thought they might have some skills they could contribute.

“We had one chap encouraging people to plant more nut trees around Ketton. He’s doing a survey of all the ones we’ve currently got. He was extolling the virtues of nut trees, for food and health, and how they’re good for the environment.”

But these weren’t the only conversations which impressed David.

“We had someone else who had taken samples of water quality in the rivers which he does as a volunteer for the Welland River Valley Trust, and he was able to share the results and get the debate going about how we can improve the water quality in our rivers,” he continued.

“There was one young lad, a 10-year-old, who goes round the coffee shops in Stamford collecting their mixed coffee grounds and he uses them to make high-quality compost for people to use in their hanging baskets.

This event formed part of The Great Big Green Week, the UK’s biggest celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature.

“It was very well attended. We had more people than ever before, which was nice,” David said.

“It was our biggest and best yet.”