Newtown’s Summer ShareFest to celebrate The Great Big Green Week

Newtown Summer ShareFest will bring together local organisations at the Town Hall Grounds on Saturday, June 15 for an afternoon of swapping, sustainability and fun.

Visitors will be able to enjoy free activities, share folk music, have their faces painted, meet local organisations and learn more about what is going on locally. 

This festival is part of the annual nationwide Great Big Green Week, the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature.

Open Energy will be running a Swapping Station where people can take their clean clothes, including those worn by children and babies, toys, books, art pieces and plants and swap them for something.

This is a free event and visitors will be given tokens in exchange for their items which they can then swap. People who don’t have clothes to exchange can also earn tokens by joining a litter pick by Newtown Town Council and Keep Wales Tidy on the day.

Visitors are being invited to take their own picnics and blankets and enjoy the festival atmosphere. Newtown Food Surplus will be hosting a Food Share with donations  welcome.

Newtown Food Surplus aims to stop food from entering landfill and to reduce food poverty. It’s not a foodbank and everyone is welcome to share in the surplus food they collect. 

Food shares are every Monday and Friday at the Jubilee Scout Hall, Newtown from 10:30am to 11:30am.

Musicians are being invited to bring an instrument and share traditional tunes at a Folk Session.

Keep Wales Tidy is collaborating with Open Energy and other partners to host Newtown Summer ShareFest. A range of activities and workshops will be themed around upcycling and skill-sharing.

Activities include making a nature notepad, Bike to the Future’s bike library and repairs, learning how to make a non-electric slow cooker, upcycling T-shirts and more. 

Bike to the Future is inviting cyclists to bring their bikes for a free triage repair service, bike fault and repair diagnosis and a Bigger Bike Library.

Art by K Fitch is inviting children to have a go at making their own book using natural materials and handmade paper before identifying local plants and wildlife.

Sylvie from Sewn4u.uk will run a series of upcycling workshops using worn out garments and fabric scraps. She will demonstrate how to make reusable panty liners from old duvet covers, turn old curtains into drawstring bags and make a non-electric slow cooker which will be donated at the end of the event.

These activities provide an opportunity to learn how to use a sewing machine. 

Trefeglwys-refills offers affordable refills for personal care and household products with a free door-to-door delivery service in the Newtown to Llanidloes area. Visitors to the ShareFest will be able to get more information from the company’s stall.

Oriel Davies Gallery will be running ‘Art Cupboard Treasure’ workshops with artist Ezma Zhao throughout the day.

The workshops include badge making with recycled paper collage, collaboration on a community picnic blanket with recycled threads and fleece, making an art pack to take home and swapping art materials.

Visitors can also join Cultivate activities including a Carbon Top Trumps game, bee’s wax wraps and Our Planet – looking at carbon in the food system.

For more information about what you can bring to the event please visit:  https://greatbiggreenweek.com/events/newtowns-summer-sharefest/