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SATURDAY 11 MAY
Special Trees Walk
10.30 to noon
Local resident and tree expert Alister Peters is your guide for this look at some of our city’s most special trees.
The start of the walk will focus on the amazing variety of trees in Pavilion Gardens before heading out of the gardens into Marlborough Place and Valley Gardens to look at the many different species of special trees, native, naturalised and exotic, growing here. Alister works for Connick Tree Care, one of the Tree Festival sponsors. Connick maintains trees in our streets and takes care of the city’s National Elm Collection.
Meet at the Pavilion Café, Royal Pavilion Gardens. The walk will finish at St Peter’s Church, York Place. Limited to 15 walkers (first-come first-served basis)
Apple Orchard Walk
11am to 12.30pm
Join Peter May for a guided walk through the Home Farm Orchard and Meadow Orchard. Peter is a horticulturalist who has propagated more than 1,000 Sussex apple trees. He is jointly responsible for the management of several community orchards and runs regular courses for Brighton Permaculture Trust and Plumpton Agricultural College on a range of orchard skills. He is also co-author of Apples & Orchards in Sussex.
Meet at The Fruit Factory, Brighton Permaculture Trust, Stanmer Park Village.
Limited to 20 people. The walk will end back at The Fruit Factory.
Pollinators in the Trees
1pm to 2pm and 2pm to 3pm
Join the Buzz Club for one of two family-friendly workshops. The Buzz Club is a citizen science club directed by Professor Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex.
Come and learn more about how we can help pollinators in our own outdoor spaces and how trees support them. Make an artificial breeding habitat for hoverflies to take home, play games and take part in a self-led tree trail where you will learn how to record insects.
Location: University of Sussex, Falmer Campus. Maximum of 20 people (including children) at each workshop.
This event is suitable for everyone aged four and up, but children participating must always be supervised with no more than two children per adult.
The City’s Unique Elm Trees Walk
2pm to 3.30pm
This walk is focused exclusively on elm trees and will feature many of the same trees as the Special Trees Walk in the morning. Your guide is national elm expert and researcher Peter Bourne.
The start of the walk will focus on the historic elm trees in Pavilion Gardens before heading into Marlborough Place and Valley Gardens to look at the wide variety of special elms. Brighton is home to the National Elm Collection and has more varieties of elms than anywhere in Europe.
Meet at The Pavilion Café in the Royal Pavilion Gardens. The walk will finish at St Peter’s Church, York Place. Limited to 15 walkers.
Lilac Walk
2pm and again at 3pm
The lilacs in Withdean Park were designated, in 1982, as the National Lilac Collection by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. However, it sadly lost this status in 2009 due to lack of funding and loss of the expertise to maintain the necessary documentation, propagation and upkeep.
The Friends of Withdean Park are working hard to maintain and to identify more of the 250+ types of lilac found in the park. When the lilacs are in bloom it is one of the most beautiful places to be in Brighton.
Meet at Withdean Park notice board on London Road, five minutes before each walk:
Withdean Park, Peacock Lane, BN1 8NA.
Limited to 20 people per walk (first-come first-served basis).
Join the friends of Craven Wood
from 3pm
Everyone’s invited so bring a picnic and enjoy being out in the woods!
Meet in the ‘meadow’ in the middle of the woods.
Please note there are very few flat areas in our Wood and the meadow is on sloping ground,
Access into the wood is from:
1. the southern end of The Causeway BN2 0FP
2. the southern end of Parham Close, BN2 0FD; and
3. the junction of footpaths from Walpole Road BN2 0AB and St John the Baptist Primary School, Whitehawk Hill Road BN2 0AH
There will be direction signs at each of these entrances to the Wood.
Getting there: take the number 2 bus route to ’Top of Queensway’ or the number 21 to ’Top of Manor Hill’, it’s a short way from there down to The Causeway.
No booking required.
This event is unfortunately not suitable for people with mobility problems.
SUNDAY 12 MAY
Wilding Waterhall – explore, walk and talk
10am to noon
Explore Brighton’s newest nature reserve with ranger Paul Gorringe. Join us up on the Downs to discover why trees are important in a landscape dominated by ancient grassland habitats.
Meet at the Club House, Saddlescombe Road, BN45 7DB. See map. What3Words: ///lined.future.orchestra
Refreshments included. Getting there: bus numbers 27 or 77. There is also cycle and car parking at the club house.
Birds & Bees
2pm to 5pm.
Come and find out more about the lives of our bees and birds and how we can help them thrive at this family friendly event. no booking required
Honey Bees
Marvel at the life of bees with the Brighton & Lewes Beekeepers
Save our Starlings
Find out more about our wonderful starlings and swifts and what can we do to help them with ‘Save Our Starlings’ founder, photographer Steve Geliot
Venue: Hove Park
All the festival events are free so please consider making a donation to: cpresussex.org.uk/make-a-donation
Music of the trees
2pm to 5pm
Join well-known community songwriter and musician, Robb Johnson, for a fun session of music and poetry about trees. Rob will be joined by an exciting line-up including: John Hegley, widely known as one of the country’s most innovative comic poets and a regular sell-out at The Edinburgh Festival
Rachel Rankin-Hayward, the award-winning steel pan player
Regular shindig hosts the Acoustic Irregulars, Sian Allen & Fae Simon
Location: The Lewes Road Inn, 158 Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 3LF.
All the festival events are free so please consider making a donation to: cpresussex.org.uk/make-a-donation
What lives in the woods:
Come and find out more about who lives in the trees on these family-friendly walks.
Wildlife Walk
5.30pm to 7pm
Find out what lives in the woods at Stanmer with members of the Brighton Wildlife Forum.
Meet outside Stanmer House, Stanmer Park, Brighton
The walk will take around 1.5 hours. Please dress appropriately for a woodland walk, No booking required.
Evening Bat Walk
8.30pm to 10.15pm
Enjoy an evening walk with Huw Morgan from the Sussex Wildlife Trust and learn more about our bats. There will be a chat about bats from 8.45pm and then a walk among the trees.
Meet outside Stanmer House, Stanmer Park, Brighton. Limited to 15 people, under 18’s must be accompanied. Please dress appropriately for a woodland walk
SATURDAY 18 MAY
Forum: Fantastic Elms & Other Amazing Trees
3pm to 5pm
Meet the tree experts for a lively afternoon of talks and discussion followed by a chance mingle and meet the panellists over afternoon tea.
The event will be chaired by David Shreeve, Chair of the Conservation Foundation.
Speakers include:
Kate Sheldon, CEO, Trees for Cities – improving lives by planting trees in cities.
Paul Wood, author of ‘London’s Street Trees’ and ‘London is a Forest’
Alister Peters, experienced urban forester working with Connick Tree Care, one of the Tree Festival sponsors.
Location: The Friends’ Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton
Maximum seats of 80 are available so please book your tickets in advance.
SUNDAY 19 MAY
Elm Trees Walk – Pavilion Gardens
10:30am to 12 noon
This walk is focused exclusively on elm trees in and around the Pavilion Gardens. The gardens contain a wide variety of elms including some of the oldest in the city. Local tree enthusiast Pete Comley will talk about Brighton’s historical connection with elm trees. The serious problem of Elm Disease and the ways the city has been trying to combat it.
Meet at The Pavilion Café, the Royal Pavilion Gardens Limited to 15 walkers.
Stanmer’s Wonderful Woods Walk
2.30pm
Come and find out more about who lives in the trees at this family-friendly event. Discover the park’s history as we stroll through the woods at Stanmer Park and visit some
of our veteran trees, trees that have have been part of Stanmer for over 200 years. We’ll also find out more about the age-old practice of coppicing woodland for the benefit of man and nature. Your guide to Stanmer’s rich woodland is Rob Dumbrill, the estate manager and expert woodsman
Meet outside Stanmer House, Stanmer Park, Brighton The walk will take around 1.5 hours. Please dress appropriately for a woodland walk.
PRE-FESTIVAL EVENT
SUNDAY 28 APRIL
Apple Blossom Day
1pm to 5pm
at Stanmer Home Farm Orchard and Fruit Factory
The orchards at Stanmer Park are a magnificent sight when the trees are in full bloom!
On apple blossom day there will be a host of events including activities for children, performers, stalls and guided tours around the orchards, including those holding the National Heritage Collection for Sussex Apple varieties. And of course the scrumping team will be selling all manner of apple-related products including crumble, juice and cider. Come and enjoy being out and delight in the beautiful blossom.
Meet at The Fruit Factory, Brighton Permaculture Trust, Stanmer Park Village
This event is free. For more details nearer the day, visit: brightonpermaculture.org.uk/apple-blossom-day/
Tree Festival 2024 Brighton & Hove is very grateful for the generous support of our sponsors. 
