News
Forest for the Nation competition launched
Forest for the Nation to improve public access to nature and provide a boost for our native wildlife.
4 February 2024
Main image: The Living Trees at the 2024 Robin Hood Festival, August 2024. Credit Mark Powell
The 39th Robin Hood Festival will take place at RSPB Sherwood Forest at Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire over five weekends in July and August.
Since the 1980s, the Festival at the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve has been drawing in visitors from across the globe to celebrate the legacy of the folk hero in the very place where he is reputed to have lived and fought.
It all begins this year on Friday 25 July with Films in the Forest – three days of outdoor cinema, with movies including the Hollywood blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Disney’s Robin Hood, shown in Robin’s very own stomping ground.
Making their fourth appearance at the festival, the Knights of Nottingham Medieval Jousting Display Team will again stage a spectacular two-part show each day on Saturday 02 and Sunday 03 August.
The team’s dazzling horsemanship and swordplay has wowed audiences each year since its festival debut in 2022, retelling the legend in highly dramatic fashion as the outlaws come face to face with the Sheriff of Nottingham.
There will be historical re-enactment, children’s entertainment, storytelling, comedy, music and much more Medieval mayhem besides between the Reserve’s Visitor Centre in Forest Corner and the iconic 1.200-year-old Major Oak, one of Britain’s largest and oldest oak trees – and believed to be one of Robin’s hiding places within the forest.
The focus turns to myth and folklore for the Fantasy in the Greenwood weekend on Saturday 09 and Sunday 10 August, with Witchers, Orcs and even walking trees among the curious creatures who will descend on the ancient woodland.
For many years the festival has been put together by Nottinghamshire County Council, but these days it’s organised by the current custodians of the forest, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the UK’s largest conservation charity.
Sherwood Forest, famous the world over as the home of the legend of Robin Hood, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Area of Conservation and a National Nature Reserve.
It is protected because of the abundance of ancient oak trees and the many rare invertebrates which depend on the dead and decaying wood of the oaks for all or part of their lifecycle.
The work of the RSPB and a range of other wildlife organisations across the Midlands will be the theme for the weekend of 16-17 August, before the outlaws return once more for August Bank Holiday weekend (23-25 August) for live combat displays as Robin, Marian and the Merry Men from the Sherwood Outlaws performance group play out their eternal feud with the Sheriff.
With the exception of cinema screenings, admission to the festival is free, though there is an event parking charge of £15 per day (£12 for RSPB members) on 02-03 August, 09-10 August and 23-25 August.
Forest for the Nation to improve public access to nature and provide a boost for our native wildlife.
Major new report from WWF and an updated global assessment shows forest pledges from COP26 are severely failing.
Forestry England shares 10 locations to experience the benefits of forest bathing this World Wellbeing Week.
Businesses urged to to restore global forests by embedding restoration into financial transactions.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Weekly ethical news, offers, comps and a free digital mag (quarterly) – what’s not to love?
