Urban Tree Festival goes from strength to strength with record attendance

This year’s Urban Tree Festival was bigger and better than ever – and all’s set to make 2025 the most wide ranging event yet!

What started six years ago as a weekend of walks has blossomed as a nine-day spring festival, celebrating London’s trees, through the support of a broad and enthusiastic audience.

This year saw 112 events, with more than 3,200 attendees – everything from the ‘Lovely as a Tree’ exhibition, to a ‘Meet the Medlar’ event on a canal boat.

The events included outings for audiences with particular needs, including refugees and asylum seekers (through Fences and Frontiers), and an accessible ride to Peckham Rye with Wheels for Wellbeing.

Organisers were pleased to engage with a large and representative audience across London, although noted a slight fall in the percentage of non-white attendees. This will be a key focus to address for next year.

The Festival works in partnership with CPRE London and supports the Tree Ring campaign as its major theme. Co-founder Paul Wood thanked the team and director Anna Taylor for their support.

‘It is clear that the Urban Tree Festival has come a long way over the past six years,’ he said.

‘We have built solid foundations through our reputation for delivering compelling events and appealing to diverse audiences. We offer a positive platform for celebrating and exploring the urban forest, and are extremely well-placed to work with funders and delivery partners who share our ambition.’

Fences & Frontiers

Lewis Garland from Fences & Frontiers says;

‘Urban Tree Festival is always a highlight of the year. This year’s walk, led by Epping Forest Heritage Trust, took our group deep into the forest via Iron age earthworks and gravel pit lakes teeming with moorhens and mandarins!

‘We believe in the healing power of nature. Our participants (refugees and asylum seekers) often tell us that one of the greatest benefits they gain from our activities is the ability to immerse themselves in nature and escape their fears– even if only for a few hours.

‘Huge thanks to our partners including cprelondon – we love being involved in Urban Tree Festival and can’t wait for next year.’

Wheels for Wellbeing

‘We rode to Peckham Rye Park to focus on the trees there and returned through Dulwich Park. It was great to have trees expert Chris as our guide, who talked of the interesting and historical trees around the parks.

‘In the parks we stopped at several points to look at trees, plants and even where the subterranean River Peck makes a brief appearance above ground in Peckham Rye Park.

‘Incorporating cycling as the main means to move around between the variety of the parks’ trees really enabled the disabled participants to engage with and enjoy the guided tour in a way that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible’.

“What he talked about was very interesting about the history of the trees and where they originally came from! He shared the pollination process, I also enjoyed how he talked about how the trees life span is.” Susie

“A brilliant day of nature and exercise with good company. Fun to learn about different trees, the history of the area, and spot tributaries of the great River Peck. Sharing knowledge among friends, smells of lily of the valley, and textures of the trees. Looking forward to the next one.” Charlie.

For the full report see Tree festival report