The Best Guide for the Neston Area

Planet Neston Celebrates the Earth

Over 350 people attended the inaugural Neston Earth Festival on Sunday, in spite of the weather, and the atmosphere inside Neston Community Youth Centre was fantastic.

The festival hosted a wide range of environmental and wildlife organisations and businesses providing ideas, inspiration and ways for people to reduce their impact on the environment.Volunteers from the Friends of Lees Lane Ponds were pressing apples.

There was lots for children to do on the day - they loved making clay animals with Merseyforest Trust, foliage crowns with Ness Gardens volunteers, woodland homes and recycled crafts with NCYC volunteers, pond dipping and apple pressing with Friends of Lees Lane Ponds, petting the goats from Willaston Community Farm, and candle rolling with Wirral Beekeepers Association.

Bees are our friends!

Other wildlife organisations, including Burton Mere RSPB, Cheshire Wildlife Trust and the Dee Coastliners Project, were on hand to teach about conservation, while Neston Library hosted a room with wildlife and conservation stories for the under 5s.

Hundreds enjoyed the Festival at NCYC. Photo by Bernard Rose

Ideas and actions for recycling, zero-waste and low-impact living were promoted by many: Hoylake Pantry, FS & S Ltd, and A Site for Green Eyes represented green businesses that sell recycled and recyclable products; Cheshire West and Chester council's Waste Dr gave away free metal straws, and Neston High School Eco Champions gave people the chance to make eco-bricks - a way of using up plastics to make durable building blocks. Local start-up Bespoke Budget Campervans displayed their eco-campervan to show how low-impact family holidays can be.

Extinction Rebellion had a fantastic display of banners and signs that accompany them on their direct-action campaigns, and got children to pledge actions and stage a Die-in! The Green Living Handbook promoted their online resource guide that makes the move to reducing our eco impact a bit less daunting. If hearing about the plight of the planet caused some stress, Neston Holistic Centre offered taster massages which went down a treat.

Extinction Rebellion staged some dramatic scenarios 

The weather saw off plans for the plastic-free picnics in the wildlife garden, but NCYC's giant popped his head up to see all the action, and visitors got delicious fare from local food sellers Fellici's, Bhaji Box, Pen-y-Lan Pork and Bluebonnet Sweets, while the Neston Fairtrade Town Group transformed Room 1 into a welcoming fair-trade café.  Hip & Harmony's 64 N'ukes provided musical entertainment in the foyer.

Justin Madders MP popped in for a cuppa with the Fairtrade volunteers.

A whopping twenty seven volunteers helped make the day happen by stewarding and assisting with the set up and running of activities. NCYC would like to send out a massive thank you to all of them for their hard work and endless enthusiasm. A big thanks must also go to Neston Primary School for allowing use of their car park for the day.

Just a few of the amazing volunteers who made the event possible.

The work of the festival is hoped to continue with the formation of a Neston Earth Group to champion green issues in Neston, but it will be dependent on local people getting involved. If you are interested in improving your local environment, come along to NCYC for an initial meeting on Wednesday 25th of September at 7pm, where we will be sharing ideas and appointing a Chair to take the group forward.

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