Just grow for it!
Enjoy the flavour of grow-your-own at the Dandelion food celebration coming to Scotland – and serve it up with some very tasty music festivals…
TWO free music festivals are coming to Scotland this summer – and all the artists will be playing an inspiring message: sow, grow and share.
But they don’t just mean sharing fantastic food, for the festivals are part of the six-month Dandelion initiative – commissioned by EventScotland and funded via the Scottish Government – which aims to bring communities together to celebrate music and ideas.
Singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner is among the acts playing at the three-day Dandelion Festival in Kelvingrove, Glasgow on the weekend of June 17-19.
He’ll be joined by the acclaimed
Scottish folk band Rura, electronica four-piece Niteworks from the Isle of Skye and Glasgow-born indie rocker Emma Pollock among others.
The festival then moves on to Northern Meeting Park in Inverness on September 2-4, the line-up for which will be announced in June.
“Dandelion explores what it means to experience the natural world more closely,” says executive producer Jenny Niven. “It’s all about making positive change.”
Dandelion is one of hundreds of events happening across the country as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, the biggest programme of creative events ever held on these shores. During Dandelion, there will be pop-up gardens appearing across Scotland, a nationwide seed and plant giveaway, and a variety of growing initiatives, from vertical farms and a fun schools scheme to developing plots on reclaimed land.
Key elements of Dandelion are the Cubes of Perpetual Light. Part art, part laboratory, the Cubes are miniature vertical farms, growing hundreds of seedlings under LED light. Sixty of them will form the Pavilion of Perpetual Light – a 10m-high artwork hosting thousands of tiny plants – at the music festivals.
Unexpected Gardens will be created in unusual places – from canals and urban alleyways to island locations and unused or forgotten land. Each garden will host seasonal events and installations, and grow herbs and vegetables for the whole community to cook and share at local Harvest events in September. “Even the tiniest pieces of land have growing potential,” explains Jenny. Dandelion is also giving away thousands of seeds and plants at Free For All events. And seedling-filled “grow cubes” will be handed out to more than 450 schools so pupils can explore what helps plants flourish by controlling the moisture, light, humidity and nutrients.
Young people will also participate in the Big Tattie Experiment, using organic compost to grow potatoes in anything from wheelbarrows to wellies.
“We’re celebrating ingenuity and new ways of thinking about how we all sow and grow together,” explains Jenny. “Some people find the environment a wee bit scary, but we’re trying to show that sowing and growing can be personally rewarding and benefit the environment.”
We’re celebrating ingenuity and new ways to sow and grow together, and showing people that it can be personally rewarding DANDELION EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JENNY NIVEN