Why We Cancelled 2025 Living Wood Fair

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Kia ora friends,

It was a sad day when we decided to cancel this years Living Wood Fair. It took a great deal of soul searching and looking around at who was at the table to make this year happen. What we saw was that our team were tired and facing challenge in their lives – many in big transitions – a few of the key people had to step down to care for theirs and their families needs and as we did not even have close to enough funding to put on a much smaller event we could not guarantee any money in exchange for the massive amounts of energy that people would put in. I personally realised that I was also run down and burnt out, and would not be able to give the event the energy it needed to be the wonderful educational community gathering we all know and love, especially limping along with a much smaller crew. So we made the call.

The vision for this event has always been to bring community together, to skill share, to offer an opportunity to be creative and connect, whilst sharing knowledge on how to tread more lightly on this beautiful Earth. This event is not a business, the organisation is a non profit incorporated society. We apply for funding to cover some of our costs and charge a small ticket price at the gate to keep it as affordable as possible for our local community because without them we are nothing. How can we make real change in the world if some people are excluded?

As usual this year we applied for funding, offered sponsorship packages and even ran a crowdfunding campaign to pre sell tickets but only secured $2500 in funding and $2000 in sponsorship. This is a tiny fraction of what we would need. That challenge, coupled with our team’s health and wellbeing needs meant that it was just too much of a stretch to make happen.

As we are not putting on the event in 2025 we are giving back all the funding and sponsorship that we received. In the past, any profit that was made from an event around 50% went to seed funding the next event and the other 50% was given as donation to the team that put hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in to make that event happen. If you are interested, all our financials are public record because we are an incorporated society.

If you want to support the Living Wood Fair to happen again please get in touch – we welcome your donations, funding and team support – kiaora@livingwoodfair.co.nz

May the forest be with you!

Liv and the Living Wood Fair team.

Pledgeme Campaign Launched!

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*Support us to help make the 2025 Living Wood Fair happen*


Show us you want another Living Wood Fair by pre purchasing your tickets, a t-shirt or a very special workshop via our Pledgeme Crowdfunding Campaign.

Without this crowdfunding we will not be able to make the Living Wood Fair happen on 12-13 April 2025.

We love our community and we are committed to putting on another fantastic event but we have been unsuccessful with our usual funding and sponsorship routes which in the past has subsidised our entry and workshop tickets, and reduced the risk of putting on the event. We are reaching out to all of you who love the Living Wood Fair to show your support with your pledges, we have a big target but we only need half of the people that came in 2021 to buy your tickets now and we will be able to put on the event in April.

On our Pledgeme campaign page we go into more detail about how much we need and why, including our ‘stretch goals’ in case we totally go beyond our target. I have high hopes that YOU – our community – are willing and able come to the table for this beautiful event so that we can come together on 12-13 April 2025.

PLEDGE HERE

As well as the usual workshops, talks, forums, live music, kids zone, markets, demonstrations and timber auction you can expect from the Living Wood Fair, there are some exciting new additions to our offerings for our 2025 event, including camping, evening music and a night market on Saturday.

Stay in touch to keep up to date with all the unfoldings please share ourย Pledgeme Campaignย far and wide to help make this fantastic event happen; like, comment and share ourย Facebookย andย Instagramย posts; and click *going* on ourย Facebook 2025 event pageย to keep track of what is happening. If you want to find out first when the workshop tickets are released then sign up for our newsletter mailing list.

Help nurture our beautiful event into life by showing your support.

PLEDGE NOW

May the forest be with you!

We’re back!

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The Living Wood Fair is back!  After a 4 year hiatus this unique and inspirational event will be wowing visitors of all ages from 12th-14th April 2025.

Set in a stunning location in East Tฤkaka, Golden Bay, the Living Wood Fair provides a place for sharing solutions to many environmental issues – showcasing alternatives; teaching skills and passing on knowledge. Market stalls; arts and crafts; kidsโ€™ entertainment; live music and of course delicious food and drinks, make the event a treat for everybody. ย And for the first time, this year thereโ€™ll be overnight camping available!

The Living Wood Fair appeals to anyone interested in the environment and sustainability, forestry or building. Over two days the event delves into the wonderful world of wood, with a Workshop Zone hosting indoor and outdoor hands-on workshops, and inspiring and informative presentations and panel discussions in the Kลrero Zone.

Kicked off as an annual event in 2018 by Liv and Graeme Scott, the duo took a hiatus in 2023 to walk their talk in the world: The Takaka Co-Housing project allowed them to follow their passion for natural and sustainable building.ย  Under their company Elemental Design & Build, they created the exquisite Common House for the Takaka Co-Housing neighbourhood, using traditional timber-framing milled from local logs, hempcrete walls and lime plaster finish.

“The Common House was a massive project, but we’re all very excited to be hosting the Living Wood Fair again,” says Liv Scott. “It’s a fantastic way to bring people together to create and learn, and get a serious environmental message across in an enjoyable, inspiring and motivating way.”

The Living Wood Fair takes hundreds of hours to put the event together with a small team of passionate and dedicated volunteers. We’re always looking for eager, motivated individuals to help us, so if you would like to offer a workshop, talk or market stall, please get in touch! If you would like to volunteer your time to be part of the set up and pack down team, or be one of our extremely helpful marshals during the event, please send us a message.  And if the Living Wood Fair philosophy resonates with you or your company and you would like to offer sponsorship to help our 2025 event please don’t hesitate to contact us!

The Next Living Wood Fair: 2025

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Kia ora Community,

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful summer of fun, frolics and inspiration!

There is no Living Wood Fair in 2024 as we have been busy building some magnificent structures which, although very satisfying, has taken our attention from the Living Wood Fair – but do not fear we will be back in April 2025 filled with vibrant excitement to bring you our special mix of community, workshops, education, music and the arts.

Want to be involved?

The Living Wood Fair team is a small group of passionate and dedicated volunteers, its takes thousands of hours to make each event happen and we are always looking for eager, motivated individuals to help us. If you would like to offer a workshop, talk or market stall, connect with us. If you would like to volunteer your time to be part of the set up and pack down team, or be one of our extremely helpful marshals during the event, drop us a line. To keep our entry prices accessible to everyone we spend many months working to get funding – if you or your company resonates with the Living Wood Fair philosophy and would like to offer sponsorship to help our 2025 event kick off with a bang please get in touch!

Timber sales network

Through our events the Living Wood Fair has organically become a network – much like the mycorrhizal in the forest – of woodworkers, foresters, crafters and anyone interested in trees and timber. As a natural progression to that and because of the very popular timber auction at our events, we have become a point of contact for people wanting to buy and sell timber. If you have logs, timber or plantation trees for sale or are thinking of selling we may have just the person wanting to buy – email us to find out if we can help.

For all enquiries email livingwoodfair@gmail.com.

We love you, keep wandering through the trees weaving your special magic and until the next time we meet – may the Forest be with you!

Auction & Community Discussions

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Community Discussions Yurt

Community Forest (Saturday 12pm)

Community forestry deals with the communal management of forests for generating income from timber and non-timber forest products, with consideration for the wellbeing of the whole forest ecosystem, including watershed conservation and carbon sequestration. Robina will introduce various models of community forestry which could be particularly relevant to Golden Bay. Sharing of other models is also encouraged. This will be followed by discussion and ideally strategic action.

Mohua 2042 โ€“ A Sustainability Strategy for Golden Bay (Sunday 1pm)

We can all agree we want a healthy, sustainable future here in Golden Bay, but what exactly does that look like and what needs to be done to make that happen?
The best way to experience the shared future we want as a community is to clarify it and then work towards it together. Mohua 2042 aims to capture our shared vision, strategy and community-led action plan for a sustainable future here in Golden Bay. Each of us has a part to play in living more sustainably on the earth and if we work together as a community our positive impact is so much larger than any one of us can achieve alone. Weโ€™ve already had great feedback from the community on how we want Golden Bay to look and feel in the future and what key initiatives are needed to make this happen. This session will report back on the key themes and initiatives that have emerged from the strategy workshops and explore the question โ€“ What next?
This is a good time to put up your hand for working groups on specific initiatives, and help formulate the action plan for making things happen!

Milling Alternative Timbers (Saturday 2pm)

Hamish Randall will run a question and answer session on milling alternative timbers.

Auction (Sunday 3pm)

On Sunday at 3pm we will be running a wood lot auction including some of the timbers that have been milled onsite during the fair. Tim Eckert will be milling Humfrey Newton’s Blackwood, Oak and Redwood logs into beautiful flitches, the lots include milled logs and selected flitches of the highest quality, locally grown timber milled by a professional. Billy Kerrisk will be our auctioneer.

Other lots include cherry log laden with burl perfect for a wood turner, chainsaw carvings created at the Living Wood Fair, timber sculptures and furniture.

Tickets are available fromย Eventfindaย until 16th April at 1pm.ย  $25 + bf for a daily pass; $40+bf for a weekend pass; concession $15+bf per day.ย  $30 on the gate, very limited gate sales. Kids under 16 are free.ย  Workshop fees are add-on tickets. Get in early as workshops sell out quickly.ย ย 

Please NO DOGS as we have horses working on site.

Special guests

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As well as the wonderful workshops, thought provoking presentations, live demonstrations and fun kids activities have a few special attractions we are weaving together to make the 2021 Living Wood Fair truly special.

Deborah Walsh is a sculptor who uses the techniques and materials of basketry, weaving and whittling in her work. An interest in Stone-age technology, Cargo Cult objects and 19th century natural history inform her object-making. Her sculptures are held in many national and international museums and collections. Deborah is offering a free drop-in flower whittling workshop in the Green Woodworking zone between 10am and 2pm each day.

Philip Simpson is a botanist living in Pohara. Now retired, he worked formerly for the Department of Conservation, then as an ecological consultant. For the last 20 years he has researched and written books on the natural and cultural history of iconic New Zealand trees such as tลtara, and most recently on Abel Tasman National Park. Philip Simpson will be taking people on his popular walk and talk through the bush near the Fairholme Gallery, to talk about the ancient Tลtara forest. The free walk and talk starts at 2pm on Saturday, meet at the Info Tent.

Te Hฤ o te Ao Tลซroa (sounds of the natural world) is a short listening experience whereby participants can walk through the bush adjacent to the Fairholme Gallery homestead to hear taonga puoro (traditional Mฤori instruments) played in a natural setting by Ariana Tikao, Holly Tikao-Weir, Solomon Rahui, Bob Bickerton Robin Slow and Brian Flintoff. As well as being part of the opening and closing ceremonies there will be 2 other opportunities to hear these beautiful harmonies: Saturday at 11.15am and Sunday 12.45pm, meet at the Main Stage.

We also have performances from Wildbloom Belly Dance troupe (Saturday 4.15pm Main Stage), the Morris Dancers (Sunday 11.45am, 2.45pm Main Stage) and Dance Collective Mohua who will be clowning around the site on Sunday lunchtime.

Tickets are available from Eventfinda until 16th April at 1pm.  $25 + bf for a daily pass; $40+bf for a weekend pass; concession $15+bf per day.  Kids under 16 are free.  Workshop fees are add-on tickets. Get in early as workshops sell out quickly.  

Please NO DOGS as we have horses working on site.

Sacred Arts at the living wood fair

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Among the many exciting workshops, activities and entertainment over this two day event, renowned artists Robin Slow, Brian Flintoff, Bob Bickerton, Ariana Tikao, Holly Tikao-Weir and Solomon Rahui are collaborating to bring art, music and storytelling together as they play and talk about Taonga Puoro – traditional Mฤori musical instruments. 

The result of an enduring relationship and philosophies shared between artist and teacher Robin Slow; taonga puoro carver Brian Flintoff, and musician and recording artist Bob Bickerton, the collaboration will bring ancestral stories to life.  Bob Bickerton arranged the music, with vocals provided by Holly Weir-Tikao, Solomon Rahui and Arts Laureate composer and performer Ariana Tikao of Kฤi Tahu descent. 

Comments Robin Slow: โ€œOur kaupapa has been to work together, using painting, carving and music to bind narratives that help reflect the whakataukฤซ; โ€˜Plait the rope that binds the past to the futureโ€™โ€.

โ€œWe are delighted and privileged to work as a group of friends who believe that our varied art forms, visual and musical, are powerful vehicles that convey treasures held in traditional stories, sayings and concepts,โ€ adds Brian Flintoff.  โ€œWe offer this in the hope that this combination of sounds and sights create an experience that can enrich othersโ€™ lives in the same way it does for usโ€. The group will be offering a workshop on how to make two of the taonga puoro; the kลauau (wooden end blown flute) and the porotiti (wooden spun disc) (9.30am Sunday: Workshops Tahi) as well as a presentation on the whakapapa and rich stories behind a wide range of instruments (3.30pm Saturday: Kลrero Rua).  A further short presentation for children explores some of the instrumentsโ€™ relation to creation stories and other ancient tales (2pm Sunday: Kids Zone).

Ariana, Holly, Solomon and Bob will perform several times over the weekend including a performance on the main stage (1.30pm Saturday) and a ‘short listening experience’ Te Hฤ o te Ao Tลซroa in a secluded part of the ngahere (bush) near the Fairholme Gallery homestead (Saturday: opening ceremony, 11.15am, 12.15pm; Sunday: 12.45pm, closing ceremony).ย ย 

Fairholme Gallery is proud to present a wood-themed exhibition to tie into the Living Wood Fair, Forest Treasures. The Forest Treasures exhibition will showcase their work along with a selection of artworks from a number of other established artists: painter Sarah Thomas, sculptors Tim Wraight, Grant Knowles and Jocelynne Bacci; fibre artist Bronwynn Billens; printmaker Kathy Reilly; jeweller Geoff Williams; wood artist Steve Halton, photographer Murray Hedwig and furniture-makers Chris Astill from Takaka, and Ben Grant and Amy Short from the Centre of Fine Woodworking in Nelson.  The front garden will also feature sculptural works by Darryl Frost and David Carson with seating by Humfrey Newton.

Forest Treasures will open to coincide with the Living Wood Fair on 17th April and continues for a further 3 weeks until May 9th. Koha entry for the gallery.

Tickets for the Living Wood Fair are available from Eventfinda until 16th April at 1pm.  $25 + bf for a daily pass; $40+bf for a weekend pass; concession $15+bf per day.  Kids under 16 are free.  Workshop fees are add-on tickets. Get in early as workshops sell out quickly.  

https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2021/living-wood-fair2/nelson-tasman

Very limited cash only door sales. Please note this is a no dog event as we have horses working on site. 

2021 Workshops and funding

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We are very excited this year to have a large amount of funding from Creative NZ which means we have been able to offer you double the number of workshops!

With everything from spoon carving to blacksmithing, foraging to natural building, woodworking to eco printing there will be at least one workshop that captures your imagination have a look through our listings to decide what you are going to do and then pre-book your tickets online.

We are doing things a little differently this year, you can buy your entry tickets and workshop tickets online at Eventfinda, booking early means you will not miss out on any workshops you want to do. The workshops are always very popular and we cannot guarantee there will be tickets available during the event.

The talks and full program schedule are being finalised and we will be sharing that with you very soon, either keep checking here on our website, on our Facebook page or our Facebook event page.

Online ticket sales end on Friday 16th at 1pm

A great big THANK YOU to all our funders and sponsors, we couldn’t do it without you!

Back in 2021!

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The Living Wood Fair team has decided to take a break from hosting an event this year so we can concentrate on streamlining our organisation and systems. Creating a truly sustainable event – for our team and our planet – is absolutely imperative.

It is so important to look after our team, they put in many volunteer hours and we know in Golden Bay, as I’m sure in other places as well, many people suffer with volunteer fatigue. It really is the generous time that people give to a community that makes it a wonderful, vibrant place to live and visit, and we are lucky to have so many charitable people living here.

Liv Scott Fair Director

We will be back on the 17th and 18th April 2021 refreshed and revitalised to bring you all your Living Wood Fair favourites and so much more! Woody workshops, informative and inspiring talks, interactive forums, kids activities, a marvelous market, a mosaic of musical delights and many live demonstrations.

If you have something you would like to share through a workshop, a presentation or a demonstration at the 2021 event please get in touch.

We are always looking for volunteers and helpers so if you are interested in being involved send us an email: livingwoodfair@gmail.com.

Golden Bay School Build Projects

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We have a very exciting opportunity here in Golden Bay with 2 local schools having been assigned over $20million from the MoE to rebuild classrooms and update facilities.

This has the potential to be a massive educational experience for our tamariki and also be a strong environmental statement expressing to the wider community, and the whole of New Zealand, our commitment to sustainability and to protecting our children’s futures.

What has this got to do with the Living Wood Fair? I hear you say. Totally coincidentally we had contacted Jerome Partington, Sustainability Manager + Associate Principle at Jasmax and Chair of Living Future, Aotearoa NZ to speak at this years event. When I heard about the funds from MoE I put 2 and 2 together to find we had a fantastic opportunity to hear about a different way of building. A holistic approach that incorporates regenerative development, looking at not just the buildings but all the systems around community, landscape and sustainability. We have the potential to create schools that are future focussed, empower learning and have the students at the heart of the project.

Jerome will be giving 2 talks at the 2019 Living Wood Fair on Saturday 13th April and will be part of the Building Forum on Sunday 14th April. The talks are ‘An introduction to the Living Building Challenge (LBC) as a gateway to living regeneration’ at 11.15am and ‘The Path to Healthy Materials and Healthy People’ at 4pm. For more details please read his bio and presentation descriptions on our Talks page.

Come along and have a great day out with the family – do a workshop, watch some horse logging and chainsaw carving, listen to some live music, maybe be inspired to look at building differently and connect with our wonderful community!