Holifair Family Festival

2013 is our year off. We are taking a break from Holifair this year, but do please keep an eye on our website and facebook page for Holifair 2014!

Holifair 2012 was a grand success, we had about 2500 people join us and the festival was one of the best ever! The weather was kind and the vibe was amazing. The funds raised will go towards our new build, a classroom for our special needs daycentre.

Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen, and to all who came and made Holifair 2012 the beautiful family festival it was. Next year is our year off, so see all you lovely people in 2014!

Check out the 2012 photos here taken by Mark Falmouth.

Holifair is a three day family friendly festival with over 30 live bands, workshops, cabaret, barn dance, kids area, DJ area, chillout space, wellbeing area and all set at the beautiful Holifield Farm in Gweek, at the head of the Helford Estuary in West Cornwall

The Holifair is now in its 6th year and gets more popular every year. It is set on the beautiful 32 acre Holifield farm; which is also a day care centre for people with learning difficulties. Holifair is a community fund rasing event for the day care centre. We are currently trying to raise £50 000 for our new classroom and are always on the lookout for donors. In 2011 Holifair raised enough to buy a tractor!

Each year we try and make Holifair as environmentally friendly as possible. This year we were succesful in getting the vast majority of all energy used on site from solar, wind and biodiesel and we kept the use of disposable plastic to a minimum.

Holifair has a main stage, Marquee stage, DJ area, acoustic and chillout area for all kinds of musical enjoyment - which at Holifair ranges from folk, gypsy, punk, blues and reggae all the way to dance. There is a childrens area with all kinds of workshops, storytelling, fun and games as well as a Wellbeing Area with alternative therapists and practitioners of the mysterious and magical. There were all kinds of festival treats such as poets, fire poi performers, circus and walkabout acts, The Roseland Observatory with their telescopes, Sensory Solutions with their polytunnel, The Wizard, bellydancing, drumming and music workshops, a blacksmith, face & body painter, arts and crafts and much, much more...

To download a 2012 programme click here

We enjoyed fantastic entertainment from our talented performers and musicians: The Egg, Land of the Giants, 3 Daft Monkeys, Cuckoo Collective, Spacecat, Kyle Coleman & friends, Rosie Vanier, Tom Dale, Kabasa, Lionstar, Craic Horse, Hanterhir, Zamba, Julian Gaskell, Kernow Vibration, Phat Bollard, Pure Mischief, Rhi Write Rebellion, Captain Skalet, Toucan Dance, Eyelids, Justin Goode, PunchJudy, The Klicks, All City Chon, Los Samba, Zapoppin', Louise Parker & the Hothouse Band, Mobius Loop, Flats & Sharps, Jackie Juno, Nick Jarvis, DJ Genuine Rat, DJ K.B.S, Seef Saffah, Dakadoum, Biere de Luxe, The White Hand Band and the Mongolian Disco Show! To read more about these acts, click here

We had acoustic musicians around the bonfire by night, including The White Hand Band, Lily Somerville & Megan Markwick, Shannon Farmer, The Busk Stop Crew and more.

The Rolling Stage Cabaret is bringing us some amazing acts on Saturday night:

19.30 The Bureau of Random Acts present: Wallflower
19.40 Mama Tokus
19.55 Jackie Juno
20.10 The Bureau of Random Acts Present: Granthology
20.20 Mama Tokus
20.35 Jackie Juno
20.50 The Bureau of Random Acts Present: Chimp Juice
21.00 Bert Miller & The Animal Band

Our resident drummer Paul (Spirit of Drum) will be running drumming workshops in the gorgeous Valley View from 2 until 4pm on Saturday and noon until 2pm on Sunday. Come check out the biggest drum in Cornwall!

In the Childrens Area we had a marquee running crafts and workshops including costume making, dressing up, yoga, poi workshops, painting lucky horseshoes, scrap n tat workshops, scrap wood carpentry and more. You can also join the Stickle Witches and Fabulous Fairies in their parlour for story telling, puppetry, toxic makewovers and misfortune telling and making fairy wings and outfits. The National Trust ran some truly inspiring childrens workshops throughout the festival too, including a range of different crafts inspired by nature, from eye masks to dream catchers...a huge thanks to them! They also offered bush craft and green woodworking activies, where you could try your hand at turning wood the traditional way or make rope out of natural fibres.

Skank n Stomp set up the Moulin Vert DJ tent will include names such as Mace, SeanyB, Romanchale, HongKongPingPong, Skank n Stomp, Reggae Reggae Source, Kernow Swing Collective, Adrian Mercuri, and Source FM DJ's: Dubious Sounds, Godden, DJ Retina, TwIsTeD TeAtImE, Mr P and Show Me Them Now.

We had delicious food from FalFalafel, The Tin Can Cafe, 5 Minute Pizzas, Cornwall Donuts, Truly Crumptious, The Reggae Breakfast tent. Traders included Kitty Gubbins, Awen Alive, Balawisa, Wild Fibres and many more. The Sustainable Trust exhibited about their work including the successful Carwynnen Quoit project, working to restore one of our most ancient monuments near Camborne in the Welcome Orchard. Zelda School ran an enormous jumble sale- selling clothes, bric-a-brac, toys, books, CD's, dvd's, jewellery, etc - pretty much anything!

The Calstock Festival Collective ran the Chill Out Space from 9pm at Holifair this year....chilled grooves, films, acoustic sets, friendly vibes, hot drinks and food...

The relaxing treatments in the Welcome Orchard were enjoyed and appreciated by many! There was acupressure, massage workshops, couples massage, sei-chem, reiki, biodynamic massage, indian head massage, shiatsu and more. 3 day tickets cost £45, and free for under 14's.

Holifair 2011 Photos by Mark Falmouth Click here

Holifair Photos 2010 and more by Mark Falmouth Click here