Henley’s Great Big Green Week Fair
The Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest call for action on climate change, and on Saturday 24 September, between 10:00am – 4:00pm in Falaise Square, we are celebrating all that we are doing to tackle climate change and protect nature in the local Henley area with our own Great Big Green Week Fair!
Greener Henley’s Great Big Green Week Fair organiser, Diana Barnett, said, “Following on from the tremendous success of last year, this year we are marking the start of Great Big Green Week with a fair in Falaise Square, with just under 30 individual stalls comprising local green businesses, organisations, community groups, and individuals and staging a host of fun and interesting activities throughout the day for all ages.”
There will be a variety of stalls on the marketplace, including Professor Fortey’s ‘Fabulous Fungi Roadshow’, which is back by popular demand this year, so if you have any fungi you want to ask questions about, bring them down with you! Henley’s very own expert will amaze you with his own collection of weird and wonderful fungi.
We will also have many good local food growers and producers including Bosley Patch, selling local seasonal vegetables, bread and fruit, Honeys of Henley, Three Oaks Orchard, GAPS Fermented Foods, teas from Wild & Rust, plus produce from plant nursery Greenshoots and Mencap’s Meteor Club.
‘Mabel’, the vintage ice cream van will be making a special appearance along with Jane Tutill of the Willow Basket and some very yummy, multi award-winning ice cream! Why not pay the shop on Friday Street a visit and see how you can save on plastic too?
The day also boasts stalls by Gillotts School’s Eco-Club, Henley Youth Festival, who’s theme this year is ‘going green’, Young Climate Warriors, and the Rotary Club, who are back with their popular ‘End Plastic Soup’ stall and are kindly sharing with Tools for Self-Reliance. If that wasn’t enough, Henley Quakers will be explaining what ‘climate justice’ really means and Walkers are Welcome will give details of their litter pick walk later in the week.
There will be an awards presentation by the Mayor to representatives of the schools who took part in the 2022 Greener Henley Environmental Science Challenge: ‘How important are insects?’ You can see what local school children have explored around this topic and view some of their wonderful artwork which will be on display at the Fair, as well as exhibited throughout the week in the Henley Public Library.
Henley Town Council will be exhibiting the things they are doing to improve our town’s environment, through the hard work of the Parks Department, the Transport Strategy Group and the Climate Emergency 2030 Working Group.
Greener Henley will have stalls at the Fair as well. We will be giving away trees and showing how to get involved with nature, as well as offering information and hearing your views at our our pop-up sustainability hub. We will also be on hand to talk about our A-Z of Climate and Nature Solutions. If you are around in the town you will see posters with every letter of the alphabet, and a solution to match, in our 50+ participating shop windows throughout the week – see if you can find them all!
When you’ve had a look around the Fair, why not pop into one of the local restaurants and cafes also doing their bit for Great Big Green Week by participating in Green Dish of the Week. They are all highlighting their vegetarian and plant based offerings. Participants include Buddy’s, The Bull on Bell Street, The Catherine Wheel, The Cheesy Grape, Costa Coffee, Crockers Henley, Drifters including Pig & Eel, Gail’s Bakery, Harris & Hoole, Pavilion, Pizza Express, Sage and Squash and Spoon Deli.
On the afternoon of Saturday 24, 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Warriors on Waste are holding a River Clean on the Henley reach. This is a paddle board river clean, starting from the River and Rowing Museum Jetty. You can book tickets for this here.
Do come down and join us – Great Big Green Week is for everyone!
Greener Henley would like to thank Henley Town Council, the Tony Lane Foundation, Thamesfield Youth Association, Mercers Solicitors, Henley Royal Regatta, and Hobbs of Henley for their generous support for this year’s Green Week. If you would like to join any event in Greener Henley’s Great Big Green Week, or have any questions please email [email protected].
