Thicket Festival

Come and join Friends of Bathurst Nature at the Thicket Festival on Saturday 10 October, at Kleinemonde Sports Club Hall. The Thicket Festival is a celebration of our local nature, the Thicket plant biome, and the animals, birds, insects, fungi, fish and other life forms it supports, including us.

Walks

This year the festival will kick off with two very special walks:

07:30 - A beach walk with Bruce Mann, exploring the rocky shores at Spring Low tide - LIMITED AVAILABILITY - R50 per person

07:30 - A dune Thicket walk exploring the magical plants that grow so near the ocean - LIMITED AVAILABILITY - R50 per person

These walks take place concurrently, meaning you can only choose one of the two walks. The walks are guided so spaces are limited - don't leave it to book!

Activities and stalls

There will be stalls featuring local artists and crafters, and an indigenous plant sale with plants from the nursery at Kwelerha Botanical Gardens.

We will also have a range of books and guides available for purchase.

Special Plants of the Thicket R250 Available on pre-order

Discover the remarkable plant diversity of South Africa s thicket landscapes. Special Plants of the Thicket provides a concise introduction to the main thicket types and their key characteristics, accompanied by beautiful illustrations of 76 special thicket plants. A handy and informative guide for nature lovers, plant enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the unique flora of the thicket.

Talks (Between 11AM and 1PM there will be talks around the theme "Surf and Turf: Living with Environmental Change".)

How do we live with Environmental Change - what is needed? - Professor Sheona Shackleton: Universities of Cape Town & Rhodes

The Faces of Thicket: Diversity Within a Name - Abdul-Lateef Ismail: Conservation Outcomes

Environmental extremes and estuary health indicators with East and West Kleinemonde estuaries as case studies - Professor Janine Adams: Nelson Mandela University

1 - 2 PM Lunch break

Boerewors rolls and chicken kebabs (with side salads) will be available for purchase. We highly recommend buying a food voucher in advance to secure yours.

During the lunch break Ryana Johnson will host a mini-garden making workshop for children.

Bioacoustic monitoring science blends into a visceral infrasound concert

After lunch, Franco Schoeman, musician and technologist extraordinaire, will give a talk followed by a concert of his unique infrasound music. Surf n Turf Infrasound is a research-led creative exhibition that blends soundscape ecology, live performance and exploration of low-frequency audio. The experience uses specialized subwoofer systems to create whole-body listening with sub sonics. Bioacoustic recordings are made on land and at sea, with infrasonic microphones and hydrophones to gather audio from elephant herds, and during the South African sardine migration.

This scientific data supports ongoing research on animal-communication and local conservation initiatives; the artistic program transforms those findings into a visceral concert that can be felt as well as heard.

For more information please email friendsofbathurstnature@gmail.com

Friends of Bathurst Nature is a voluntary community organisation focusing on our shared role as custodians of nature.