Nature Recovery Festival Returns To Kendal With Back To The Garden Theme.
A popular nature festival is returning to Kendal this weekend, with thousands of people expected to take part in a programme highlighting how gardens, allotments and community spaces can support nature recovery.
Organised by Natural Kendal, this year’s Nature Recovery Festival is titled Back to the Garden and is taking place on Saturday, September 26, across the Westmorland campus of Kendal College, the Market Place and the Unitarian Chapel.
The festival runs from 9.30am until 4.30pm, bringing together talks, activities and entertainment designed to encourage people to think about the role their own outdoor spaces can play in supporting wildlife. The event follows last year’s festival, which attracted around 1,200 people to the Kendal College campus, while thousands more took part in activities around the town centre.
This year's programme includes talks from Steve Trotter, chief executive of Cumbria Wildlife Trust, and Shelagh Todd, a sustainable horticultural consultant for Kendal Town Council.Visitors will also hear from Chris Dodd and Liz Jolley, whose Kendal garden featured in Sir David Attenborough’s 2026 BBC series Secret Garden. The pair are expected to share their experience of encouraging more wildlife into their garden over the past decade.
Music will form part of the day's entertainment, with performances from the Growing Singing Choir and Milnthorpe Steel Band. The programme will also include the announcement of a photography exhibition winner at 3.30pm, followed by Gardeners’ Question Time at 3.45pm.
Natural Kendal says the festival is intended to show that people do not need large gardens or specialist knowledge to make a contribution to nature recovery. Craig Russell of Natural Kendal said the event is about recognising the potential of everyday spaces, from gardens and allotments to yards and even a few pots outside a front door.
The festival also aims to bring people together to exchange ideas and demonstrate how small changes made by individuals can collectively have a wider impact on local wildlife and the natural environment. Admission costs £5, while entry is free for students, children and young people. The organisers are encouraging visitors to come along, discover practical ideas and explore how their own outdoor spaces could become more welcoming to nature.
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