Features / nature connection
‘Stories, firelight, space to grow’ – Inside the Birch Collective’s summer celebration
Tucked in a hidden valley behind St Werburgh’s City Farm an evening of storytelling, firelight and urban wilderness marked a radical new chapter for local youth mental health.
Following the narrow lane that drops down to the Boiling Wells Amphitheatre, the city seems to gently peel away into a space to mingle with fictional characters around the flames.
Overhead the frequent rush of passing trains cuts through the canopy, serving as a metallic reminder of the urban sprawl just beyond the treeline. But down in the hollow the air smells of woodsmoke, wild earth and fresh falafel.
On Thursday evening this secret green pocket became a living canvas. Strung with handmade bunting and illuminated by the golden glow of a central hearth, the space hosted the first major open celebration by the Birch Collective.
The collective helps young people spend more time in nature, learn new skills and connect with each other
For over five years the trauma-informed social enterprise has been quietly anchoring young people through nature connection, heritage crafts and land-skills.
But yesterday wasn’t just an event thrown for the community; it was an immersive experience designed, built and breathed into life by the young participants of the collective’s Fresh Air Thursdays group.
For an organization rooted in deep, quiet circles, stepping into an open festival format was a brave step which they took holding the hands of their volunteers, audience, nature and the twilight sky.
“It felt like all of us have had ownerships of our respective spaces and a say in today,” said Lotte Holloway, a volunteer who found her way to the collective five months ago through social media.
While she spends her days working full-time for environmental charity Earthwatch Europe, the evening allowed her to bridge the gap between her professional world and a deep-seated passion for tactile art.
The party’s attendees could get stuck into plenty of activities including meditation, nature art, storytelling and music round the campfire
Lotte spent the evening anchoring a bustling crafts table, guiding people through a “texture hunting” workshop that felt entirely emblematic of the collective’s hands-on philosophy.
“Texture hunting is when you grab putty, clay or Blue-Tac and press it onto a tree to collect its pattern,” she explained, pointing to the ink-stamped prints drying nearby. “Then you print it with ink to create art.”
Because the festival was built from the ground up by peers of the same age sharing the same lived experiences, that grounding energy was palpable to those who stepped into the amphitheatre.
“It’s not like the usual parties we hear of with just dance and music, this one is deeply connected to nature,” reflected Angel, an audience member who noticed the serenity of the valley.
“When you talk to the people here who are fresh and eager to grow, you get a real essence of their love for the environment. There’s a distinct peace and calmness mixed with incredible enthusiasm.”
James Broadley, the collective’s communications lead, supports the young people on the programmes to feel empowered to organise and run events in their own vision
The collective’s newly released 2025 Impact Report visibly prioritizes depth over volume, charting a year of working alongside 344 beneficiaries, 40 per cent of whom are classified as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
Through structured interventions like ReCoupe, a traditional woodland management programme spreading heritage skills like coppicing and charcoal burning, the collective targets the isolating ‘cliff edge’ that hits vulnerable adults when they turn 18 and lose access to child mental health services.
The statistics in the report point to a quiet revolution: 86 percent of participants reported feeling more connected to nature, and 87 percent forged vital new social bonds.
“A lot of people come to us when they’re feeling really crap, experiencing a lack of hope, despair and loneliness,” said James Broadley, the collective’s marketing and comms coordinator, who described his own two years with the team as transformative.
“Bristol is a sharp example of that right now, with knife crime, or people out of work and education, unsure of where they’re going. We are trying to do something radically different here. It’s heart-centred work. It’s about finding meaning, purpose and belonging.”
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For co-founder and director Ro Fry who used to manage the youth team at the city farm, seeing the sheer scale of yesterday’s turnout brought a wave of relief.
“Because our different groups meet on different days, a lot of the team members and participants don’t actually see each other,” Ro said, watching the crowd share food across the firelight.
“To be honest, I was feeling a bit nervous for the volunteers because I know how much work they’ve done, and there’s always that worry of: will anyone come? But seeing people from different points in our five-and-a-half-year journey has been so beautiful. You can feel the community expanding.”
The warmth of the evening also carried a clear eye toward the future that was highlighted by operations manager Harri Symes who shared details of the upcoming Horizon Project with all the attendees.
Set to launch this autumn, it will establish a paid, eight-person Youth Advisory Board to ensure participants hold real decision-making power over how the collective navigates accessibility and inclusion.
The collective is also consciously weaving softer, targeted threads into the local community, recently hosting an afternoon at their Strawberry Lane allotments for Bristol Young Carers.
“It’s so important for those wonderful people to have some time to do something that’s just for them,” noted project manager Sarah. “For young people who spend their days looking after unwell loved ones, the garden became a rare sanctuary to slow down, practice mindfulness, and plant tomatoes.”
The collective worked with nearly 350 young people this year alone
To ensure these vital spaces remain free, the collective will launch a major crowdfunding campaign on July 8, aiming to raise £40-50,000 to sustain their core programmes into the future.
It is also joining forces with 30 other grassroots organizations at the council’s Festival of Community, concluding with a gathering at City Hall on June 13, from 1-4pm, to celebrate the power of local connection.
In the end, the audience, volunteers, twilight, passing trains and embers left behind a lasting impression: in a world that feels fractured, healing might just begin by pressing our hands into the bark of a tree, listening to a story, and remembering how to grow.
All photos: Henry Wolff
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