At The Planting and Woodford Folk Festival, we have found so many ways to work with bamboo and in recent years have been fortunate to collaborate with a number of international artists in partnership with Sydney arts collective – Cave Urban.

We are looking forward to the second stage plantings at The Planting this festival with our three-way international partnership with Arief Rabik (from international Bamboo Foundation based in Indonesia), Nici Long (principle of Cave Urban, an artist collective in Sydney) and Woodfordia’s Executive Director, Bill Hauritz.

The partnership involves the development of a two-hectare experimental bamboo forest, as an element of an Australian-first water preservation facility on the Woodfordia site. The bamboo will grow from organic disinfected waste water together with soils created from recycled food scraps from the festival.

Around 50 clumps of bamboo have already been planted with some plants expected to grow more than 30 metres high and be used for various artworks around Woodfordia.

We are so delighted to be part of this partnership and to be applying this to our site for altruistic purpose, the creation of the bamboo industry in Australia and to continue innovative traditions of Woodfordia.

Bamboo Facts

• A mature bamboo clump can absorb 5000 litres of water and hold onto for six-eight months, gradually giving water back to top soil in the dry periods.

• Ideal for areas of radical wet and dry periods.

• One hectare of bamboo can absorb 50 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

• The 1000 Bamboo Villages Program will ultimately absorb 100 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

• The secret to bamboo’s remarkable function is the speed of its metabolism in absorbing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.

Woodfordia’s Bamboo Use: A Short History

Woodfordia has had an ever-evolving relationship with the use of bamboo in its festivals. Since 2012, Woodford Folk Festival, in partnership with Cave Urban, have created a number of large-scale sculptures using bamboo, which have existed on the festival site for up to 3 years.

When this project started, it was to supply us with incredibly cheap raw materials to build our sculptures, portable buildings, shade, fencing and many other products for festival purposes.

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If you are looking to attend The Planting Festival, make sure you secure your tickets today.

We look forward to seeing you out here.