Music plants trees!

We are delighted to announce a partnership with eco-conscious festival WONDEREST, taking place in a beautiful national park in Hungary, from 7-10th July 2022. For every festival pass sold WONDEREST will plant a tree – helping the planet regenerate through music!

Music and nature - what’s not to love? Photo by Gretchen Kessler

The festival is all about community. Photo by Gretchen Kessler

Now in its third year, WONDEREST is a very special event, bringing local and international musicians from indie-folk, neoclassical and other mainly acoustic genres into the heart of nature. First held in the Transylvanian mountains in Romania, this year the festival moves to Hungarian Őrség National Park, close to the Austrian and Slovenian borders.

“From the start this was always going to be a festival that gave back to nature,” said founder Hanna Gulyas. “I’d seen some musicians involved in amazing green initiatives and one of the first decisions I made was that there would be ‘green’ ticket options and we would plant as many trees as we can.”

WONDEREST takes place deep in nature. Photo by Gretchen Kessler

“Forests Without Frontiers is the perfect fit for us. I was excited to see that founder Nicoleta is a DJ/musician and FWF promotes music and people getting back into the community side of music, as well as being in balance with nature that surrounds us. I hope this will be a long-standing collaboration,” she added.

The moto of WONDEREST is ‘Here. Now’ and the idea is to provide festival-goers with a break from the modern world where they can live in community, in tune with nature and rooted in the present moment. “In this digital age people are losing their connection to the here and now. They are always on their phones doing something and it takes away so much from the experience. The festival provides an escape from digital noise and city life – somewhere to create memories and be immersed in slow living.”

WONDEREST grew out of a Budapest-based concert series called Garden Wonder, and with just 500 people attending it’s an intimate event. This year’s festival is based at Ispánk, a village of 111 people, in an area known for its staggering natural beauty.

The area also has historical connections to Transylvania – an interesting synergy as it’s where the roots of both WONDEREST and Forests Without Frontiers lie – and many local families have Transylvanian heritage.

Concerts will take place on an outdoor stage in the village, close to a camping area, as well as in spectacular settings nearby. There will be piano performances in the forest, sunrise concerts in fields nearby, and surprise pop-up gigs in specially-chosen sites within half an hour walk. Yoga, panel discussions and craft workshops are also on the programme.

Another unique feature of the festival is that the artists are invited for a four-day residency, staying in wooden cabins, with access to rehearsal rooms, allowing them to collaborate, come up with new ideas and write new music. So, in addition to pre-planned main stage concerts, the goal is to create unique, novel, one-off productions. “We expect the musicians to go fully creative!” said Hanna. Among confirmed artist so far are Vincent Moon from France, Meret Ester from Germany and Casper Clausen from Denmark.

WONDEREST is also collaborating with the national park guards and there will be guided hikes and workshops on local flora and fauna. The whole area is a reserve with strict rules on protecting the environment and it’s the first time the land is being opened up to this kind of event.

“It’s a privilege to be able to hold WONDEREST here,” said Hanna. “They understand that we’re here to promote the preservation of nature and connect people to nature.”

As well as aiming to be zero waste and carbon neural, WONDEREST encourages people to travel sustainably to the site. It’s easily accessible by train and various options from the station include carpooling or renting a bike for the whole time. The vegan festival kitchen will serve meals made from local, seasonal ingredients, with vegetables sourced from the organic garden of Vas County Specialized Home.

And, of course, each festival pass will plant a tree with FWF Romania project – helping reforest the Carpathian mountains and in turn boost biodiversity.

“Including the cost of planting a tree in the price of a festival pass is not a big effort but has a big impact – and it involves people in something positive,” said Hanna. “I’m surprised that I am the first in Hungary to be doing this because it doesn’t take much, a couple of phone calls or emails. I think all companies should be doing this!”

Fun in the mountains. Photo by Photo by Magdalena Kucharska

Indeed, it’s a partnership that Forests Without Frontiers is excited about.

“We’re so pleased to be partnering with this wonderful festival,” said FWF founder Nicoleta Carpineanu. “It’s exciting to see that music really can plant trees! We’re very grateful that they have chosen to work with us. We want all musicians and music-lovers to join us and become the voice of the forest!”

More information: https://linktr.ee/wonderestfestival
Ticket platform: https://tixa.hu/wonderest2022
Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/500471451546165/