The Tree of Light

Henley Festival takes a leading role in a major Olympic project

Henley Festival is proud to be taking a leading role in organising a major year- long project that will result in performances across the Thames Valley of a major piece of music and theatre centred on a fabulous and specially created Tree of Light. Devised by Henley Festival's Artistic Director, and with a crack team of UK artists, over 400 performers from each of Henley, Oxford, Reading and Windsor will take part in performances in June/July 2012, following an extensive education and community programme with leading tree specialists, musicians and choreographers.

Legacy Trust UK awarded a major grant to Thames Arts (Henley Festival, Oxford Inspires, Ciao! Festival and Windsor festival), a collaborative arts organisation set up to programme and promote a series of events along the River Thames as part of the Cultural Olympiad (cultural celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games) in 2012.

The Tree of Light has been selected to be one of only four 'Community Celebrations' by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to create a cultural and sporting legacy from the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. Two of the events will be in England with one in both Scotland and Northern Ireland and each will receive £750,000 towards their respective projects.

The Thames Arts Consortium is made up of the following partners: Henley Festival, CIAO! Festival, Oxford Inspires and Windsor Festival. The Tree of Light is suported with £200,000 in Arts Council England Grants for the arts funding, their open access funding scheme. The project is also strongly supported by local authorities across the Thames region.

The ten local schools and organisations taking part in the Henley area are:

1. Camilla, student at Addington Special School
   At the end of a session on Trees Under Attack and in reply to the question -
   Question"So what is the biggest attacker of trees in the world ? "
   Answer " the parents ! "
   
   
2. Student from Gillotts School, Henley at the end of an outdoors intro to trees session
   Question "What is your favourite image from the trees session?"
   Answer "The trees are standing alone above the ground, but if you could see under the ground, all the roots are entwined together and you can see that the trees are not alone, they are supporting each other and working together for the world. This is just like the Olympics with all the athletes working together in their teams and to make a better world".