Reforest Fest: Restoration Celebration, Easter Weekend 2023

Pioneering “fun environmentalism”, Greenpop will once again be hosting this innovative fusion of tree planting and play at the Reforest Fest 2023.

Back for its 11th year over the Easter weekend 7-10 April 2023, at Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat situated in the Overberg, the Greenpop Reforest Fest is an annual restoration celebration that brings people together to plant thousands of trees, while partying for the planet and reconnecting to the beauty and abundance of nature and community.

It’s a festival for everyone and whether you celebrate Easter or not, there is much to be grateful for over this long weekend. Help restore degraded land; attend workshops, talks & classes.

Celebrate under the stars with local live music & DJ’s and delight in the wholesome food village.

Where creativity meets participation, join in the diverse array of entertainment with interactive art & theatre for the whole family - all whilst having a blast getting active for the environment.

The stunning surroundings of Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat welcome explorers to its milkwood forests and fynbos trails. New this year is our exciting Tented Village, featuring luxury-fitted bell tents and pre-erected Kartents - fully-equipped 2-person cardboard tents, to suit all budgets and preferences.

What you can expect

There will be many exciting activities to look forward to at this year’s Reforest Fest that serve everyone's interests. Guests can look forward to live music from local South African artists, bands and DJs who are sure to get you swaying to the beat. Jeremy Loops is headlining this year’s Reforest Fest! Greenpop’s very own co-founder and internationally acclaimed South-African artist, Jeremy Loops, will be shaking up the stage with his looping talents as well as adding something unique to this performance with some throwbacks to some of his greats from his early days and adding some personal story telling too! Other artists to look forward to include Majozi, Josh Riley (from Grassy Spark), Genevieve Lee, The Flintstones, Jews For Techno and Qondéa Avril Mkansi.

Reforest Fest is a family-friendly event, so bring your little ones along for the fun. Child-friendly activities include an Easter Egg Hunt hosted by Honest Chocolate and an interactive, plastic-free kids zone curated by Nature Plays - Forest School, where children can enjoy craft and interactive play, art, citizen science and dress-up games. Nannies and facilitators will be available to care for the little ones while dads and moms can attend other workshops.

Adults have the opportunity to indulge in chocolate and wine pairings hosted by Honest Chocolate where they can experience locally made vino from the Agulhas area and furtherafield, which are sure to tantalise the senses. Wellness activities range from yoga to movement classes, where people can relax and unwind surrounded by the beauty of the Uilenkraal Valley and Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat.

Our Easter Sunday Harvest Feast is an event where everyone can connect. It includes an incredible picnic-style lunch created by Chef Bridget Bartlement - a long-term resident of the Overberg, who works as a private chef for some of the Overberg finest establishments and Lodges. She is passionate about providing great dining experiences with ethically-sourced food.

The harvest menu will include delectable dishes, such as: Fynbos goat cheese-cake with figs, wild mushroom and pine arancini balls, Klein river smoked cheese trinket and Klein river Danbo, to name but a few. In addition, those that join in the feast will also get to pair the many dishes with an assortment of wines being served up at the festival.

Conservation Wine Champion Tent

At Greenpop’s Reforest Fest 2022, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) hosted a wine tasting with four very special wine farms, namely: Lomond Wines, LOST BOY: Wines for the Wild, Boland Cellar and Spier. Our aim was to shift the narrative around South African wine culture, creatively exploring these nature-based and regenerative wine farms by celebrating their wine through a multi-sensory tasting experience. The space encouraged wine makers and tasters to interact in a way less conventional, allowing for the wines to be poured by all, and bringing the essence of sharing, and exploring flavours, through conversation and sampling across farms.

In 2023 Greenpop and WWF Conservation Wines are partnering up to create a space celebrating local wines and wines that are on their conservation journey. The aim is to educate guests about choosing wines that support conservation efforts. This experience will feature Warwick Wine Estate, Boland Cellar, Strandveld Vineyards, Skipskop Wines and LOST BOY: Wines for the Wild to curate a number of unique experiences. The wine space will give festival goers the opportunity to savour an assortment of delicious wine, and speak to the winemakers about their conservation and biodiversity journey while enjoying the flavours of nature. We plan
to have several wines from local and further afield. Wines will be paired with flavour experiences to heighten the journey and give a taste anchor from which to better understand their sensory experience – from spices, to grasses, to all things weird and wonderful – we want to explore those flavors to their depths. More than this, we will be exploring, through conversation, the various conservation efforts underway by the wine farms involved. WWF Conservation Wines will also be there, educating the public on their wine choices and providing perspective surrounding what the wine industry can do for good, to encourage more conscious and informed consumer purchases.

In addition Honest Chocolate a locally sourced, organic dark chocolate brand that strives for ethical dark chocolate production will be doing a wine and chocolate tasting. Join us in exploring pockets of flavour as we pair delicious conservation red wines with dark chocolate moments. More about the wines on offer and what the farms are up to:

Skipskop Wines:

Skipskop wines is a boutique Overberg wine cellar specialising in hand-crafted wines from their vineyards located both within Napier and against the Swartberg mountains in the Klein Karoo close to Ladismith. Their ethos is to create low sulphur fine wines with minimum interventions.

Both vineyards are irrigated by natural leiwater that sources from the surrounding mountains.

Boland Cellar

Boland Cellar, situated in the heart of South Africa's Boland region near the town of Paarl, has a sustainable story to tell – a story of hope for generations to come. Boland Cellar, who is one of Greenpop’s pledge partners, is an award winning wine producer which originated in Paarl.

Boland was established when French Hugenot farmers settled in the Western Cape, and believed that through collaborative efforts, they could create better wine, and build South Africa’s burgeoning wine industry.

Boland Cellar has a primary focus on doing collaboration work and they do not just “produce wine”, but rather they use it as a tool to plough back into South Africa's ecosystems. As a winery they take their custodianship of nature very seriously and that is why all of their farming practices are adopted and executed with one goal in mind – environmentally sustainable wine grape production. Water-saving strategies, a focus on soil health and soil preparation, and biological pest control are some of the actions that help us to reach this objective.

Through their involvement with Greenpop’s Forests for Life programme, Boland Cellar is working to preserve the habitat of honey bees through reforestation. This is not only crucial to ensure the future viability of agricultural crops, but also helps to offset carbon emissions and create healthy biodiversity. It is a key tool for Boland Cellar and its consumers to walk the talk on environmental sustainability – wine that makes a real difference! The need is great and the need is now and so are the opportunities with the right partners to make a difference. Join our hands and invest in a greener future.

Strandveld Vineyards

Strandveld Vineyards is Africa’s southernmost winery and vineyard situated near the tempestuous southern tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas, in the fledgling Elim wine ward. This area is characterised by constant cooling Atlantic winds which together with rocky mineral soils shape the distinctive cool climate wines of Strandveld Vineyards.

While some may lament the fierce winds, rolling sea mists and cool temperatures, these are the foundation for growing the grapes that make the distinctive terroir driven Strandveld wines. The vines used for these wines contend with the same tempestuous elements as did the early

Portuguese sailors.

Today they have 70 hectares of vineyard, which due to the terroir is focused on Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Pinot noir with smaller plantings of Semillon, Viognier, Grenache and Mourvedre for blending. All the wine is produced in the modern cellar on the farm.

Strandveld Vineyards also forms part of a collective-initiative consisting of 25 private landowners and local communities referred to as the Nuwejaars Wetlands special management area (SMA).

Aimed at sustainably overseeing protection of the precious wetlands and their indigenous populations, this unique conservation model has already seen some 46000 hectares of critically endangered habitat on the Agulhas Plain now being used sustainably. In addition, this conservation model is also in in accordance with triple bottom line principles, with the main aim being to find balance between environmental integrity, human well-being and economic efficiency within the area. Hand-in-hand with these conservation efforts are sustainable farming practices, all of which lend themselves to the protection of endangered plants and animals whilst ensuring food security.

As a proud member of the Biodiversity & amp; Wine Initiative (BWI), Strandveld Vineyards aims to conserve and integrate delicate fynbos ecosystems surrounding the vineyards. Integral in the farm’s commitment to protecting natural habitat was the removal of Port Jackson trees along the waterways and the successful eradication of 59 ha of invasive Pine trees.

Buffer zones between crops are now found flourishing with an abundant range of flora, and aflutter with a wide variety of bird and insect life.

LOST BOY: Wines for the Wild

LOST BOY Wines is a boutique, natural wine label crafted by retired American professional cyclist Trevor DeRuisé in the cool-climate Cape Agulhas wine region. With LOST BOY, DeRuisé focuses on dry, elegant, and Provence-inspired rosé wines with an unwavering commitment to wildlife conservation. With each bottle of LOST BOY sold, a R50 contribution to a partnered wildlife conservation is made. From the vineyard, to the cellar, to the wine shop - protecting the beautiful environment and ecosystem these wines come from is the ultimate goal.

Warwick Wine Estate

Long before the fruit farm, and long before the Ratcliffe family, this little piece of the planet held greatness in its very soil. And more than just being part of our ‘history’, this land is our heritage. Warwick has a rich range of cultivars on the estate, the quality of our wines is owed as much to the elements and environment as it is to the vineyard and cellar teams. We strive to work the land in a way that maintains a balance between the biodiversity that nature has gifted us, and the vines that produce grapes for our wines. This not only extends to our practises of sowing cover crops such as lupins and radishes to naturally uplift soil compaction, and promote microbial activity, but we also seek to use water as sparingly as possible. We refrain from using harmful insecticides, employing natural predators instead. In short, we seek to achieve long-term harmony, rather than short-term gains.

It may be admirable to produce a wine like our Trilogy, that can outlast a generation. But it’s essential to preserve our environment to outlast us all.

Fun Health Facts About Red Wine and Dark Chocolate:

Besides tasting delicious, red wine and dark chocolate both promote increased levels of endorphins, dopamine and serotonin within the body, which are the primary chemicals associated with feelings of happiness. Thus, red wine and dark chocolate paired together will
bring about feelings of calmness and contentment, while reducing anxiety and stress.

Studies have found that drinking red wine and eating dark chocolate, has many positive health benefits, especially for your heart health. Dark chocolate is found to “[...] better blood circulation,lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels and a lower risk for stroke”.

This lowering in blood pressure levels allows the feelings of relaxation to kick in. Similarly the antioxidants in red wine have the same positive health benefits, with the added benefits of preventing coronary artery disease, protecting the lining of blood vessels in the heart, preventing blood vessels from being damaged, reducing bad cholesterol and preventing any formations of blood clots.

About the Agulhas Wine Triangle

The Agulhas Wine Triangle (AWT) was established in 2019 as a non-profit company to showcase the wines, tourism and natural beauty of the Agulhas area. The Agulhas area’s harmony with nature is reflected in the rich biodiversity of flourishing flora, abundant birdlife,
protected wetlands and great white sharks roaming the ocean.

The region is raw and honest. Within the windswept plains, there is resilience and serenity. The people from Agulhas and the surrounding areas have made a choice to be there; they are the custodians of both nature and agriculture. The wind sweeps in from across the ocean and cools down the region.

The maritime climate and cool ocean winds result in lower yields and gradual ripening of the grapes which means that the wines from the AWT show a very distinctive common theme of elegance, with concentrated flavour and depth. The AWT members represent the region’s favourite wineries: Black Oystercatcher Wines, Ghost Corner, Land’s End, Strandveld Vineyards, The Giant Periwinkle, Zoetendal Vineyards and Trizanne Signature Wines from the Elim wine ward; Sijnn Wines from Malgas; Olivedale Private Vineyards from Swellendam;

Lomond from Cape Agulhas; The Berrio, The Drift Estate, Skipskop Wines, and Fortes Family Wines from Napier.

About Conservation Champions | WWF South Africa

please can you include a write up here on the Conservation Champions.

kmaharaj@wwf.org.za

The WWF Conservation Champion wine farms are environmental leaders in SA's wine industry who are collaborating with WWF to tackle their shared environmental risks, protect conservation-worthy land as well as reduce their water usage and implement energy-efficient solutions. Through a voluntary membership model, WWF works with the farms whose landowners commit to biodiversity-friendly and regenerative farming practices.

WWF supports

these 58 farms in their environmental efforts by co-developing detailed environmental management plans, setting tangible targets and helping them to prioritise actions to address their most pressing environmental risks.In exchange for their commitment to nature and
adhering to WWF's high standards, the Conservation Champions can use the distinctive sugarbird and protea logo on their wine bottles so consumers can make an informed choice to support our environmental wine leaders! To find out more, @FollowtheSugarbird on Instagram and download the Champion Wine Farm guide App which lists the Conservation Champions and highlights the different experiences on offer for the whole family to enjoy - much more than just wine tasting! WWF Champion Wine Guide App - Download for iOS and Android.

#followthesugarbird

The Festival’s history

Since 2011, Greenpop’s biggest tree planting event of the year has always been the Reforest Fest! By facilitating attendees to plant between 5,000 and 10,000 indigenous trees each year, this event contributes towards Greenpop's Uilenkraal Forest Restoration Project which aims to restore degraded forest patches at the Platbos Forest Reserve and Bodhi Khaya Nature
Retreat. So far, the project has planted a total of 105,645 trees, restoring forest habitat and furthermore helping to preserve and expand a forest that is home to many incredible, often endangered, species including the Cape leopard and honey badger.

This year, they will continue their important work at Bodhi Khaya, located 2.5 hours drive away from Cape Town in the Overberg region. Greenpop’s planting efforts in the Overberg valley are growing and they will be planting trees in pockets of previously forested land, as part of a broader ecosystem restoration management plan in development by the Walker Bay Fynbos Conservancy.

Greenpop aims to grow the Reforest Fest into a flagship event that attracts a global audience as Africa’s largest citizen-led restoration festival.

Join Greenpop’s tree-planting festival and help celebrate the age of restoration!

See event images here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qQmzoAY5cvIezRjo0TmcVjD-PBbx-FHJ?usp=share_link

Buy your tickets here

www.reforestfest.com

Reforest Fest: celebrating the age of restoration
#RFF23 #ReforestFest