Celebrating spring…

Saturday 13 April 2019

Jersey Heritage is holding a mini-festival at La Hougue Bie this weekend to celebrate the arrival of spring.

For this year’s La Fête Du R'Nouvé Jersey Heritage has partnered with the Jersey Biodiversity Centre team. Naturalist and Wild Play expert Stephen Les Quesne will also be sharing his skills around the campfire.

Jersey Library will be attending, with stories and crafts to spark the imagination of younger visitors, and there will be a packed programme of live, acoustic music from a host of talented musicians, as well as dancing from the Jersey Lilies. 

The festival is open between 10am–7pm today, 13 and 10am-5pm tomorrow. Entry is free to Jersey Heritage Members and children under six, with normal entry prices applying for non-Members. 

Pictured: Plate-spinning, something that proved very popular last year, will once again be one of the festival's attractions (credit - Jersey Heritage).

Parking for La Fête Du R'Nouvé is at St Michael’s School with free shuttle buses between the school and La Hougue Bie throughout the festival.

The programme for La Fête Du R'Nouvé includes: 

• Food from The Chugging Pig, Rustic Rentals and the Prosecco Van 

• Worm handling, seed planting and scavenger hunt with the Jersey Biodiversity Centre

•  Outdoor skills and forest school activities with Stephen Le Quesne 

• Jersey Bee Keepers and the Pollinator Project 

• Storytelling with puppets, crafts and virtual reality headsets with Jersey Library

• Forest bathing taster sessions with Amanda Bond 

• Face painting 

• Swing-boats and helter skelter 

• Spring-inspired crafts 

• Juggling and plate-spinning 

• Stone Age skills being demonstrated by volunteers at the Neolithic Longhouse 

• Live music from Alfie Butel, Annie Law, Brice Harris, Kacey Hacquoil, Cindy Marques, Rui & Abel and Emily Houghton, Alfie Butel, Tommy, Verity Le Brun and Eddie Lafoley.

Nicky Lucas, Jersey Heritage’s Events Curator, said: “It is beautiful at La Hougue Bie at this time of year and spring is such a special time for the site. Thousands of years ago, our Neolithic ancestors marked and celebrated the new season with the sun rising on the spring equinox and shining deep into the passage grave under the mound. It the perfect place for us to hold our own celebrations with La Fête Du R'Nouvé. Visitors can bring a rug, join us under the canopy of trees, eat, drink, listen to music, chat around the open fire and look forward to warmer weather together.”