This year, the ACE Monmouth Festival is taking place at various locations across town over the weekend of 23-24th September and it really does have something for everyone.

For Monmouth music lovers there will be back to back entertainment from 11 am on Sunday under the arches at Shire Hall. Monmouth REALLY has got talent and you will probably know someone in at least 1 of the choirs lined up! There will be Sparrow Singers Children’s Choir, Mayhem Youth Theatre, Savoy Youth Theatre, Monmouth Community Choir, Kingfishers Chorus Choir and The Pipers, Folk & Faith. Plus there will be poetry and readings from Margaret Iggulden, Fiona Frank and Building Bridges.

Children’s entertainers from Louby Lou will be doing 6 roaming performances up and down the high street dressed as bees - your little ones will LOVE IT! And there will be music from Kahlo-After Frida to accompany a nice mug of tea in the Nature Zone on Sunday.

Also for the children, Techniquest are coming to town and will be at Shire Hall on Sunday, while on Saturday evening at the Skate Park there is a Bat Walk at dusk and don’t let your little nature lovers miss the Big Moth Trap Reveal on Sunday morning in the Nature Zone.

For Monmouth’s young adults (16-25), there will be a Climate Cafe at 3pm on Sunday in Estero Lounge giving them a chance to share in a small group their thoughts and feelings about climate change and what it means to their futures.

The festival is overflowing with things for nature lovers and gardeners and on Saturday at The Savoy theatre, there is a Rewilding talk (11am) by three local people, covering the big scale of 80 acres down to the town garden scale. At 12.15, Dan Smith of Jamie’s Farm will talk about inspiring kids with nature and at 2pm Sarah Read, who recently walked across Spain to raise awareness of soil, will talk about eating for the planet. Also on the Sunday, Monmouthshire Meadows Group is putting on a Scything demo (11-3pm), a Wild flower walk (12 noon), and there will be a Dead Hedge demo at 2pm – all on Two River Meadows. As part of the proceedings in the Nature Zone, there will be a Bioblitz of Monmouth taking place that everyone is welcome to join, and there will be lots of nature related stalls for people to browse.

Open Garden lovers will enjoy Chelsea medal winner, Cheryl Cummings’, open garden on Saturday at 2-5pm. Her little patch in the heart of Monmouth is an example of how gardens can be beautiful whilst being great for wildlife too. The address is: 11 The Gardens, Monmouth, NP25 3HF, near the girls’ school, and teas will be served.

For the shopaholics there is the Thirft Zone at Ty Price all weekend, 1-4pm, where there are all sort of things going on, like a school uniform swap, stalls selling eco products, like those from Honeysuckle Wood and SNOAP. There will be a karaoke party too to celebrate the Sustainable Party stall and two children’s ‘buying’ workshops by Size of Wales on Saturday at 1.30pm (ages 5-8) and 3pm (ages 9-12). These will build on the fun Osbaston school children have had this year with buying to save the rainforests.

For Monmouth businesses, at The Savoy Theatre, there will be a talk by Hugo Spowers, CEO of Riversimple, who has chucked out the traditional business model and created something quite remarkable (Saturday 3.15). Hugo says they sell 'mobility as a service, not cars as a product' and that this approach incentivises them to make cars that last longer and use less resource. Hydrogen fuelling station exists in Abergavenny, and many local people are already lining up to trial this innovative car. On Sunday, you will be able to see the actual cars as part of an Eco vehicle parade outside Shire Hall!

Two local business leaders, Lisa Hicks Evans and Lorraine Allman will talk at the Savoy about how to start an eco business (Sunday 3.15) from their recent experiences, and elsewhere in the festival we have stalls from Octopus Energy, Caplor Energy, a meet the town councillors stall and a Size of Wales stall (deforestation free business).

For local farmers we have a regen ag stall and Ben Taylor Davies (Regen Ben) will be present there to answer any regen ag questions at 2pm on the Sunday, after his appearance at the Savoy in the debate. There will also be lots of suppliers of grass-fed meat and dairy, which many in Monmouth are keen to seek out and buy from.

Finally, if you are looking for ways of reducing waste then come along to the Wasteless Zone on Saturday to find out about Monmouth’s Repair Cafe or how you can borrow rarely use items from ‘Benthyg’ - the Library of Things - or see how to make your own apple juice. Tools for Self Reliance will also be there, as will the Community Fridge, Plastic Free Monmouth, Monty the Litter Monster, Transition Monmouth and MCC.

You can pick up the full programme at various retail outlets on the High Street or find a copy online on the ACE website (www.acemonmouth.org).

This is the second festival of its kind in Monmouth, and the ACE volunteers are hugely thankful to their sponsors, especially Monmouth Town Council, but also AONB Wye Valley and some personal donators.

For more info, please email [email protected].