Exciting and important news! Just So Festival will be moving away from Barnswood in 2012.
Message from the Festival Organisers............... 

As I’m sure many of you are aware the rhododendrons at Barnswood are very poorly and are not getting better. They have ‘Phytophthora Ramorum’, a disease which effects only plants and trees but in particular rhododendrons of which Barnswood has so very many. Unfortunately the decision has been made by DEFRA to remove all of the rhodedendrons, which make up so very much of the structure of the site. Much though we love Barnswood, we don’t feel that this very different landscape will be right for the magical and enchanting environment that is so central to the festival, and the practicalities of putting on the festival during such major work would, anyway, be very difficult. We are as you can imagine, very sad and disappointed to have to leave what has been such an inspiring and beautiful environment.

We are very excited though, to have found an equally special new home for Just So Festival – the wonderful woods and grounds of Rode Hall Parkland, near Scholar Green (just 10 miles from Barnswood).

Rode Hall Parkland is a beautiful, natural environment, with lots of mysterious woodland for us to transform and explore, beautiful parkland for camping, and a great lake. There are, of course (you know us), tons of secret and enchanting nooks, crannies and corners just waiting for us to turn into a fantastical playground for the whole family to explore and enjoy together.

Glade campers, we searched high and low for a site which was perfect for the festival, and also had glades, but it just hasn’t been possible (and my goodness we have hunted!) Camping at Rode Hall certainly won’t be on anonymous fields though! There is plenty of beautiful parkland for camping, where you will be able to spread out and camp with your friends as at Barnswood. One great bonus of the parkland camping (especially for small legs and weary armed parents), is that campers will be able to drive round and drop their gear by the camping areas before parking.

If you came to Just So in 2011, we hope that you felt, as we did, that the numbers of families were just right for the festival to feel exciting, but so very safe for young families and for older children to have some freedom. We have no plans to increase capacity now or in the future.
If you have already purchased tickets for Just So Festival 2012, you will already have received an email with this information, so do check your inbox.
We feel that Rode Hall really brings something extra to the festival and we plan for this to be our new home for many years to come. We’ll be posting lots of photos on the website very soon so that you can see where we’re going.

If you any questions or worries at all about the move, just drop us a line to [email protected] and we’ll get straight back to you.
We’ve lots of exciting bits of programming, great acts, workshops and vendors, already in place, and will very shortly be releasing details to whet your appetite.