Flow in the Forest Maker Weekend at iFarm

Flow in the Forest 2026 - Production and Maker Weekend at iFarm

At the end of May, Flow in the Forest set up temporary production for this year's event at iFarm, a community permaculture space in Blo Norton on the Norfolk–Suffolk border.

For us, this was more than just finding somewhere to make things. It felt like the right place to begin turning ideas into physical objects, because iFarm is built around many of the same values that Flow in the Forest shares and is trying to grow: community, shared work, practical creativity, care for the land, and care for the people who are coming together with shared purpose.

iFarm is run by Ikigai Farm Limited, a Community Benefit Society. It is not set up for private profit in the usual sense. Its purpose is to hold land, buildings and community resources in a way that benefits local people, rather than letting them disappear into private ownership. Members of iFarm include nurses, architects, teachers, farmers, artists, engineers, brewers, carers and many others, with the idea that everyone has something useful to offer and every voice has value.

That sits very closely alongside what Flow in the Forest is trying to become. Flow in the Forest is a company limited by guarantee, which means it has been set up without shareholders and is not built around extracting profit for private owners. Our purpose is to create a sustainable home for the fire and flow arts community: a place where people can learn, practise, teach, perform, share skills, build confidence, make connections and help support the community to raise the standard of safety in the fire and flow arts in the UK.

At its heart, Flow in the Forest is about participation rather than spectatorship. We are not trying to create a polished event that people simply consume. We are trying to build a living community space where people bring something of themselves: their skills, their care, their creativity, their labour, their experience and their willingness to support one another.

A big part of iFarm’s story is The White Horse in Thelnetham. A few years ago, the pub was at risk of being lost and turned into housing. Instead, the community rallied around it. Now, under iFarm’s stewardship, it has become much more than a pub. It is an award winning social point in the heart of the village, with great Wi-Fi with the intention of providing a warm space to work, with local ales and ciders, food vendors, open mics, folk nights, meet-up Mondays, coffee mornings, seasonal events and a genuine sense that people can come in, connect and belong.

That matters. Rural loneliness is real for all age ranges, and spaces like this are becoming harder to protect. iFarm exists to respond to that by creating places where people can share food, share skills, care for the land, grow local resilience and keep important community assets in community hands.

So when Flow in the Forest needed a place to begin our production and maker work for 2026 and beyond, being offered space at iFarm felt like a natural fit. Both projects are rooted in the idea that community is something you make together. Both are trying to protect spaces where people can belong, contribute and grow. Both understand that land, culture, skills and gathering places become stronger when they are shared, cared for and kept in the hands of the people who use them.

Our first maker weekend brought together 13 crew members from across the UK, including returning members of last year’s production team, Rachel and Maria. Other returning crew — Emily, Ptony, Dominic and Maja — were also there to help hold the wider vision, keep the work coherent, and make sure everyone on site was looked after, while still leaving space for people’s ideas, skills and creativity to shape what we made.

We were also joined by newcomers Rudi, Roshni, Jen, Ruth, Hannah and a few members of the iFarm community, who brought great company, creative input and a really wonderful energy to the weekend.

Maja did a beautiful job stepping into a directing role for the weekend, helping guide the artists, makers and crew into a shared plan that respected everyone’s input. That energy went into renovating the bar that was used at Café in the Clouds last year, giving it a new life and a new story for Flow in the Forest.

Rachel was brilliant to have there, bringing creative input and an infectious enthusiasm that helped lift the whole process. Ruth brought professional experience and a steady sense of direction, helping shape how the work was managed overall. And Roshni’s contribution of a frog somehow made the whole thing pop.

Jen also lent their fabulous skills to revamping the dipping stations and helping us shape the vision for the fire space DJ booth, which we are building out of a reclaimed summerhouse. It is exactly the kind of practical, imaginative reuse we love: taking something that might otherwise be forgotten and turning it into a feature with character, purpose and a bit of magic.

And this is only the beginning. At the next maker weekend, we will be working on giant dream catchers, bunting, mural panels and other art pieces for the site. There will be plenty to make, paint, build, fix, carry, decorate and figure out together.

The more hands, ideas and skills, the merrier. Our next session will run from 26th to 29th June. If you would like to get involved, email production@flowintheforest.com with the subject line: FitF 26: I’d like to help and get involved!

There are a few little easter eggs hidden on the bar, and we still have another stage of details and finishing touches to add. We cannot wait for the big reveal at this year’s Flow in the Forest: Flow and Fire Arts Festival this September and to get your feedback on our work.

The site has no mains power yet, so there were a few practical challenges. But that also became part of the charm of it. We cooked on gas, shared communal meals, worked through the heatwave, roasted gently in the sun, and cooled off in the local brook... less like swimming, more paddling and dangling our feet in the water while enjoying the summer sunshine and cooling off from the heat.

At night, the owls made themselves known. They had a lot to say, and did not seem especially enamoured with their temporary human neighbours. During the day, cuckoos could be heard across the land. We also met the fabulous Marle, the farm cat, who came with the land and has clearly accepted a senior role in site supervision.

The land itself is full of life: wild and native plants, trees and grasses, all growing into their own patterns. It has been given space to become wilder, and now it needs hands, care and human energy to help it reach the next stage. Solar power is being installed, water is arriving, and the bones of something really special are already there.

On the first night, we also discovered that the field is home to a very striking cinnabar moth. We immediately decided it looked like a very “circus” moth, with its bold colours and theatrical little presence.

That moth became part of the artwork on the bar. Then we discovered that the caterpillar of the cinnabar moth is also beautifully circus-coded: orange-yellow and black striped, almost like it had dressed itself for the festival. It lives on ragwort, and because of the plant it feeds on, predators tend to learn quite quickly that it is not a snack worth repeating. Bright, beautiful, bold, a little bit mischievous, a little bit dangerous, very hard not to love, and (hopefully) impossible to ignore. Very circus, very Flow in the Forest.

So now naturally the bar has a name to honour this: The Cinnabar.

And, because these things have a way of becoming part of the mythology of a place, if we ever have a tavern of any kind, it will be called The Moth and Caterpillar, in honour of being welcomed onto the land and allowed to use the space.

There is something special about making things together before an event. You get conversations that would never happen in a meeting. People share tools, ideas and experience. You begin to become a team, learning how to cohabit and co-create before the event has even started. Someone who came to help with one job ends up solving another problem entirely. A pile of materials slowly becomes something useful. The event starts to feel real.

That is part of the intention behind Flow in the Forest. We are not only trying to build a community around flow arts and fire spinning themselves, but also to develop the wider skillsets needed to support a vibrant, creative and resilient community. To make something really special, you need more than performers. You need artists, makers, stage managers, painters, lighting people, creative directors, audio nerds, DJ's and producers who understand the needs of flow and fire artists, builders, cooks, problem-solvers, organisers, admins, marketing, cheerleaders, funders, decorators, drivers, caretakers, first aiders, attendees and so much more.

A festival is not just what happens on stage or in the workshop spaces. It is the result of many different people bringing what they can, learning from each other, and choosing to build something together. This is exactly the kind of culture we want Flow in the Forest to grow from and for you to be part of creating.

We want the festival to reflect the care, skill and imagination of the people involved in it. The maker weekend was part of that: a practical step towards a more handmade, community-built event, where people are not just attending something but helping shape it.

It also gave us a chance to build a stronger relationship with iFarm and the community they are building. Their work around permaculture, local food, rural connection, loneliness, asset protection and community resilience sits beautifully alongside our own aims around creativity, sustainability, skill-sharing and participation. Different projects, different focus, but very similar roots.

iFarm needs help too. Not just our help clearing tents and helping skin the polytunnels, but real human community power. People willing to show up, lend a hand, share skills, learn, build, clear, grow, cook, fix, plant, listen and be part of bringing the space into its next chapter.

If that sounds like something you would like to be involved in, you can find out more and join iFarm here: https://www.ifarm.org.uk/#join

We are very grateful to iFarm for welcoming us and giving us space to begin this part of the build. The maker weekend reminded us that festivals do not just happen on the weekend they open. They are made slowly, by many hands, through trust, friendship, mistakes, problem-solving, shared meals, cups of tea, late finishes, and people choosing to show up.

Small events and community projects survive because people decide to be part of the solution. It is easy to stand at the edge and criticise, but much harder to turn up, lend a hand, get muddy, problem-solve, carry things, cook food, fix what is broken, and keep going come rain or shine. That is the spirit we want Flow in the Forest to grow from: not perfection, not polished corporate production, but real people doing the work together because they believe in what can be built.

If you would like to help build Flow in the Forest and be part of the making process, we would love to hear from you. Email production@flowintheforest.com with the subject line: FitF 26: I’d like to help and get involved!

This is the kind of event we are trying to build.

Handmade. Community-led. A little bit feral. And full of heart.