We were delighted that the Green and Whitegold Festival of Clay, Gardens returned to St Austell on Saturday 26th June and was a huge success with satellite events taking place around St Austell Bay throughout June and July.

The Green and Whitegold Festival programme showcased what makes the St Austell area so special – highlighting the strong horticulture (green) connection with the famous sub-tropical gardens close-by and its unique China Clay (whitegold) heritage.

We brought an array of activities to St Austell to celebrate what a special place this is – but also to help safely reconnect our community after the challenging months of lockdown.

There was an exciting and diverse range of things to see, do and hear, including a choice of hands-on workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, live music and roaming street performance, walks and talks.

We selected some fantastic traders selling seeds, plants and ceramic crafts, interspersed with representatives of local attractions and projects passionate about horticulture, biodiversity, public art, ceramic and clay culture.

Take a deeper dive into the programme of events here on our festival 2021 pages or download a PDF events programme here.

TOWN CENTRE AS A GALLERY

The unveiling of the new Whitegold art trail, transforms the town into a public art gallery – and has been two years in the making.  This exciting milestone in the Austell Project’s journey will showcase specialist ceramic artworks created especially for the town, by leading and world-famous artists.

Read about the temporary exhibitions installed across town from Whitegold Prize artists and celebrated local makers for the event.

Find out more

TALKS & DEMOS

We watched live ‘open air’ horticulture and ceramic craft demos, inspired by some of the skills and techniques used by expert makers and growers.

Find out more

HANDS ON WORKSHOPS

We Built a ‘Tree of Life’, decorated a Raku tea bowl, made an embossed tile, picked up some flower arranging tips…  all part of the creative activities throughout the day!

For the full workshop programme Find out more

LIVE MUSIC & PERFORMANCE

St Austell town centre became alive with performance-parkour, White River and Clay Country inspired stories, song and dance.

For the full programme Find out more

WALKS & FIELD TRIPS

The walks and field trips were hugely popular, those taking part took in some of St Austell Bay’s spectacular views on our clay country walks. Learnt more about St Austell’s clay heritage, what delicious edibles the land has to offer and met new friends and walked for our wellbeing.

For information on walks and field trips Find out more

GREEN & WHITEGOLD STALLS

Browse through our Green and Whitegold trader and information stalls, a host of stalls attended on the day; from local businesses and people passionate about gardening, growing, sustainability and biodiversity to high quality craftspeople and ceramic craft sellers.

Learn more about some of our partner organisations and projects, with stalls and activities from Wheal Martyn Clay Works, The Eden Project, Heligan and Cornwall College.

Find out more

SPIN OUT, SPIN IN

We offered a wealth of co-curated activities taking place across St Austell Bay in partnership with our local friends and colleagues. From our experimental brickworks at Blackpool Pit, a trip to Wheal Martyn Clay Works for a tour around the museum and to take in Kurt Jackson’s exhibition of paintings inspired by Clay Country.

The town centre’s historic Market House and Holy Trinity Church opened their doors and joined in to make the offer to festival visitors even bigger and better than before.

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HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Thank you to the team of enthusiastic and dedicated local volunteers to who helped make the Green and Whitegold Festival a huge success.  Volunteers help contribute to a vibrant atmosphere whilst keeping visitors happy and safe; enabling everyone to enjoy the festival to the full.

To join our team in for future events Find out more

A SAFE EVENT

All this year’s festival activities were run in line with existing Covid-19 guidance.  All relevant precautions and health and safety measures were taken to ensure your comfort, and to maximise your enjoyment of the festival.

Find out more

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Our busy Festival Hub in South Square, White River Place PL25 5AZ became home to the Austell Project information hub, a meeting place for the Whitegold art trail guided tour and a point where you could pick up a programme and find out what was going on where.

St Austell town centre is well served by public transport and has plenty of parking should you come by car.