Radical Bakers Summer Gathering 2025
Tickets are sold out for Summer Gathering 2025! You can get tickets for our 11-14th September Harvest Camp HERE.
Thursday 3rd July until Sunday 6th July 2025, at Crabapple Community near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, one of the UK’s oldest housing co-ops. Summer Gathering is a weekend filled with focused activities, along with professional bands on the Green Dragon Solar Stage. The Baker’s Arms café bar offers a delicious fully catered option. We keep our gatherings small and friendly and sell no more than 100 adult tickets. Workshops are taught by experienced and knowledgeable people and all courses are included in the ticket price.
Our workshops cover a wide range of sustainable living topics, with an emphasis on practical skills. There are around 130 hours of workshops at Summer Gathering. Streams include Green Technology, Textiles, Crafts and Nature, Self-Care and Community.
Sustainable Living Courses and Workshops in 2025
These are all the confirmed workshops for 2025. You can download this year’s Timetable HERE
- Hamilton from The Free Basketeers – Willow Basket Weaving.
- Sara from SMPTree – Upcycling Paper: Weave waste paper into functional and striking containers.
- Joey from Merched Y Berllan – Orchard Management: This year, the focus will be on Bud Grafting and Summer Pruning Techniques.
- Neil and Jayne from Forgeways – Join Forge Ways in making your very own hand brush using natural materials.
- Bob and Rose – Shelter Making and Tarp Pitching, Dehydrating Food for Walkers, Backpacking essentials.
- Sam from Scruff Stuff – Bird Language, Marvelous Mammals, Wild Play.
- Tom Cousins – Brewing Wine: Tom will be leading sessions on Harvesting for Brewing Wine and Preparing a Wine Ferment. He will also be hosting wine tasting sessions in the Baker’s Arms.
- Blake Sanders from Green Dragon – Blake will be running 2 sessions: 1. Reclaiming Lithium cells from disposable devices and talking about Lithium batteries 2. Small Scale Off Grid Solar Power Specification and Installation. See the full Green Dragon course list HERE.
- Andy Alder – DIY Hydroponics from Reclaimed Materials: Build your own hydroponic system using easily found, cheap and free items.
- Stu Watson – Gas Digesters: Stu will explain the practicalities of building and maintaining a gas digester, demonstrating a large one at Crabapple.
- Seggy Segeran – Small Scale Solar Power: A beginner-friendly session introducing the basics of solar power. Jane and Seggy will also be running the popular Rocket Stove Race!
- Dave Hainsworth – Basic Electrical Safety for Live-in vehicles, boats, event sites and domestic. Lead-acid battery problems, cable sizing & types.
- Nic Miners – Quilting and bag making.
- Natural Spinning and Dyeing with Stella Berg – Spinning and dyeing yarns and making textiles. How natural dyeing is done with British yarns (nettles, hemp, linen, wool). Carding and spinning, with spindles and on the wheel, learning to produce a strong yarn that can be knitted or woven.
- Sarah Bracken – Felting: Wet felted vessels.
- Lisa Moomin – The Art of Crochet with guided instruction from the Moomin-Mama and a session on Macrame!
- Sophie DéPas – Needlepoint: Learn the basics of needlepoint and create your own intricate designs.
- Cat Anson – Darning: Fed up with holey socks and woolies? Come learn how to mend them with Darning. Cat will also be running a wood and bramble session to make a children’s toy (adults only).
- Sandra Jones – Felted soaps.
- Ryan and Catherine from Knight-Fox Wild About Learning – Wild Plant Herbal First Aid and Tool Sharpening.
- Christine Conroy – How to Look After Your Back and Body.
- Stella Berg – Dentistry.
- Lucy Aphramor – Lucy will be leading a discussion around diet, nutrition, body image and public health entitled Nutrition for Self-care and Social Justice.
- Edwina Hodkinson BSc(Hons) MNIMH Medical Herbalist – Edwina will be sharing her knowledge of Herbalism and complementary medicine focusing on the Menopause.
- Eleri Varney – Herb Walks around Crabapple Grounds.
- Kit Acott – Travelling Botanical Garden. Kit will talk about the cultivation of medicinal herbs.
Community
- Andy Alder – Sustainable Businesses: Learn strategies for transitioning towards a more sustainable, lower-cost, and lower-impact lifestyle.
- Jinny Sanders – Bulk Bread Baking Sessions and the Radical Bake-Off!: Participate in group bread baking sessions and compete in the bake-off!
- Jane Segeran – Haybox Cooking: Learn how to cook using an energy-efficient haybox.
- Julie Moss – Storytelling Circle each evening after the evening meal. Julie will be making space to tell stories, and telling a few of her own.
- Pete Linnel – The One Planet Development Scheme in Wales: The OPD Scheme, its purpose and the application process.
Crafts and Nature
Green Technology
Textiles
Nic and Sarah from Sew in Tents are running our textiles area this year. There will be various activities and drop-in sessions as well as the scheduled workshops.
Self-Care
A detailed timetable is available before the event, with an updated version posted on the chalkboard outside the Café. Some things fill up very quickly and only have limited spaces, our only advice is get here early! You can arrive from Thursday midday. The Gathering Introduction is Thursday at 8pm with live music, a bar and a relaxed atmosphere where you can meet people and unwind ready for the focused workshops. We really like people to come to this and stay for the weekend. The workshops begin on Friday 11am, with live music from 9pm. Saturday workshops start at 9am and run until 4pm. In the evening, test your animal knowledge with an Animal Quiz, followed by live music, a bar until midnight and a communal fire with acoustic tunes until 1am. Sunday workshops start at 10am, finishing at 5pm. Wind down with pizza from 6-8pm and the RB Cabaret and Open-mic on Sunday evening. You’re welcome to stay until 2pm on Monday.
Alongside scheduled workshops, enjoy the Baking Area, Camp Market, Bands, the Animal Quiz and tours of Crabapple. We also offer two daily sessions of organised children’s activities with Alicia, a Kid’s Baking Session with Jinny, and the Camp Games, including the Lemon Jousting Tournament and Rocket Stove Race. Don’t miss the popular Radical Bake-Off competition for the best sweet treats!
Our workshops involve practical skills and provide useful information to enhance your life and the lives of those around you. The Radical Bakers Workshops Archive offers a glimpse into past workshops with photos and links.
Music at Radical Bakers Summer Gathering 2025
On the Green Dragon Stage, we are delighted to host talented musicians and entertainers who bring their professional skills and passionate performances to our event. Radical Bakers features quality live music in the evenings and we would love it if you could make it to these chances to meet everyone.
- Thursday
- 21:00 My Mate Dave are an acoustic female fronted four piece, combining upcycled folk, vaudeville, pop and close harmony. They play banjo, uke, fiddle and flute with four voices. Their music is mostly self-written and they draw influences from gypsy folk to 70’s glam rock and back again, with a nod to balladeers and minstrels of times past on the way. The result is an interesting mix of original music, with a few reworked familiar songs, some as acapella pieces with four part harmony.
- 22:00 Lunabarge – a double-stomping, energetic, uplifting, indie-folk duo. Armed with banjo, guitar, ukulele, 2 voices and 2 stomp boxes, they like to find the little things in life that make it worth living and encapsulate them in their catchy original songs.
- Friday
- 21:00 Mal Webb & Kylie Morrigan – Vocal adventurer, multi-instrumentalist and looping beatboxing songwriter Mal sings his brain provoking songs using all sorts of vocal techniques, guitar, mbira, slide trumpet, trombone, chromatic harmonica and a loop recording pedal called Derek. Kylie provides violin and voice in a perfect balance to Mal’s nutsness. Their arrangements are intricate and playful. Imagine Einstein, Dr Seuss and Paganini making pancakes… All their songs and videos on www.malwebb.com/MalAndKy.
- 22:00 Formidable Vegetable! – Charlie Mcgee, Mal Webb & Kylie Morrigan. Australian permaculture elecro-funk/swing for crushing the climate crisis and composting the Anthropocene, Formidable Vegetable are a fresh harvest of hope in a wild and overgrown world. Wheelbarrow-loads of tasty organic rad(ish) beets, brass & bass, soaring strings and swingin uke planting seeds of resilience and active hope for a sound future. Formidable Vegetable, originally inspired by the principles of permaculture, deliver a simple message of community resilience and ecological restoration. Check out loads of great videos on their Youtube or on formidablevegetable.com.au
- 19:00 The Birds and Beasts Animal Quiz: Explore and evolve your animal knowledge. Like a pub quiz with music, pop culture and history but every single question has an animal connection.
- 20:30 Leo Brazil – Before you ask, it’s not a stage name! Leo Brazil has been writing and recording his own music since he was a child singing into a tape machine. As well as drawing on his love for classic pop, rock and roll and soul, Leo draws inspiration from animals with songs that connect personal emotions and experiences with stories from the natural world.
- 21:30 Mary Moden Band
- 22:30 – Muddy Summers and the DFWs – Feistyfolkpunkpop… Video for Get off my tits!. 2023 album on Bandcamp: muddysummers.bandcamp.com/album/seeing-seeds. 2025 album on Bandcamp: One Foot in Front of the Other.
- 21:00 Radical Bakers Cabaret then Open Mic and Sing-along…
- Saturday
- Sunday
The Green Dragon Solar Stage uses top-quality modern PA equipment and is powered from the sun. The amplified music ends at midnight. Our Music Archive has links to lots of the past bands at RB.
You can download this year’s Timetable HERE
With your ticket, you will have access to camping facilities in our beautiful meadow surrounded by trees. There is a designated quiet camping area for those who prefer a more peaceful environment, as well as a more accessible camping area. Clean, working composting toilets, and a shower, will be available on-site, but please do not expect Glamping, the field can be muddy and uneven.
Campervans are welcome, with no restrictions on awning size. However, there are no hookups (go solar) and nowhere to empty chemical toilets.
Please consider your travel options and car-share if possible. You can find our lift-sharing facebook group HERE.
Buy tickets for Radical Bakers Summer Gathering 2025.
Radical Bakers Summer Gathering, 3-6th July 2025, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Securely purchase your tickets using credit or debit cards via PayPal. Ticket prices cover booking fees, car parking, camping, and access to all workshops and entertainment. If you have any questions not addressed on our Info page, please feel free to email us at radicalbakersgathering@gmail.com. For details about our fully catered option, click Here. Prior to purchasing tickets, kindly review our Terms and Conditions & Safer Spaces policies to ensure you can adhere to them. We have decided to allow a limited number of dogs with a bond. Dog Ticket conditions here. Please note that we do not offer day tickets or tickets on the gate. If the ticket you seek is not listed below, it is either sold out or not yet available for sale.
There are only 100 adult places in 2025. Click ‘add to basket’ once for each ticket required and then click ‘view basket‘ to checkout.