TreeFest 2022

Treefest 2022 was a huge success with more trees, more visitors and more choirs. It was wonderful to see the church full of smiling happy faces as they enjoyed the creativity on show and the church full of glorious music. 61 trees, were entered by local charities, children’s groups, church groups, businesses and individuals, with lots from new organisations. Many regular participants were unable to take part this year due to staff shortages or lack of volunteers to decorate their trees. The winning tree was from Respiratory Physiology department of the North Bristol NHS Trust .. congratulations to them!


Visitor numbers were 4160 but in reality, probably much higher, it’s hard to count them all at really busy times. We raised £5790.21 which will be divided equally between the Freewheelers charity (Blood Bikes) and the Redcliffe Food Bank, which is managed by the North Bristol Food bank. This figure may increase as we are still waiting for some card payments to clear. 

 

Every day the church was filled with music provided by local choirs and musicians, who love performing in such a special place. They are all looking forward to returning in 2023. Special thanks to St Georges who put me in touch with new choirs this year. 

 

As with any event like this there are many people to thank for their hard work & support. TreeFest would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors, this year being Redcliffe & Temple Business Improvement District and Evelyn Partners. Their generosity helped to make TreeFest 2022 a huge success. 



Special thanks must be given to all the people who volunteered to welcome visitors as stewards during TreeFest. It was so lovely to see new faces volunteering to be stewards alongside our regular stewards. A big thank you, must be given to The SMR Refreshments team who provided tea, coffee plus cake from Cakesmiths, a local baker, to visitors, every day. Finally, thanks to all the SMR staff who provided support during TreeFest.

 

It may surprise you to know we have already started planning TreeFest 2023, with our first meeting in January. We need you to consider how you might help, I need more help organising the event, if you can offer time to work on planning TreeFest 2023 please contact me to discuss what you can offer. 


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We've seen lots of amazing work in the visitor services department so far this year. SMR stewards have generated over £4,500 donations between January and April 2026 and welcomed over 5000 visitors to the Church. We are welcoming new tour guides to the front of house team with the eventual goal to expand the number of tours we are able to offer to the public. Janet and Reuben have both done their first tours and have received wonderful reviews from visitors. If you are interested in volunteering on the front of house team please contact me on lucy.marshall@stmaryredcliffe.co.uk . We have had some amazing feedback from our outreach events as we aim to welcome not only those familiar with SMR but also those that have never been before. These have included film screenings, talks and most recently the Redcliffe Sessions which raised just under £150 for our Lent charity partner, CALM. Thank you to all those who have supported these. The next Redcliffe Session will be in support of SMR and will feature Bristol band Dogsbody on guitar, cello and violin, and songwriter, Alex Pester on 13th June. I am very excited looking into the rest of 2026 for our future events run both in house and by external hirers, more information of which can be found on our website. If you are interested in volunteering at any future SMR events please let me know! Lucy Marshall Visitor Services Coordinator 06.05.2026