BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//NONSGML WPForms//NONSGML Sugar Calendar Feeds v3.13.0//EN X-WR-CALNAME:Otley Wildlife Arts Festival 2026 X-WR-CALDESC:Welcome to Otley\, West Yorkshire X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 DTSTART:20261025T010000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 DTSTART:20261025T010000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Otley Wildlife Arts Festival 2026 DESCRIPTION:Otley’s unique wildlife arts festival returns\nOtley will once again celebrate its love of wildlife and the natural world when the Otley Wildlife Arts Festival 2026 returns from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 O ctober.\n\nNow in its fifth year\, the festival brings together art\, mu sic\, photography\, film\, books\, talks\, exhibitions and ideas\, with something for everyone fascinated by the wildlife and landscapes around us.\n\nThe festival gets underway on Friday 23 October at 7.30pm with a special appearance by popular television personality and Wildlife Friend ly Otley patron George McGavin.\n\nHis new talk\, It’s a Wild Life – Tales from Television\, will take place at Wesley Hall at The Common\, Walkergate\, with doors opening at 6.30pm.\n\nDrawing on successive care ers in academia and the media\, George will share his personal journey d iscovering the world of wildlife – big\, and especially small – and explain why\, even in the face of the current climate and nature crisis\ , his passion for the natural world remains as strong as ever.\n\nThe ta lk will be followed by a Q&\;A session.\n\nWith a background in zoolo gy and entomology\, George spent 30 years in academia before becoming an award-winning broadcaster. He is also an Honorary Research Associate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and author of recent bo oks including The Hidden World and The Good Bug.\n\nTickets for George M cGavin are £22\, with concessions at £16.50\, and can be booked at:\n\ nhttps://www.tickettailor.com/events/otleycommon/2333241\nTalks\, art an d workshops\nSaturday brings a packed programme at The Common\, includin g an art exhibition and stalls alongside a series of free short talks an d workshops.\n\nThe short-talk programme in the Common Chapel is due to include the following\, with timings currently provisional:\n\n 10.30am – Badgers\n 11.15am – Nature Recovery in Otley\n 12 noon – Toad s\n 1.30pm – What Makes a Healthy River?\n 2pm – Adders\n 2.45pm – Broughton Rewilding Project\n 3.30pm – A Few of My Favourite Thin gs – Mostly Fantastic Insects\n\nThere will also be a range of adult c reative workshops\, giving festival-goers the chance to explore their ow n artistic talents while taking inspiration from nature.\n\nOn Saturday 24 October\, Miriam Laville will lead Natural Forms with Mixed Media fro m 10am–12 noon\, followed by Tony Driver with Autumnal Woodland with C ollage &\; Acrylics from 2–4pm.\n\nOn Sunday 25 October\, Kim Coley will lead Drawing Birds with Posca Pens from 2–4pm.\n\nAdult workshop s cost £15 and places can be booked by contacting neil-griffin@outlook. com.\nAn evening of music and words\nOn Saturday evening\, the festival moves into music and spoken word\, with Sarah Smout\, Amy-Jane Beer\, Ch ris Brain and Matthew Hedley Stoppard presenting a special celebration o f nature at The Chapel at Otley Common from 7.30pm.\n\nFurther details w ill be announced shortly.\nCreating a new piece of wildlife art for Otle y\nThis year’s festival also features an exciting new project to creat e a mosaic pond and bench celebrating local wildlife\, while also highli ghting some of the pressures it faces.\n\nOtley mosaic-maker Frances Tay lor will lead a series of workshops where local people can help create a n installation designed to enhance Otley town centre for years to come.\ n\nThe morning workshop on 4 October is already fully booked and the aft ernoon session has only a few spaces remaining. There is still availabil ity at the two workshops on 11 October\, and at least one further sessio n will also be organised.\n\nWorkshops cost £10\, or £15 for two\, and can be booked by contacting neil-griffin@outlook.com. No previous exper ience is necessary.\n\nThe project is part of the Seasons of Culture Pro gramme\, funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leeds City Coun cil through the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme.\n\nThe Otley Wildli fe Arts Festival celebrates the many different ways people connect with nature – whether through creativity\, science\, music\, photography\, storytelling or simply getting outside and discovering the wildlife on o ur doorstep.\n\nWith a packed programme for a wide range of ages and int erests\, it promises to be another highlight of Otley’s autumn calenda r. URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.visitotley.co.uk/events/otley-wildlife-arts-fe stival-2026/ UID:urn:uuid:eaac119b-546f-4fa2-b07f-48ca147a6df2 STATUS:CONFIRMED ORGANIZER: DTSTAMP:20260830T114024Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261023 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261026 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR