What A Wonderful World returns with hope at its heart
Former Bellowhead frontman Jon Boden talks climate anxiety, folk music and finding hope ahead of a Northumberland festival dedicated to tackling big environmental questions through art and community
There are plenty of festivals which promise a good time. Fewer invite audiences to confront the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and the future of the planet - and still leave them feeling hopeful.
That balancing act sits at the heart of the What A Wonderful World Festival, which returns to Alnwick and locations across Northumberland from June 25-28 for its fifth year, bringing together music, poetry, film, debate, practical workshops and family events under one increasingly urgent umbrella.
Founded in 2022 by concertina virtuoso Alistair Anderson and his wife Liz, the festival has carved out a distinctive space by refusing to separate difficult conversations from joyful times.
“Our fifth annual festival will celebrate the natural world and the huge range of positive ways we can help tackle the problems of the climate and biodiversity crisis,” says Liz.
“This year we believe we have created a joyous event with something for people of all ages and many tastes.”
The 2026 programme stretches far beyond the walls of Alnwick Playhouse, the festival’s home venue.
Among the activities are peatland discovery days in College Valley, rewilding sessions at Hepple Wilds, family wild adventure days, low-energy house visits, lantern-making workshops, poetry events at Rothbury and Hauxley, storytelling sessions for children, a repair café in Berwick and a walking tour highlighting sustainability projects in the town.
At the centre of it all is one of the UK folk scene’s most distinctive voices, Jon Boden.
Best known as the former frontman of Bellowhead - though still touring with the reunited band - Boden will perform a specially curated solo concert at Alnwick Playhouse on Saturday evening.
“I’ve known Alistair Anderson for many years,” he says. “He used to run the folk degree at Newcastle University and he had been in touch a few times about me potentially playing the festival at some point. I’m really pleased we got it together to do it this year.”
Jon’s evening concert on June 27 will focus on the three albums which make up his Floodplain Trilogy - Songs From The Floodplain, Afterglow and Last Mile Home.
The collection imagines a post-climate-collapse Britain, moving from fragile rural communities to urban breakdown and, finally, solitary pilgrimage.
“I know it sounds bleak on paper, but I’ve always tried to make the songs on the side of positive and upbeat,” he says. “It does come from a positive perspective, which is that essentially that you know we are going to have to live sustainably at some point.
“The only question is whether we manage that transition, or it’s sort of forced upon us by our inaction.”
That tension between warning and hope runs throughout the trilogy, which began as a standalone album before evolving into something bigger.
“I got interested in the idea of telling stories that were offshoots of that first album,” he explains. “So it’s like the first album is on its own and the other two are deep dives into elements of it.”
Released over 12 years between 2009 and 2021, the trilogy grew out of something many of us would now recognise as climate anxiety.
“I was about to become a father and really sort of feeling quite nervous about what kind of a world I was going to be bringing children into,” says Jon.
Rather than leaning into despair, he became fascinated by what sustainable living might actually look like in practice.
“I found something hopeful in thinking about what sustainable living actually is. What does it mean in terms of day-to-day going about your business and human interaction?
“That is of course where songwriting comes in, because that’s what songwriting is about. It’s about how we relate to each other and how we relate to the world around us.”
It is here, he suggests where folk music becomes unexpectedly relevant.
“A lot of these elements of the folk scene that we tend to view as anachronistic… as soon as you start thinking about what life would look like if you didn’t have televisions, if you didn’t have internet, if we didn’t all have private ownership of cars… suddenly all those elements start to come back and it becomes quite exciting.”
It is hard to imagine a better headlining fit for What A Wonderful World - a festival which has always tried to approach environmental issues sideways, through story, song and community rather than lecture.
Before Saturday’s concert, Jon will join Dr Adam Holden from Durham University for a pre-show conversation and audience Q&A exploring climate change, sustainability and the role of culture in helping people engage.
A graduate (medieval studies) from Durham, Jon returned in 2019 to receive an honorary Doctorate of Music for his outstanding contributions to UK folk music. He says he is looking forward to having the opportunity to talk as well as sing on the stage.
“The problem I find in my world is that you’re often trying to talk about these things in short form, because I’m often in a situation where it is my job to entertain people.
“I’m really pleased that we’re able to have this talk beforehand and I’m very grateful to Adam for being the person on stage who actually knows a lot about the issues and where we are with them.”
While keen to acknowledge the central role of scientific expertise when it comes to understanding and tackling climate change, Jon also believes that musicians, writers and artists have an important part to play in widening the conversation.
“I think the rest of us can help out by trying to engage from our own artistic standpoints, because I think sometimes those slightly unexpected routes in can yield really positive stuff.”
That philosophy runs through the whole festival.
Elsewhere in the programme, Saturday’s main events include Cut Bills, Cut Carbon, Build Better! - a practical discussion around home energy efficiency and retrofitting - and a screening of It’ll Never Work, charting a Scottish fisherman’s efforts to convert his commercial fishing boat to renewable power.
Families are catered for too, with story-making sessions in Alnwick and Berwick libraries, plus the acclaimed family theatre show Green Fingers, which arrives in both Berwick and Alnwick.
And there will be more poetry and music at Rothbury, on the evening of June 25 with performances from Katrina Porteous, Merrie Snell, Andrew Charleton, James Tait and Maddy’s Crowd.
The festival’s community focus also extends well beyond its public-facing programme. In the run-up to the weekend, children and young people from schools across Northumberland have been contributing creative responses to environmental themes.
Mosaic artist John Craggs has been working with pupils at Ellingham and Swansfield Primary Schools, with their work set to be exhibited at Alnwick Playhouse, while Berwick Library’s Friday Knit & Natter group has been creating no-sew bunting from recycled materials.
Sunday brings the festival to a fittingly communal close with Sing for the Planet, a massed choir event led by local musician Alison Rushby. After a morning workshop, singers from across Northumberland - including Amble’s Harbour Lights and Berwick’s Golden Square Singers - will join forces for a finale performance.
Naturally, it ends with everyone singing What a Wonderful World - offering a collective insistence that even while facing difficult realities, wonder, joy and hope still matter.
“It’s really important to find these positive aspects and reasons to hope,” says Jon.
“Like when I’ve been emailing Adam ahead of the event, he sent me a really interesting report about how successful the UK’s shift to renewables has actually been… and that’s something which doesn’t get enough attention.
“There are achievements, there are people devoting themselves to making a difference and so I think there is always hope. And that’s no small thing.”
What A Wonderful World Festival takes place at Alnwick Playhouse and surrounding venues and locations from June 25-28. For full programme details, visit whataww.org
So it seems there are decent peeps out there!