Along the way our walkers encounter a range of contributions, including life stories from some of our cousins in the family tree, tales of drifting continents and horrifying mass extinctions. However, because the history of Life on Earth takes us to places so spectacularly unfamiliar, to retain our  emotional bearings we decided to organise some artistic offerings along the way.

In previous years this has included gentle folk ballads, harmony from a  twenty-strong choir, an evolutionary rap artist and a rendition of the  ‘Large Blue Butterfly blues’. Some pieces were written exclusively for the Trail.

This year we have widened our artistic interpretation even further to include poetry, two classical performers (a harpist and flute player), a Jazz choir and, because 2012 is our ‘Year of the Bird’, some bird inspired music.

Our line up so far:

1.    Ruth Wall   - regarded as one of the UK’s leading harpists,.will play some of her own work and a Steve Riech piece adapted for harp at the evening event following the Trail. BOOKED

2.    Jonny Berliner       - returns for a repeat performance with his witty and wonderful science songs including a brand new song to celebrate our 2012 ‘Year of the Bird’.

3.      Maciej Burdynowski        - brings his choir from London to perform at various positions along the Trail. Expect improvised harmony inspired by the Quantock hills and our journey back in time.

4.     Stephen Preston    - we are also thrilled  to welcome this English flautist who is famous for his classical renditions and, more recently a whole new musical language ~ ecosonics ~ based on ‘birdsong’. BOOKED

In previous years a large cohort of our pilgrims have come from London and further afield. Consequently, we decided that it would be helpful to adopt a Bank Holiday weekend to give people time to make the journey and, to minimise  hassle, we have organised full board accommodation at a local Outdoor Education Centre.

We also offer two evenings of entertainment:

On the Saturday before the walk we are organising a series of speakers to include topics such as bird conservation, world biodiversity and perhaps even a surprise guest.

On the Sunday night there will be an evening of cabaret from the performers you will have met previously along the Trail.