Adults need play too. This summer, we’re inviting you to rediscover joy through adult play in nature. If you’ve ever watched kids splash in mud or build tiny worlds from leaves, you know what playful exploration looks like – and it’s not just for children. Pop Up Adventure Play has long advocated for children’s right to play through pop-up adventure playgrounds around the world.
Fun in the woods this summer
“…if you’ve been craving some fresh air… and a chance to remember what it’s like to play (really play!) this is your chance.”
This summer, you’re invited to step into the woods near Bellows Falls, Vermont, and give yourself permission to explore, create, and connect. We’re hosting two special event days – June 15th and July 19th – where local residents will lead sessions on things they love. You’ll have the chance to make ink from plants, find your own Big Voice, tend the forest edge with more awareness and fewer injuries, and take a wonder walk. These aren’t classes with set agendas – they’re open invitations to mess around with new materials, follow your curiosity and reconnect with what lights you up.
Each day includes a morning and afternoon session, with a shared lunchtime in the middle. Come for the whole day or just one session – whatever feels right. These gatherings are designed for adults, but we’re happy to talk about accessibility, childcare options or professional development hours. Just reach out and we’ll do our best to make it work.
There’s a suggested donation of $25, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. We just want you there.
So, if you’ve been craving some fresh air, a break from the usual and a chance to remember what it’s like to play (really play!) this is your chance. These events are part of our ongoing efforts to promote adult play in nature, offering space for creativity, community, and self-discovery.
More information workshops and presenters below. Reach out to morgan@popupadventureplay.org with questions or to RSVP anytime. We’d love to hear from you.
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Workshop descriptions
SUNDAY JUNE 15TH
Ink-Making from Plants in Place (Rosi)
We will gather and work with very cool plants that you may have already met! We’ll extract colours from materials found in our surroundings and use some modifiers to achieve different hues.Join us for a fun experience where we’ll imprint words or ideas and doodle using the unique colours nature provides. No prior experience is necessary – just bring your curiosity and willingness to experiment and have fun!
Releasing Sound, Finding Your Voice (Gavy)
Are you shy and awkward? Not always comfortable speaking up at a meeting or adding your voice in song? We all have a big voice inside of us and this workshop will explore a variety of ways of finding it. Come connect to your body, find your power and hear your voice as never before. We might howl at the moon, create a mantra, write a chant, ask for help, let out a crow and fill the forest with sound.
SUNDAY JULY 20TH
Caring for Yourself is Caring for the Land (Chris)
Move with more awareness and fewer injuries, while tending the woodland threshold. Sawing and cutting wood are often necessary parts of land stewardship, creative expression, and building of all sorts; sawing can also present hazards to our bodies. Learn the basics of chainsaw use and safety with an emphasis on minimising hazards by being present in our surroundings and our bodies and ‘dancing’ with our tools and materials. This inclusive workshop is intended for novice or first time chainsaw users, and those who have not felt comfortable signing up for more ‘traditional’ chainsaw courses. Tools and PPE (work personal protective equipment) provided. Those with work gloves, eye protection, chainsaw chaps and helmets are encouraged to bring their own.
Wonder Walks & Nature Journaling: Centering Seasonal & Lunar Cycles (Kegan)
Step out of a linear sense of time! Recenter your experience of “when” and “now” in the narrative of the seasonal cycles. Learn from the flora and fauna all around us. Wonder walks are an opportunity to practice being in a parasympathetic nervous system state, even for a few heart beats. When we record what caught our eye, we create a touch stone to that state AND we can begin to see the patterns and seasonal time-scapes unfolding around us. Participants are invited to create circular calendars based on the 28 day lunar cycle to record seasonal observations as drawings or writings with personal or provided materials. Then folks can wander the land and practice noticing, being surprised and possibly delighted.
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Presenter Bios
Rosi Olivan is an incredibly talented textile artist and world traveler who loves to share her excitement about natural dyeing and mark-making with plants.
Gavy Kessler is a theatre artist: acting, directing, educating and theorising. When not on stage, he shares his magic through queer intentional spaces, kitchen witchery, and embroidery. He loves sharing the empowerment of voice with folks of all ages.
Kegan Refalo is an artist and community-builder, cultivating deep relationships with place, building a practice of wonder and recentering a lunar time matrix for themselves. They are delighted by momentary multi-sensory compositions, feral bejewelled costumery and butter based pastries.
Chris Olsen is a queer land worker who sees stewardship as an art. Chris enjoys working with tools, plants, animals and the land as a form of exploration and play. When sharing knowledge and experience around tool usage he emphasises safety, body mechanics and satisfaction while acknowledging the variety of obstacles that can come between people and their desire to learn.
If you’re ready to embrace adult play in nature, join us this summer for these unique, playful experiences in the Vermont woods.
By Morgan Leichter-Saxby
