Migfest 2023 – get your tickets now
Bird migration is one of the great wonders of the natural world and the Spurn Peninsula on Yorkshire’s East Coast is arguably the best place in Britain to witness this spectacle. This fantastic festival has something for everyone – walks, talks, stalls, food from the amazing Spurn Ladies and hopefully lots of birds for you to see.
The Spurn Migration Festival was the brainchild of two Spurn stalwarts – Martin Garner and Andy Roadhouse. Having run several guided events for small groups, they were pleasantly surprised how much the participants got out of them – even on mediocre days. This sowed a seed in their minds – could they hold a much bigger event – a Migration Festival! They went about trying to convince others of their idea and work out how on earth they could pull it off.
They kicked the idea around for nearly a year, but in early 2013 they hit on the idea of using Westmere Farm to the host the whole festival. Martin and Andy broached the idea with Sue and Andrew Wells (the owners of Westmere), a lot of questions later, they agreed! Migfest has gone from strength to strength since these early days and we now host the Migfest under marquees in North Field.
The festival has something for everyone – guided walks, lunchtime talks, exhibitors stalls with optics, books, artists, holidays etc., the Spurn Ladies BBQ on Saturday evening followed by the headline talk - now named the Andy Roadhouse Memorial Lecture in his honour - and hopefully lots of birds to see across the weekend.
This year Stephen Menzie will be giving the Friday Evening RSPB/BB Lecture, with his talk, ‘A beginner’s guide to moult’.
On Saturday night Sacha Dench will be the headline speaker. Her talk, “Finding your Wings - What You Learn Flying with Birds on Migration,” will be based on the migration of Bewick’s Swans and Ospreys.
As part of the Festival, the Observatory, and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) run a competition to find the Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder of The Year - the competition named in Martin’s honour. This prestigious contest is open to all young British birders up to the age of 16, with two age categories, U14 and 14-16.
You can find out more information about Migfest2023 including a full schedule of events and also buy tickets on the Migfest website.
1 August 2023
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