A chat with Fran Bailey of UNDERGROUND Festival
New Zealand’s first festival celebrating Soil, Food and Farming.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m Fran Bailey. I was born in Lincoln, Te Wai Pounamu and raised in Tokoroa, South Waikato. For the past decade I’ve been based in the United Kingdom where I became immersed in the agroecological and regenerative farming communities. In that time, I met some incredible farmers (innovators) and people passionate about soil and producing nutritious food for their communities. It gave me hope for the future. I made it my mission as a PR and events specialist to find ways to tell their stories.
Since being back in Aotearoa, I’ve been enjoying reacquainting myself with my homeland, meeting food and farming advocates up and down the motu, and starting Soil Sisters which is a kaupapa based around soil, food and friendship.
Why is soil important to you?
There are two quotes that sum it all up for me and explain our intrinsic connection to soil:
The Māori proverb: “Te toto o te tangata, he kai; te oranga o te tangata, he whenua’ – ‘While food provides the blood in our veins, our health is drawn from the land’.
And the American broadcaster, Paul Harvey, who once said “Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
Puts things into perspective really. A lot of my motivation to connect people with soil and the land, comes back to the health of people. How we treat the land and the world around us has a huge influence on our health, both individually and collectively.
What is UNDERGROUND festival and where did the inspiration come from?
UNDERGROUND is a festival of soil and celebration of food from the land. Held over two days, it’s all about connecting farmers and growers around the common ground of soil, with epic food and some music thrown in for good measure!
It’s inspired by a regenerative farming festival I worked on in the UK, called Groundswell. Over 5,000 farmers and people from throughout the food system come together – on a farm – for two days of talks, workshops, field demonstrations, nature safaris, food, camping and music.
Having seen the positive impact that events like this can have on farmers and growers – bringing much needed joy and connection in a space that can often feel isolating and hard – inspired me to create something unique to our context in Aotearoa NZ. So I called on some legends in the local food and farming scene to help make it happen – Nick Gill, Angela Clifford, Simon Osborne, Mark Anderson, Jules Matthews, Chanelle O’Sullivan and Dan Eb have been key enablers!
Why do we need this?
There is a burgeoning movement of farmers and growers in Aotearoa (and around the world) opting to farm with nature and getting real joy from it, seeing their businesses, animals and people thrive.
From organics, to biodynamics, Hua Parakore, agroecology and regenerative agriculture; large scale sheep & beef farmers to market gardeners, there is a vast and diverse pool of experience and knowledge that exists in our own backyard.
UNDERGROUND is an opportunity for all of us to get out on the land together, to impart knowledge, to break bread together, and to celebrate how vital soil is to our very existence – our food, our health, our water, our people.
What can people expect?
An invigorating couple of days in the middle of one of the country’s most inspiring regenerative organic vineyards. There’ll be sessions running all day with more than 30 speakers from Aotearoa and around the world covering a diverse array of topics from regenerative food systems, agroforestry and silvopasture, the impact of soil on mental health, alternative models for land stewardship, and soil carbon opportunities.
Incredible food/kai prepared by North Canterbury legends Food by Fire with ingredients, sourced locally from organic, regenerative producers. Greystone wines will be available, and local brewery, Brew Moon, are producing our very own limited edition Hazy using Simon Osborne’s regen barley.
We’ve planted out a quarter hectare of pasture strips with different multi-species mixes so we can get out in the field for lots of discussions and do all the cool soil tests. There’ll be stalls from all kinds of brilliant businesses passionate about nurturing life underground; a soil lab with microscopes to examine life underground; watercolour workshops; a farm shop, compost and biochar demos, and field walks on beneficial insects and regen wine plus much more.
Campers will be able to wake up to the smell of fresh bread by Bellbird Bakery. There’ll be live music, and we’ll round out the festival with a Regen To Market closing feast, where everyone will sit down to a hearty meal together before being homeward bound.
How did you come about partnering with Greystone?
The partnership with Greystone came about through Nick Gill, Greystone’s former GM, and his partner in crime, Angela Clifford. We’ve been friends for some time, and I’d been talking about wanting to do a festival but that it needed to take place on a farm – at the source of our food and where farmers can be at the centre of the conversation.
When Nick suggested Greystone, I couldn’t think of a better place to sow the seeds of UNDERGROUND. Greystone’s strong roots in both the regenerative farming and food communities make it the perfect location for our audience of farmers, growers and foodies to connect.
We are also hugely grateful to the organisations and businesses who are backing our vision – Biome Trust & Mangaroa Farms, Eat New Zealand, Pastoral Improvements, Regen To Market, and Quorum Sense.
Tickets are on sale via undergroundfestival.co.nz. This is our pilot year, we’re starting small. Tickets are limited.
