Furnace Festival 2020

FURNACE FESTIVAL 2020

The idea of the Woodford Furnace Festival was born from a passion for the old iron-making craft and a desire to revive this forgotten art using only sustainable, local resources. Due to the current circumstances we have had to seriously alter our programme. On Sunday 23 August 2020, we have planned an online smelting Festival.
This means there will be no smelting or smithing activities this year.

Moves from The 2020 Festival

ONLINE IRON SMELTING EVENTS

On Sunday 23 August, from 12.30pm till 8pm, an online Furnace Festival will be streamed live online via
- our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Woodfordfurnacefestival/, will go Live at 12.30 on Sunday 23 August
- on this website, on our Live Stream 2020 page, you can follow the live streams from the various teams across the globe.

What we have in store for you:

Around 10 smelting teams worldwide will be making iron live, nearly all using Irish iron ore shipped out to them
This includes teams from Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, the US and will have many familiar faces
This year we also have Master Akira Kihara, Living National Treasure of Japan and one of a handful of people who still make iron in the centuries-old way. He will be smelting Irish iron ore in his distinct Tatara furnace.
The members of the Blacksmiths of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia, Russia) will be smelting iron ore and producing superior 'Bulat' steel, at night!
Several blacksmith teams who will be forging Irish iron made i previous years.
The live footage will be complemented with talks from international and Irish specialists and cover a wide variety of topics around Irish iron
Interviews with the live teams
We will also be showing footage from previous Furnace Festivals

2020 FURNACE FESTIVAL IN PICTURES

On Sunday 23 August, you will be able to follow the live-streamed smelting, part of the 2020 Woodford Furnace Festival. All times Irish Time (GMT+1)
For our curated Festival event, see https://www.facebook.com/Woodfordfurnacefestival/ from 12.30pm onwards.

Team

Vilyui and Sata blacksmiths

Thomas Mink

Sakha Steelmakers

Matthias Fischer

Jens Jørgen Olesen

Leo Moonen

Katie Surridge

Tim/Gwilym Stanley

Lee Sauder

Adrien Morat

Mark Green