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A new business will be officially launched this weekend with a two-day family-friendly festival celebrating “all things wood”.
The inaugural Logie Timber Festival will take place at Logie Steading and will feature over 60 different exhibitors and demonstrations including den building, a tree walk and talk, woodland craft sessions, axe throwing, Highland horse logging and a wealth of craft and food stalls.
The event is being held to celebrate the opening of Logie Timber, a full-cycle timber business, specialising in local high-quality woods.
The business is a partnership between Alec Laing of Logie Estate and forester and tree surgeon Mark Councill.
Mr Laing said the event which will be held on Saturday and Sunday between 10am to 5pm will provide a great day out and also an insight into the new business which in March secured £54,000 from the Moray LEADER Programme to expand its operations and develop new markets.
He said: “We are very excited to be officially launching Logie Timber with this two-day celebration. I have a young family and rather than holding a private event to launch Logie Timber we decided to put on the festival which will not only be a great day out with loads of fun activities but will also showcase what a wealth of wood-related sustainable products and skills there are in our region and beyond.”
Explaining Logie Timber he said: “The business is unique in that we can manage the full circle of the life and use of a tree from seed to seed. Logie Timber encompasses a sawmill, wood drying kiln and showroom to process local Scottish trees and products with a key focus on furniture grade hardwood.”
He added: “We also have the ability to take down wood, specialising in hard-to-reach places, and cut and dry it to a customer’s specifications. We can put people in touch with makers to create an end product or recommend courses for people to make their own.”
Mr Councill an experienced forester who is passionate about developing the market for high quality timber in the region said he was looking forward to the weekend: “The business has been in the planning for about two years and to have secured the Moray LEADER funding which enabled to buy machinery and to now be having our official launch really is very exciting.
“The funding means we can secure jobs, plan for the future in an incredibly positive and ambitious way, and we can now look at employing extra staff to keep up with the higher output and new product lines the new machinery will create.”
He added: “For the festival we have tried to get as many wood-oriented demonstrations, crafters, and organisations along. It’s going to be amazing to see so many timber related products and industries in one place. We have everything from large operations such as James Jones & Sons who will be demonstrating their timber lorry which has virtual reality technology to small artisan jewellers who create products in wood. There will be chainsaw carving, live music, art exhibitions, and hand carving, tree climbing and a range of food and drink stalls. It really will be a celebration of all things wood.”
More information is available on Facebook @LogieSteading and Twitter @Logie_Steading and #logietimberfestival