Features

Singer-songwriter Morrison shot to worldwide fame courtesy of the 2006 single You Give Me Something, taken from the equally successful album Undiscovered.

His show on 7 June is the first of three successive nights of gigs at Thetford Forest - Travis play on 8 June and Van Morrison headlines on 9 June.

Blondie

Live music will then return to the forest in July in the form of another triple header - this time featuring The Feeling (12 July), M People featuring Heather Small (13 July) and Blondie (14 July).

"We attract the big acts because what we do, we do really well," says Roger Woods, Communications Manager for the Forestry Commission at Thetford.

The Forestry Commission has been running concerts at Thetford since 2000, with the woodland providing an idyllic setting far removed from traditional venues. Situated in a clearing at the High Lodge area of the forest, a circle of trees provides a natural arena for the concerts.

The idea of the concerts, as well as offering world class entertainment, is to present the forest and what it has to offer in a new light, whilst highlighting the joys of outdoor living.

With this in mind, the Forestry Commission has been keen to allow concert-goers space to enjoy themselves: "If you stand on the stage and look out you'll see a sea of heads, but there’s still plenty of room for manoeuvre," says Roger.

The concert site and High Lodge

"We've limited ourselves to 6000 tickets because that’s a comfortable number. Conceivably we could have 1000 more but we don't want over capacity because it’s uncomfortable for the customer."

The setting, the ethos of the concerts and the success of previous shows from the likes of Paul Weller, Jamie Cullum and The Pet Shop Boys has helped attract yet more big names this time round.

"We've got Travis as one of our acts this year. They had a choice, so I understand, of supplementing their UK tour with the big festivals – Glastonbury, V Festival – and at the same time our concert booker approached them about playing forest tours.

"They wanted it to be more intimate, they liked the ethos we have – because what we're basically promoting is the great outdoors. We're promoting healthy living and the eco things you can add to the back of it."

Travis's Fran Healy

Thetford's success prompted the Forestry Commission to use six more of its sites as live music venues, with some of this year's acts touring them all.

This grand scheme, however, seems baffling considering the thought process behind the first gig at Thetford. "It started off as a 'wouldn't it be nice' idea and has snowballed," Roger explains.

"The first year it was a classical concert with a picnic venue and Jools Holland. The year after that it was 'well we could do two concerts, different nights'.

"All the time the nucleus of it has been the goodwill and the staff within the commission here in the district. We're now getting to the point where we've got six concerts, six nights, we've only got 100 staff.

"We're already using friends, family and anyone else who can possibly come along and help for the price of a pair of tickets! Where do we go now?"