Devon’s top makers will be on show en masse at the annual Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey this month

Great British Life: Katherine Miles Willow Artist ¬ - Devon based willow artist Katherine Miles lives in the moorland town of Moretonhampstead. She specialises in weaving willow animal sculptures and bee skeps for the home and garden. http://artisan-willow.com/index.htmlKatherine Miles Willow Artist ¬ - Devon based willow artist Katherine Miles lives in the moorland town of Moretonhampstead. She specialises in weaving willow animal sculptures and bee skeps for the home and garden. http://artisan-willow.com/index.html (Image: Archant)

The Contemporary Craft Festival is one of the UK’s most prestigious and much-loved craft events in the UK. And it’s easy to see why. More than 200 of the UK’s finest makers will be exhibiting and this year’s programme is brimming with workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions, children’s activities and entertainment, street theatre, festival food and live music to create the perfect day out.

The highly acclaimed festival recently won ‘Tourism Event of the Year’ at the Visit Devon Awards, for the second year in a row and took bronze at the South West Tourism Awards for Tourism Event of the Year, will return to the picturesque site of Mill Marsh Park, Bovey Tracey, 10-12 June.

New for this year is the Craft Cinema, presenting a lively programme of vintage and contemporary short films on craft and design. The cinema is hosted in a magnificent 1967 bus, originally commissioned as a mobile cinema by the much-beloved Tony Benn, while he was Minister of Technology, to travel the country showing films of the latest technical advances to the factory workers of Britain. Walk the red carpet and enjoy a genuine cinema experience in a gorgeous mobile cinema.

Supporting new business has been at the heart of the Festival and this year sees the launching of StartUP. The very latest makers from all corners of the UK, in their first two years of business have the opportunity to exhibit at the Festival.

Among the makers on show will be The Great Pottery Throw Down programme winner Matthew Wilcock, and his fellow finalists who will be special guest potters at the festival. The Contemporary Craft Festival was launched in 2004 and has established itself as one of the leading craft events for collecting contemporary craft. It is part of a portfolio of events now organised by Sarah James and Nina Fox.

The 2016 exhibitors are now announced with full details on the website and a full programme of workshops will be announced shortly. But be inspired by our pick of Devon exhibitors.