In 1863 Murrays Handbook of Devon & Cornwall describes Penryn as “a warm sheltered valley, richly fertile, and particularly productive in early vegetables.”

In 2020 Falmouth Food Cooperative secure a lease on a former arable field edging the Penryn river. A team of volunteers set about transforming it into a beacon of sustainable food production designed to bring people together to learn new skills, breathe fresh air, meet new people and reconnect with nature. Located at the beginning of Love Lane, they call the field Loveland.

In 2022 Field Day takes you on an immersive journey through Loveland. Discover small acts of food resilience, nestling amongst the grass, trees and earth. Listen to stories of Penryn’s relationship with food in the past, and explore hopes and fears for where food will come from in the future. Journey through seasonal cycles, growing cycles, life cycles. Encounter songs, herbs, trees, vegetables, gardeners and grains. Plant yourself at the table for a lunch made from deliciously fresh Loveland produce.

Field Day is a new site-specific performance by Small Acts created in collaboration with Loveland’s volunteers and HUM choir. This commission is funded by the Outdoor Cultures strand for the Creative Peninsula network, led by the University of Exeter and funded by UKRI.

About Creative Peninsula

Field Day is commissioned and funded by the Outdoor Cultures strand for the Creative Peninsula network, led by the University of Exeter and funded by UKRI. The network has been established to explore collaborative approaches to place-making and culture-led regeneration in Devon and Cornwall, with a focus on increasing access and exchange between urban and rural communities, celebrating the region’s distinctive landscape and Atlantic coastline, and exploring its complex histories, through socially engaged arts programming. It builds on the work of Outside the Box, which asked how open-air performance might reconnect people with environment following the peak of the Covid pandemic.