St Mary le Tower has been running its Tree Festival at the start of the Advent season for over ten years. It is a celebration of the life and community of Ipswich, in 2019 we had more than 115 real and artificial trees placed by a whole variety of businesses, charities, community groups and individuals, and over 3,500 visitors to the church to see the trees, visit the cafe and enjoy the events and activities which are part of the Festival!
Last year, due to the COVID-19 crisis we sadly had to cancel our real-life festival, at a time when the need for community and belonging had never been more important. We went ahead with a slimmed down virtual festival instead, which you can still visit here https://smltxmastreefestival.blogspot.com.
The past year has seen several changes at the Tower. As we have implemented Covid-safe practises we have moved out of Church House; and the Lady Chapel has become our robing area and temporary Song School. We have installed up to date live-streaming equipment in the church to enable more of our local (and not so local!) congregation to participate in our services and increase the outreach for our concerts. This has altered the available space for our Tree Festival and precipitated new ideas, which also build on the increased use of technology the pandemic has brought in.
We are really excited about our plans, and can't wait to see you at this year's Christmas tree festival! Do check back regularly, this site will be updated to keep you informed.
