For three years running, a festival which began as a small gathering of woodworkers in the 1990s has been voted Suffolk's favourite festival.
Now celebrating its 30th year, Weird and Wonderful Wood - due to take place this year on May 10 and 11 - is a life-affirming celebration of all things related to the ancient craft of woodwork.
Its appeal is in its sense of timelessness and wonder. Artisans craft beautiful and useful objects out of wood while children and adults are encouraged to try their hand at a series of workshops.
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Experts demonstrate chainsaw carving, pole lathing, wood turning, willow weaving and sawdust raku firings.
And as 10,000 visitors enter the festival over the two days, exhibitors like the Bureau of Silly Ideas delight them with their weird and wonderful creations.
Drink, food and music flows, wood elves mingle with festival-goers and stage acts keep audiences rapt while stilt walkers and elaborately-costumed performers parade the grounds.
It all takes place against the beautiful grounds of Haughley Park, near Stowmarket - a setting which provides the backdrop for many local weddings.
It's a visual feast which has proved highly popular - drawing thousands of visitors over the two days of the festival.
But while its reach is wide, it's a small not-for-profit endeavour run by a tight team of enthusiasts.
Sarah Barber is the daughter of the event's founder, Tarby Davenport. Fellow former Stowupland high pupil Sue Taylor has been involved behind the scenes for many years- carefully vetting all the would-be exhibitors - and Taliesin Woolsey, a millworker, has been going to the event since he was a small boy.
It was somewhere the craftspeople could get together and share skills, explains Sarah.
"It just grew and grew and probably within a couple or two or three years they were having a thousand people attend," she says.
About 17 years ago, the event moved to its current home at Haughley Park having outgrown its previous site. "More people wanted to come than the site was able to cater for really," she explains.
"The owner of Haughley Park - Robert Williams - is a keen furniture-maker. He was incredibly skilled - he was doing high-end design. He had a shop in London.
"He was very keen to welcome the woodcrafters to Haughley Park. He's an amazing supporter of the event and it honestly couldn't be a more beautiful venue."
She was a founder member of Rougham Tree Faire in the 1970s and 80s and of Albion Fairs, which were staged in East Anglia during the same period.
She wanted adults as well as children to be able to learn new skills and make things, her daughter explains.
"She was a single parent and had a real love of wood and crafts. I think that's where she came from and creating events that were not for a particular demographic and not for any age groups.
"A lot of people said she started their careers in arts and crafts and wood crafting because she gave them the opportunity to do that in public."
Sarah - the eldest child - and her three brothers grew up surrounded by all this activity. She remembers Tarby breast-feeding her brothers while directing and organising the festivals.
Her day job was stripping pine furniture at their home in Wetherden and selling it on.
Before settling in Suffolk with her family for a "calmer" way of life, the Essex-born craftswoman worked at the British Craft Centre in London organising exhibitions.
After splitting up from Sarah's dad, she moved to Wetherden. "I think she found it a bit of a cultural desert with nothing going on particularly for families," says Sarah. It was this that inspired her to start the festival.
Now aged 88, she still lives in the same house in Wetherden and continues to put up passing jugglers and band members in the spare room in the same way she would when her children were growing up.
She handed over the running of the festival to Sarah, Sue and Talie three years ago but still takes a keen interest in it. She felt "quite honoured" at her MBE and the hundreds of letters from people who felt she deserved it, says her daughter.
Sue worked alongside Tarby for many years and Sarah has been involved all her life. She remembers Talie running about with his mum Joanne Atkins - who runs workshops - when he was two years old.
"It becomes part of the essence of who you are, attending events like that," says Talie.
He meets people he might only see that time of year but many would say how much sharing skills had an impact on their lives, he says.
There are around 130 stallholders including around 20 catering stalls at this year's event.
"It's amazing - we have become such a popular event we are inundated with stallholders that want to come along - 10 times more than we could actually accommodate - the same with musicians and performers," says Sarah. "That's not a great part of the job - saying no to people."
The event supports various charities, such as the Green Light Trust, and takes about six or seven months of planning. Organisers offer tickets to people suffering hardship and allows carers in free. Bacton Repair Hub and Tree Wardens are given free stalls.
"To me that's a massive part of it - that we can support charities in the area," says Sarah.
"Financially we are not out to make a vast profit. It's more about creating a fantastic event so we spend it more on street performers and our entrance fees are a lot less but that's because we have an incredible team or crew who volunteer or work for very little. We ourselves don't pay ourselves very much."
Sarah is a mother of three. Her non-verbal disabled son, Isaac, 33 - who is in a wheelchair - greatly enjoys the festival. For the past 25 years, she has been teaching her "lived experience" to student and qualified social workers and medical students.
Sue has two grown-up children and a grandson who now attends the event looking for Alice, the festival's resident fairy. She is now aged 26 and has been coming there since she was five years old.
For details of this year's event visit https://www.weirdandwonderfulwood.co.uk/
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