WOODFORD FURNACE FESTIVAL 2020

The idea of the Woodford Furnace Festival was born from a passion for the old iron-making craft and a desire to revive this forgotten art using only sustainable, local resources. Due to the current circumstances we have had to seriously alter our programme. 
On Sunday 23 August 2020, we have planned a self-guided tour of Woodford of the places connected to its iron-making history as well as an online smelting Festival.

This means there will be no smelting or smithing activities in Woodford this year.

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ONLINE IRON SMELTING EVENTS

On Sunday 23 August, from 12.30pm till 8pm, an online Furnace Festival will be streamed live online via this website. What we have in store:

• Around 10 smelting teams worldwide will be making iron live, nearly all using Irish iron ore shipped out to them
• This includes teams from Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, the US and will have many familiar faces
• But this year we also have Master Akira Kihara, Living National Treasure of Japan and one of a handful of people who still make iron in the centuries-old way. He will be smelting Irish iron ore in his distinct Tatara furnace.
• The members of the Blacksmiths of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia, Russia) will be smelting iron ore and producing superior 'Bulat' steel, at night!
• Several blacksmith teams who will be forging Irish iron made i previous years.
• The live footage will be complemented with talks from international and Irish specialists and cover a wide variety of topics around Irish iron
• Interviews with the live teams
• We will also be showing footage from previous Furnace Festivals

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