Demonstrations, Advice and Activities Throughout the Festival

Sammy’s Foundation will return to update Festival visitors on the inspiring progress of its work.

The charity provides high-quality training in skilled heritage crafts for driven young adults with complex neurological conditions. Its aim is to create meaningful routes into employment while helping to safeguard specialist crafts that are at risk of being lost.

Nikki from Royal Touch Photography will be photographing the Festival while also offering practical advice on business photography, content creation and social-media management.

Royal Touch provides business and event photography alongside social-media services.

Find out how the British Furniture Association represents, connects and supports companies working across the UK furniture industry.

The BFA promotes British furniture manufacturing and offers membership to manufacturers as well as suppliers of components, services and other support to the trade.

Specialists from SATRA Technology Centre will be available to answer questions about furniture fire regulations, flammability testing and the development of upholstery material combinations.

SATRA provides testing, research and technical support across the furniture and consumer-products industries. Its furniture expertise includes the flammability requirements affecting domestic and contract upholstery.

The Festival will host the judging of the Worshipful Company of Upholders’ Double Distinction Awards, alongside awards connected with the Association of Master Upholsterers and Soft Furnishers and the Guild of Traditional Upholsterers.

Returning exhibitor Helen Fry will demonstrate the intricate craft of handwoven passementerie.
Helen is a Shropshire-based hand weaver and textile designer who creates decorative braids using luxurious natural yarns. Her work combines traditional passementerie techniques with contemporary colour, texture and design.

Running an upholstery business requires far more than excellent practical skills. Throughout the Festival, visitors will also be able to access approachable advice about starting, managing and developing a creative business.

We Are Repairs will be carrying out research at the Festival—and they want to hear from professional upholsterers and repairers.
We Are Repairs is creating a UK-wide online directory designed to connect owners of broken household items with skilled local repair businesses.

Have you ever had an upholstery question that felt too basic, too complicated or simply too embarrassing to post on a public forum?

Visit the Festival’s Ask Me Anything stand and speak privately and informally to experienced upholsterers and visiting specialists.

Step inside our working upholstery workshop and explore ideas for creating a safer, more organised and more efficient workspace.

The workshop will include examples of storage, tool organisation, equipment placement, materials handling, waste separation and practical solutions for small businesses where every inch of space matters.

Following the speedy sell-out of his Festival course, Oliver “Ollie” Piepereit of OP Woodcraft will continue sharing his furniture-repair knowledge through live demonstrations.
Watch Ollie tackle some of the knocks, damaged finishes and structural problems regularly uncovered when stripping upholstered furniture.

Discover how professional products and techniques can clean, protect and restore leather upholstery.
Whether you are dealing with everyday wear, surface damage, colour loss or leather that simply needs some careful maintenance, stop by for practical guidance before reaching for the wrong product.

Greg Cuppit-Jones will demonstrate how to work with genuine woven horsehair fabric supplied by John Boyd Textiles.
Come and see the fabric being used, ask questions and gain the confidence to consider horsehair cloth for a future commission.

Watch Armand Verdier demonstrate the control, precision and hand skills involved in traditional upholstery. This is a valuable opportunity to observe an exceptionally experienced craftsperson at close quarters.

Sonia White of White Bespoke returns to the Festival to demonstrate the traditional skills of rush seating and chair caning.

Classic Sharpening Service will be on site on both days of the Festival.

Bring along your hardworking upholstery scissors, shears and snips and have them professionally sharpened. Charges apply.