2026 Festival of Flowers at Chichester Cathedral will celebrate Nature's Embrace

Lead designer Caroline Daines, owner of Nordic Twigs floral design studio, has chosen the theme to make us reflect: “Nature is so generous to us. It gives us so many things and I think we should give back in return. I think we should all maybe show a little bit more respect and also a little bit more consideration for nature and also just be more grateful.”

The theme will be explored across around 65 installations within the cathedral, created by both groups and individuals including flower enthusiasts, church flower arrangers, colleagues of Caroline's in the industry, Plumpton College and for the first time a number of primary schools in the area. The volunteers total 120 in all

“For me it is really exciting to be working on a bigger scale. It's a challenge and it was exciting and also a little bit scary. Are you going to take the leap of faith or just carry on being comfortable? I've always loved the idea of using my creativity in a slightly different way other than the events and weddings that I do where I'm slightly more dictated to by what the clients want. I do weddings and corporate but this feels so much freer.”

Caroline is delighted to have the help of her assistant designer Carina Giordano.

As Caroline says: “I had to choose the theme. I had to run the theme past the Dean but once I had the outline, we met and he gave it the go-ahead. Really it is about considering nature and everything it gives us for free. It's just there. It gives us a lot of reassurance and it gives us a boost to our mental health, and we are so fortunate that it is right on our doorstep.

“Coming from Scandinavia, nature is very important to us back home. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by the hills of the Sussex Downs here. I came over when I was 18 from Sweden. I was going to be an au pair for a few months and here I am 25 years later with my British husband and my kids and my dogs. I could never have predicted that! But I just feel so lucky. I'm so grateful for the life that the UK has given me and I'm so happy here especially with all the people that I've met along the way.”

It was the perfect starting point to approach the project: “I came up with the theme, and below the umbrella of the theme I have created 65 to 70 installations and come up with briefs for each design and titles for them that are tied to nature. I've given them some mood boards and for each one there are some sketches. And then all the volunteers went through all the briefs and chose two or three designs that they would like to do and then I have looked through and allocated hopefully their favourite one that they chose. They have now gone away and are coming up with ideas as to how to create the vision which I had. But I really want it to be collaborative between me and them. I am the lead designer but if I steer too strictly then it becomes restrictive of their creativity. Collaboration is very important to me and very much what I want.”

The Festival of Flowers is a four-day spectacular in the setting of Chichester’s 950-year-old Cathedral, taking place from June 3-6. It is a biennial event organised by Chichester Cathedral Restoration and Development Trust. The Festival has raised over £1.4 million for the Cathedral since its inception in 1996. Tickets via https://www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/events/festival-flowers-2026