The festival, which was started in 2000 by Alexander Reford, great-grandson of Ellsie Reford, has traditionally had an open call for proposals by competition. But this year, artistic director Lesley Johnson invited a select number of architects and artists to display gardens incorporating the idea of sound.

While sound is the underlying thread of the festival, the larger theme is the idea of interactive gardens and the notion of participating in the landscape, not just being a passive observer to something in the background. Several of the gardens explore that idea. Cat’s Cradle by Catalyse Urbaine with Gerard Leckey showcases an aeolian harp to be played by visitors, and Travers????(C)e by Emmanuel Madan and Thomas McIntosh of the architectural firm [The User] designed an interactive water garden in which the walking on floating “rafts” or steps over a pond generates music. An art piece entitled Sous-terrain de jeu, by C????(C)dule 40, invites visitors to participate in planting the garden but find resistance in the earth, drawing conclusions about the direction of agriculture and the environment.

Two other garden art pieces create an aural experience for the viewer by transmitting sounds such as electronically altered recordings of popular trees and children?EUR??,,????'???s voices. The sounds evoke popular memories and associations with the landscape, ?EUR??,,????'??subverting our dependence on the visual?EUR??,,????'?? and ?EUR??,,????'??asking the visitor to engage sound as a tool for remembering, experiencing, and participating in a landscape.?EUR??,,????'??