Wednesday 13th April 2022 • 11pm to 12am • Live on Youtube

Celebrate the return of the nightingales to UK shores with this special live broadcast.

Each year, for a short period mid-April, a few thousand nightingales fly to southern UK from Africa. They can be heard in just a small number of special locations, taking up songful residence after dusk. The territorial males serenade loyally each night for no more than six weeks among the blackthorn and forest margins, giving unbelievable privilege to those who know where to go.

On 13th April 2022 we will mark this occasion by listening to possibly the first singing nightingale of the season, with Sam Lee microphone-ready at their reliable Sussex habitat.

In this modern age, with biodiversity in decline and habitats being eroded, the nightingale has become representative of all that we have to lose. It is a small, brown, unremarkable-looking bird, but it possesses one of nature’s finest singing voices. The bird winters in Africa but spends April to July mating and nesting in Europe and the Middle East. The numbers visiting England have declined so sharply that it is now on the UK’s Red List of species at the greatest conservation risk. Click here for more information on the nightingale and its conservation.

In spring 2020, with the sudden lockdown and restrictions in place across the UK, we had to work hard to reimagine our Singing With Nightingales concert series for extraordinary times. After serious technical exploration and re-devising, we launched our ‘from the forest’ digital versions of Singing with Nightingales. These online events had Sam Lee, deep in the Sussex woods, beaming live nightingale song to our special guest collaborators, with the whole sonic duet broadcast live on Youtube. You can find the 2020 and 2021 online events on our Youtube channel.

This Homecoming event is the next chapter in our online programme, inviting audiences across the world to hear the unforgettable sounds of the nightingale. Whether you’re in California or Coventry, Moscow or Middlesborough, we invite you to Sussex for the evening to enjoy one of nature’s most captivating arias.

Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal

The Nest Collective sends strength, love and solidarity to the Ukrainian people and stands with all those in the international community who condemn and protest the war on Ukraine.

All funds donated to our Homecoming broadcast will be directed to support Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The UK government will match public donations to this appeal pound-for-pound up to £25 million.

Donate here

#standwithukraine

Submissions for Homecoming

Help us to welcome home the nightingales!

We are seeking offerings for the Homecoming broadcast which will be played alongside the nightingale’s song.

Is there a piece of music or spoken word that you feel speaks to the nightingale, its place in the natural world, or your love of nature itself?

It could be anything: a song, an instrumental piece, a favourite poem…

Record yourself and upload it to social media for a chance to be included on the broadcast! We will be choosing approximately 10 submissions in the lead up to the nightingales’ return.

Submissions are now closed. Deadline for submissions was 11pm on 4th April 2022. Chosen submissions will be notified by 10th April.