Cherwell Collective is proud to announce that our Climatarian Kitchen has become the hospitality and catering partner for the Waterperry Opera Festival this August.  The partnership will see Climatarian Kitchen bring delicious, seasonal, and sustainable food options to the festival. Through the partnership, we will offer a sit-down 3-course meal during the interval of the main opera performed each evening, as well as picnic hampers for those seeking a more casual culinary experience at any hour of the festival.

Our test kitchen designed a possible vegetarian meal to be sold as a picnic hamper for the Waterperry Music Festival.

On May 16, 2025, volunteers and members of Cherwell Collective staff gathered at our test kitchen in preparation for the partnership. They prepared various meal options, taste tested them, and calculated the total Carbon Cost of the different options.

Climatarian Kitchen prides itself on calculating the Carbon Cost of the food we produce. Here, a sample roast beef entree we tested has a Carbon Cost of 12 car miles. Related: What is Carbon Cost?

Waterperry Music Festival Highlights

The Waterperry Opera Festival is an annual summer event held at the picturesque Waterperry House & Gardens in Oxfordshire. Established in 2017, the festival aims to make opera accessible and enriching for all, offering high-quality, socially relevant performances by a diverse company of emerging talent. Set against the backdrop of Waterperry’s beautiful gardens, the festival combines world-class opera with the charm of the English countryside.

The 2025 festival, running from August 8 to 17, features a diverse lineup of productions:

  • Don Giovanni (Mozart): A classic blending comedy and drama, following the legendary seducer Don Juan.
  • Semele (Handel): A baroque tale of love and ambition, where a mortal woman dares to love a god.
  • Winnie-the-Pooh’s Songbook: A family-friendly production bringing the adventures of Pooh and friends to life.
  • A World Turned Upside Down: The Diary of Anne Frank (Juliana Hall): A poignant musical adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary.
  • Serenades: Gran Partita (Mozart): An open-air concert featuring Mozart’s wind serenades.
  • Young Artist Gala: Showcasing the talents of emerging opera stars.
  • Come and Sing: Interactive sessions inviting audiences to sing opera choruses.
  • The Hundred Acre Craft Workshop: Children’s workshops inspired by Winnie-the-Pooh.
  • Last Night at the Opera: A grand finale celebrating opera classics.

Performances and workshops run from 11:30 am until after dark on weekends, with evening performances scheduled for weekdays.

Climatarian Kitchen Partnership

Climatarian Kitchen focuses on sustainable dining, using seasonal, responsibly sourced ingredients, including imperfect produce and community-grown food. Our mission is to reduce the carbon footprint of food by connecting people from farm to fork.

During this year’s Festival, attendees can enjoy one of two dining options catered by us:

  • Seated Dining: A three-course dinner option in the Lawn Restaurant, with choices of vegan, vegetarian, or meat-based main courses. Dinner each evening is served at 19:45, during the interval of the evening opera. (Performances of 08, 09, 10, 13, 15, 16 & 17 August only).
  • Festival Hampers: Pre-booked picnic hampers filled with seasonal delights, perfect for enjoying in the gardens. (Available all festival days)
The 3-course sit-down dining will feature seasonal ingredients, such as those offered in this caprese salad from the vegetarian menu.

Please note that all dining options require advance booking, and menus are subject to seasonal availability. Both the seated dining and festival hampers will be available in a meat, vegetarian, or vegan format. The availability of both vegetarian and vegan dining, not common at many festivals, helps offer attendees a range of options with a lower Carbon Cost.  A wide assortment of wines and champagnes is also available for booking.

Sustinable, Low Carbon Cost Festival Meals

The Festival and Cherwell Collective see this partnership as a way to highlight techniques for sustainable eating and participation in the circular economy.  For instance, unlike many traditional catering companies, which use one style of tableware for all diners, often replacing it each season, Cherwell will use an assortment of different place settings that the organization has collected from other caterers that planned to discard them. This practice will keep the perfectly good tableware in use for many years and help cut the strain on the planet’s resources.

Food choices also encourage eating a low-carbon-cost diet.  In addition to a traditional meat-based entrée and starter, Climatarian Kitchen will also offer both a Vegan and Vegetarian menu that has a significantly lower Carbon Cost. The sit-down menus and hamper items will also not be set in advance. Instead, they will be determined close to the festival date to provide the freshest in-season, sustainable items available that week.

Cherwell’s Emily Connally explained, “Because our food is so seasonal, it’s difficult to state exactly what you might find on your plate or in your hampers in August. If it’s a bad year for mushrooms, we may need to use courgettes, for example.”

Choosing local, in-season food that is abundantly available, including food surplus, is a way of following a Climatarian Diet, a key pillar of the Climatarian Kitchen’s philosophy. What the organization has also set out to demonstrate is that this diet can be delicious, varied, and in the case of the 3-course sit-down dinners, even elegant.

“Do not fret,” Emily explained. “We are known for generous portions made from fresh ingredients and a lovely variety so that our diners walk away satisfied. You choose your main ingredient or dietary type and we (with mother nature) will do all the rest.”

An evening at the opera would be incomplete without a delectable pudding.

For more details and to book your dining experience, visit the festival’s hospitality page.

To see the full range of performance and book tickets, check the Waterperry Opera Festival Ticketing Site.