Melbourne's 13th annual
Sustainable Living Festival offers a broad range of events for anyone who has even the slightest interest reducing their environmental footprint.
Melbourne's Sustainable Living Festival
The main part of the festival takes place at Federation Square and Birrarung Marr from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th February. That weekend, Fed Square will host a market featuring over 100 exhibitors in the area of food, garden, lifestyle, community and home. The rest of the
Festival program includes workshops, demonstrations, performances, comedy, competitions, films and debates, all designed to promote a more environmentally-friendly way of life. Some of the topics include:
The sustainable house - the path to reducing your environmental impact should start at home, and the festival offers some tips. In 'The Great Australian Home Retrofit Live' you can see an average Aussie house being transformed into a zero-carbon low energy home, live on stage at Fed Square. Or there's the 'Speed Date a Sustainable Designer' where you can meet with architects and designers for tips you can apply to your home. Fighting the throw-away consumer culture, the 'Fix it!' workshop teaches people how to fix or re-imagine broken household goods.
Fitness – the Bikefest Treadie Market offers a swap meet, bike mechanics, showcase of innovations in bike designs, test rides, demonstrations and a chance to enter your bike into a bike pageant. Possibly the most bizarre event of the entire festival is a Vegan Body Building show that promises to bust the myths of the vegan diet.
Education – want to find out more about this whole climate change issue? Then attend the
Transitions Film Festival with films, short films and documentaries showcasing ground-breaking documentaries about our global culture in transition towards a sustainable future. There is also a program of talks and workshops in and around Fed Square. A highlight will be TV favourite Dr Karl hypothesising on how to make Australia fully renewable in 10 years.
Food - 'In the Garden' is a series of free workshops for green thumbs keen on growing their own veggies, while ABC TV's gardening guru Costa Georgiadis hosts Worlds biggest organic feast, a showcase of local organic produce. The Queen Victoria market gets in on the act by offering a sustainability tour of the market, and the intriguingly-named Dirty Girl Kitchen showcases the 'granny skills' of making jams, pickles and baking.
For the kids - teach your kids about the value of the environment, with programs including an exhibition of eco-cubbyhouses and a stage show starring dirtgirl, star of ABC TV's dirtgirlworld.
