Degrowth festival to debut in Carlton with focus on community and climate resilience

A new grassroots festival focused on sustainability, simple living and community resilience is coming to Carlton this month, with organisers inviting Melburnians to gather for a day of talks, workshops, music and practical skills sharing at Curtain Square.

The 2026 Degrowth Festival will be held in Carlton North from 12pm to 6pm on March 22, marking the event’s first appearance in Carlton after previous editions in Darebin and Merri-bek. Organisers say the festival is designed as a space to celebrate local sustainability efforts while building stronger social ties and climate resilience.

The event is being presented by volunteers and will feature more than 35 stalls, along with workshops, talks, music, dancing and a picnic-style atmosphere under the trees. Organisers say the festival is about “creating the world we want, by practising it now together”, with a particular focus on community building and resilience.

At its core, the festival promotes the idea of “degrowth”, a movement that questions overconsumption and endless economic expansion, and instead advocates for more sustainable and community-based ways of living.

Organisers say the festival will celebrate “hands-on, traditional skills” being kept alive by local people, while also creating space for broader conversations about climate action, economic change and social justice.

Among those expected to take part are local mending advocates Merri Menders, New Economy Network Australia, Friends of the Earth Melbourne, Rising Tide, Climate Action Merri-bek, Guerrilla Gardening Naarm, Brunswick Tool Library, Rainmoth Community Nursery and a range of housing, food justice and solidarity groups. A bush dance band and the Riff Raff Radical Marching Band are also set to feature in the program.

The festival will also spotlight campaigners and thinkers working on alternatives to current economic systems, including discussions around democratic and regenerative economies, public goods, community land trusts and post-growth futures.

Organisers say the event is intended to be both practical and hopeful, bringing together “poets, menders, players, growers, recyclers, thinkers, makers, sharers, climate activists and more”.

The March 3 media release said festivalgoers could expect to meet people already incorporating “convivial technology” into everyday life, as well as campaigners opposed to projects they see as environmentally damaging or greenwashed. It added that the event would showcase economic models that could emerge in a post-growth future, “whether it comes by design, or by disaster”.

For Carlton, the arrival of the festival adds a distinctly activist and community-minded event to the local calendar, while also reflecting wider debates taking place across Melbourne about sustainability, housing, climate and quality of life.

Organisers say the aim is not only to discuss change, but to model it through shared skills, cooperation and mutual support.

The Degrowth Festival will take place at Curtain Square, Carlton North, on Saturday, March 22 from 12pm to 6pm. Entry is by donation, with bookings available online.