Footprints Ecofestival is back at Whites Creek Valley Park this Saturday 3 September! Rediscover and regenerate at our spring sustainability festival and reconnect with local environmental initiatives.
Getting to and around the festival
An Accessibility Map is available for the first time to give people an overview of access considerations before they attend.
We encourage you to walk, jog, scoot, skate or cycle to the park. There’ll be free bike parking and bike tune-ups available. The festival is accessible by public transport, with several buses, and light rail stops within 350m to 700m of the park. Full details on the website.
Sustainability at the festival
As usual we’re providing Ruzi reusable coffee cups, so you can enjoy a coffee then drop it off in collection bins around the festival site. Food Waste will also be collected for processing. We will provide water stations so bring your own reusable water bottle and fill it up. You can help green the festival by also bringing your own coffee cup, cutlery and bags to the festival.
Highlights of the program
The full program is available at the Footprints Ecofestival page. Here are some highlights:
Talk: Changing systems in the climate crisis
A panel discussion looking at how changing the way systems work could address the climate crisis that we are currently facing. You will hear how specific actions can help to disrupt, redirect, be impactful and regenerate while supporting us to transition to a low carbon society.
With Robyn Williams (The Science Show, ABC Radio National), Anja Bless (Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney), Dan Cass (The Australia Institute) and Nabilah Chowdhury (2022 Young Citizen of the Year, Inner West Council).
Clothes swap and sustainable fashion
It wouldn’t be Footprints without a clothes swap!
- Drop off a few preloved items of clothing between 11am to 12pm and get ready to swap at 12 midday sharp.
- Joanne Gambale from Slogue is managing the swap and she’ll be sharing her sustainable fashion tips in a talk and fashion show later in the day.
- Boomerang Bags will also be on hand to help you mend and repair your clothes swap finds or clothes you bring from home.
- Vegan fashion brand ENDIMALS has a stall and founder Louise Qiu will be sharing her tips on how to live vegan including with your fashion choices.
Reuse, sharing and repair
The festival will further promote reuse, sharing and repair of items through these activities:
- Make a crate workshop and a furniture repair café with The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre
- Oz Harvest will demonstrate how to cook creatively with leftovers
- Inner West Tool Library will teach some basic tool maintenance
- Upcycle a teeshirt into a bag.
There are many more fascinating workshops available on backyard and native bees, growing greens, composting, living soil, foraging, going all-electric or renovating your home sustainably, eco-friendly drawing, and how to respond to climate grief with simple actions.
Fun for the whole family
We’ve got loads of activities for children at the festival:
- Nature photography with The Young Naturalist
- Door snake making with Boomerang Bags Inner West
- Sculpting frogs out of clay with Art Est
- Creating a dragonfly from reuse materials with The Assemblage Sisters
- Skate workshops with Totem Skateboarding.
Tour the park and garden
Explore the unique characteristics of Whites Creek Valley Park on a tour:
- Bush tukka tour with a local Aboriginal horticulturist
- Whites Creek Food Forest tour with the food forest volunteer coordinator
- Due to unforseen circumstances we’ve had to cancel the tours of the wetland and natural areas.
Join in the 25 year celebrations at Whites Creek Community Garden. There’ll be garden tours, artists at work, workshops on composting and pollinators, a plant and seed stall and live music.
Audio in the cottage
This year we’re bringing you podcasts and sound works at Whites Creek Cottage. Pop by to listen to the sounds of the park and interviews with local residents including stories from Whites Creek Community Garden and Food Forest, the GreenWay and Cooks River.
Brought to you by artist-in-residences Trevor Brown and Anya Taylor, Inner West Icons podcast producer Jane Curtin and Brain on Nature podcast producers Sarah Allely and Olivia Rosenman.
Stall holders
Wander around the stalls and talk to local eco-groups about their initiatives, or browse hand-made, sustainably produced items to purchase. Full list on website.
We can’t wait to see you in the park, so book into a workshop, the clothes swap or talks, or drop by on Saturday 3 September. Let’s celebrate sustainability at Footprints Ecofestival!