Youthful exuberance helms annual Sustainability Festival

A YOUNG sustainability advocate tasked with co-directing her second Bendigo Sustainability Festival next Sunday has been working tirelessly for a full 12 months to prepare.

Ava Parker, a 2025 City of Greater Bendigo Youth Awardee and newly appointed Bendigo Youth Council member, said putting the event together on behalf of the Bendigo Sustainability Group (BSG) is “year round”.

“As soon as we finished last year, we were already reflecting and making ideas for this year,” she said. “It doesn’t end.”

She said she has a better understandin of the associated organisational tos and fros the second time around.

“A lot of this festival was built off last year – we’ve strengthened the program with speakers and activities, but it’s a similar team and similar program,” she said.

“I had no idea what to expect going into it but I’ve learnt heaps along the way, and working at BSG has given me an extra insight into how it all happens, how things get from A to B.”

Ms Parker said this year’s theme – Home – has been put in place for several reasons.

“The theme focuses not just on our physical infrastructure but also on our bodies, our sense of belonging and partnerships in our communities,” she said.

“These are all things that we’re working on anyway, especially with home electrification being such a big talking point at the moment.

“That’s one part of it, but we didn’t want to focus the entire festival around that because we wanted to focus holistically on wellbeing and how everything comes together.”

She said the best potential outcome from the festival would be more conversations.

“We’re a grassroots initiative and we like to get people talking, connecting groups and helping them bring their ideas to life,” she said.

“That’s why this year we’re bringing everyone into the centre grassed area.

“It’s going to be hopefully very crowded and everyone will be mingling with a lot more conversations happening.”

Highlights to look forward to on the day include talks from horticulturist, garden designer, writer and broadcaster, Gardening Australia’s Millie Ross, Zoos Victoria project officer and ecologist Dr Aaron Grinter, and the CEO of the Sleep Health Foundation Dr Moira Junge.

There’s also going to be a “tree hugging” world record attempt between 1pm and 2pm that will require at least 593 people to break the current mark.

Family groups will be very much catered for with free face painting, life-sized board games, food stalls and a sustainable town built from cardboard boxes.

The 2026 Bendigo Sustainability Festival takes place next Sunday 29 March, from 10am to 4pm at the Garden for the Future in White Hills. Visit the Bendigo Sustainability website.