Ecofest – ARTS MILDURA

We bought light to the darkness of winter, and produced a fully sustainable, off grid, conscious and eco-friendly event. The event bought together many pockets of the community (children, artists, environmentalists, farmers and festival goers), and demonstrated how a festival can be a social and environmentally conscious event.

The program consisted of:

– Intergenerational lantern parade

– Pedal Powered outdoor cinema, screening films Chasing Coral and Accelerate

– Off grid music stage featuring live performances by Leah Senior, Mon Coeur, Michaela Alexander, Rory Walker & Domenico de Clario

– Participatory workshops & discussions on regenerative farming, wicking beds and more

– Live (pedal powered) projection wall, with audience-generated visuals

We demonstrated true sustainability – in people power – throughout. And the fact that the whole event was single use free, carbon offset, and sustainable.

This was demonstrated in so many ways:

pedal power for the cinema
reused crockery from the bar
LED lighting not incandescent lighting (much more eco!)
to the small amount of power we used for the LED lighting being the excess power generated by the solar panels
Eco paper and dyes for the posters (plus a very minimal print quantity – around 1/3 of what we usually print)
Wood fired heating for the cob over cooking
Encouraging everyone to car pool / pedal / walk
Carbon offset/tree-planting donation to balance out the omissions that artists/crew incurred travelling to the festival

We surveyed the audience community on the night, and some really inspiring outcomes were measured, namely that:

88% of attendees reporting an increased sense of belonging
90% of attendees thought that the event increased the cultural contribution to Mildura
92% of attendees felt that this was an inclusive event
83% of attendees mentioned that they met new people at the event
81% of attendees felt that the ECOfest was a distinctive event on the Mildura Arts calendar

The festival was delivered in partnership with:

Mulberry Tree Playgroup / Sunraysia Sustainability Network / 350 Mallee /

Food Next Door / Christie Centre / With One Voice Choir