Ecofiesta returns to Munro Martin Parklands on Sunday

Promotion of sustainable living solutions, award winning music with an environmental focus, and an appearance by celebrity gardening guru Costa Georgiadis headline this year’s Cairns Ecofiesta.

Now in its ninth year, the region’s premier sustainable living festival will be held at Munro Martin Parklands this Sunday from 10am to 6pm, featuring live entertainment, educational hands-on workshops, a green tech expo and sustainable living solutions.

Global award-winning band Formidable Vegetable headlines the musical entertainment at Cairns Ecofiesta at Munro Martin Parklands this Sunday.

From a small town in Western Australia to the World stage, Formidable Vegetable is sowing the garden of our minds with the seeds of change for people, plants and the planet.

Formidable Vegetable is one of eight acts performing at Ecofiesta including local groups Drum Infinity, Deep North and Koahlition Featuring Djawarray, a Western Yalanji and Djabugay man from Ngunbay (Kuranda).

The festival will include over 50 market stalls in Florence St, with a focus on sustainable living solutions and environmentally friendly products.

Mayor Bob Manning said the event is a showcase of sustainable living in the tropics.

“Ecofiesta is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate the natural environment while seeing what sustainable living products and services are available in our community,” Cr Manning said.

“We live in one of the most beautiful and amazing parts of the world, with a diverse natural environment and we can all play a part in protecting it.”

Gold Logie nominee and celebrity gardener Costa Georgiadis, host of ABC’s Gardening Australia, is also returning to Far North Queensland this weekend for Cairns Ecofiesta.

The free event also includes various workshops across two spaces with educational content surrounding climate action and building community resilience – in line with Council’s Climate Strategy.

The program includes “seed balls with Earth Mumma” and “clay play with Astrid” for the children; and potting workshops with Treeforce and permaculture and backyard food production.

Division 6 Councillor Kristy Vallely said Ecofiesta has become a highlight of the region’s calendar.

“We are expecting about 10,000 people at the festival, which brings together the Cairns community, visitors, families and local businesses with a shared goal of celebrating and protecting our unique environment here in Far North Queensland,” Cr Vallely said.

“I love the way it showcases sustainable living; it is the perfect place to get practical advice on how to be more environmentally friendly at home, which is where our efforts to make a difference really start.”

The 2023 event will have a focus on First Nations culture and sustainability, including the inaugural Ecofiesta cultural ceremony.

The ceremony will include a Tri-Nations cultural performance, which will be a glimpse into the rich culture of our region’s First Nations people.

Hosts, the Yidinydji people of the Cairns region, will be joined by their neighbours, the Djabuganydji people from Kuranda and the Gungganydji people from Yarrabah.

Indigenous writer, filmmaker, musician Victor Steffensen, who came to national attention after the 2019/20 bushfires, will also be at the festival to share his traditional knowledge.

Mr Steffensen’s work has been based on the arts and reviving traditional knowledge values, particularly Aboriginal fire management, with Aboriginal communities and non-Indigenous Australians.

Florence Street road closure

Council advises that Florence St, Cairns City, between Sheridan and Grafton streets, will be closed on Sunday 4 June from 5am to 6pm.

Cairns Ecofiesta will take place on Sunday from 10am to 6pm, at Munro Martin Parklands, with sustainability markets in Florence St from 10am to 3pm.