Time to Thrive

Bellingen Shire community comes together to hold a festival aimed at showcasing the skills, knowledge and talent across the region.

Thrive is a free one day festival at Bellingen Shire Showgrounds on Saturday 4th March with bonus tours and activities on Sunday 5th March.

Organised by the not-for-profit charitable organisation OzGREEN, this highly inclusive event is designed to bring everyone together to build community belonging and connectedness.

Running at the same time as the regular Bellingen Growers and Poultry Market, Thrive Festival will involve all sectors of the Bellingen Shire community including, community groups, emergency services, food producers, Gumbaynggirr elders, health professionals, musicians, renewable energy experts, weather watchers, environmentalists, performance artists, and government.

Thrive Festival was envisioned by a group of passionate people living in Bellingen Shire at a weekend workshop run by Bellingen Shire Council in November 2020. Mid pandemic and not too long after the bushfires, local residents were given opportunities to discuss ways to build community resilience. One of the recommendations resulting from the workshop was to run a shire wide community event that would strengthen networks and provide people with access to skills, tools and resources to prepare for future disasters.

"Community resilience means different things to different people. At OzGREEN, we believe that community resilience is about linking people together so that they can share local knowledge and take personal and collective action to prepare for future disasters that may affect them".

- Kathleen Hannah, Resilient Communities Program Manager, OzGREEN

The festival program is jam packed with a variety of unique and exciting activities that cover a holistic range of important topics such as water, food, energy, ecosystem and economic security. There will also be a focus on how to prepare for future disasters, such as, fire and flood, as well as, a variety of hosts on mental health and wellbeing activities.

"We've worked really hard over the last few months to make sure there's something for everyone at Thrive. There's interactive skill building workshops, talks and demonstrations by emergency services, visioning sessions, mental health activities, panel discussions, Gumbaynggirr storytelling, entertainment, stalls and lots of fun activities for kids.

We're really looking forward to bringing so many people across the community together"

- Alexandra Moller, Thrive Festival Coordinator, OzGREEN

A key objective of Thrive Festival is to rebuild community following a series of disasters and to prepare for future challenges that lie ahead. Another important aspect of the festival is to bring new and long time residents and community groups together in an all inclusive way.

"Bellingen Shire is full of talented people. Collectively we have everything we need to sustain a beautiful, happy and healthy place for many generations to come, but to do this, we all need to all work together. I'm really hoping that Thrive will enable and empower many different people living in Bellingen Shire to become involved in their community".

- Anna Juodvalkis, Partnerships Manager, OzGREEN

Thrive Festival is funded and supported by Bellingen Shire Council via a grant from the NSW Government.

See Thrive Festival to keep updated, or to book into one of the Sunday tours and activities here.