Green Hustle is back

On Saturday 1st of June, Nottingham’s Green Hustle Festival returns with loads of free activities, creative workshops, talks, live music, street entertainment, a pop-up garden and even a community café serving pay-what-you-feel meals. The Institute is proud to once again support this great festival and share some of Nottingham’s latest research through this popular community event!  

What is Green Hustle?

Green Hustle is described by the organisers (Green Hustle CIC) as an annual festival uniting local artists, creatives, entertainers, organisations, and community groups to celebrate life, creativity, and a greener future for Nottingham. This year, the festival aims to facilitate the creation of new green spaces and tree planting within the city. It will serve as a platform for organisations to support this cause and for residents to learn about green issues and sustainable living. This includes making ethical purchases, growing plants in various sized pots and plots, and adopting sustainable practices to make our city greener, healthier, and more connected.

We all want to be healthy and happy, secure and well fed with a roof over our heads, living in a thriving world that we know is safe for the future, in a community we feel valued in - the Green Hustle Festival means coming together, growing connections and imagining a better future. It’s important to come together and find our 'common ground' at a time like this, for people to see how much great stuff is going on in our communities, and take hope for the future

Last year’s festival was a resounding success, attracting over 10,000 participants who enjoyed a variety of activities, talk shows, and exhibitions. Building on this success, this year’s edition will take place on Saturday, 1st June, at the old Market Square in the heart of Nottingham’s City Centre.  

How we are supporting this year’s festival

For this year’s edition, the Institute for Policy and Engagement will be supporting the festival through a grant towards infrastructure and by funding two research projects linked to this year’s theme of common ground.

Sustainable cultivation in small spaces using recycled materials

Dr Stacia Stetkiewicz  is leading a group from biosciences who are running a project in partnership with Honeybee Farmacy. Their project demonstrates the potential of sustainable cultivation in small spaces using recycled materials. Alongside student and community volunteers, they will create showcase raised beds, filled with edible and flowering plants. It is intended to inspire visitors by showing how much is possible through urban gardening in Nottingham’s climate. This garden will also serve as an educational platform, providing valuable sustainability tips to visitors, including companion planting to naturally deter pests and diseases, as well as alternatives to peat-based compost.

This UoN and Honeybee Farmacy CIC project is aiming to inspire people to take up gardening in Notts. Whether in small pots on windowsills or joining a gardening group, we’ll show that growing your own is easy, fun, delicious and sustainable. Help from the community with St Edmund Campion school kids sowing peas and Nottingham Organic Gardeners building recycled planters and caring for our plants before the event has made this possible, and we’ll install the garden in Welbeck Primary in the Meadows after the event, so it can continue to flourish and nourish for years to come.

In addition to the showcase beds, the festival will feature a ‘Grow Your Own’ space. Here, attendees will have the opportunity to plant their own seeds in recycled planters, such as tetrapaks and empty jars sourced from local cafes and university catering outlets. These planters can be taken home, encouraging continued growth and fostering a connection with nature. The focus will be on easy and quick-growing options like pea shoots, making gardening accessible to all, regardless of experience. This will not only promote sustainable living but also emphasise the festival’s commitment to a greener, healthier, and more connected community. 

Leaf it out! - A study on leaf collection and use based at Wollaton Park

In collaboration with The Friends of Wollaton Park, Dr Katy Voisey will be showcasing learnings from her study on leaf collection, disposal, and potential uses. Her project will focus on life cycle analysis of leaf usage versus natural decomposition, exploring leaves as corrosion inhibitors, backed by promising preliminary results. At the event, there will be displays summarising the life cycle analysis of leaf uses, enhancing public understanding of this often-misunderstood term. Katy and her team will also present experimental results and demonstrate leaf extract generation.

At the festival I would like to see people getting excited and imaginative about potential uses of leaves. I’m interested in using this very familiar item to open people’s eyes and get them thinking about resources, particularly about how the same thing can be a problem or a resource depending on its location.

Other interesting features

In addition to these, Green Hustle is also supporting the Nottingham City Council’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2028 and the team from CN28 will be present at the festival to share what they're doing, to give everyone the chance to be involved and have their say.

Overall, the festival will feature street entertainment from Capoeira Nottingham, Circus Hub and Laura Decorum; pop-up accessible garden showcasing University of Nottingham research; a market featuring independent sustainable retailers, including jewellery, skin care, zero waste, mushrooms, vegan treats and clothing; a talks tent featuring talks about gardening, de-paving the city, zero waste and so much more.