Sustainable Living Festival 2014

The Sustainable Living Festival is a yearly event held in Victoria that aims to inspire and empower everyday Australians to accelerate the uptake of sustainable living. It's goal is to 'raise awareness and provide tools for change by showcasing leading solutions to the ecological and social challenges we face'. This year the festival is comprised of over 200 events across Victoria. These include markets, workshops, talks, films, forums, art, interactive events ... the list goes on.

One of the highlights of the Festival, the Green Market, was held on 14-16th Feb in the heart of Melbourne. Lining the banks of the Yarra by Federation Square, the Green Market is a showcase of stalls promoting all aspects of sustainable living.  Permaculture Victoria (formerly known as Permaculture Melbourne) had a strong presence at the Festival, hosting a stall and giving free public talks. 

I had fun volunteering at Permaculture Victoria's stall which also encompassed the Natural Beekeeping group. We volunteers spent the day chatting with members of the public about permaculture and bee-friendly beekeeping. 

There was a constant stream of people in and out of the stall and it was really nice to share our enthusiasm and have the chance to talk to people about all aspects of permaculture and keeping bees. 

 

We had honey available to taste and people were amazed at the quality and the different flavours of the honeys that came from backyard beekeepers. 

It was interesting to see the number of people wanting to get their own suburban hive - it seems the interest in backyard beekeeping just keeps growing.