Climate Carnival returns to Ballintubbert House and Gardens, next week
Former President Mary Robinson will be one of the guest speakers
THIS month, the Climate Carnival will return to Ballintubbert Gardens and House, Stradbally.
The event will bring together climate leaders, scientists, CEOs, activists, artists, farmers and musicians to discuss climate issues and their different approaches and difficulties with today’s environmental challenges.
The event will be headlined by a number of special guests, including former president Mary Robinson.
She will be joined by eco builder, broadcaster and author Harrison Gardner for an intimate fireside conversation at the climate dinner club, before musician and activist Seán McKenna, formerly of The Mary Wallopers, performs live.
The festival will include live music, more than 50 speakers, a zero-waste feast and dining and even diving in the local river. The 100 ‘changemakers’ in attendance will even sit down together for a three-course, zero-waste regenerative dining experience from FoodCloud, where the food itself becomes part of the climate conversation, with Ms Robinson and Mr Gardner using the dinner as a springboard to explore how areas such as food, justice and leadership interrelate into climate and community issues.
Last year, the inaugural climate carnival brought more than 500 people and 80-plus speakers to rural Laois for a climate gathering that deliberately refused to behave like a conventional conference; this year, the organisers say, they will be taking that unconventional ethos further.
Under the theme From Silos to Systems, climate carnival will connect four systems that shape how we live: culture, food, habitats and ocean.
Day one will see 50 of the event’s participants take part in a sauna session field trip, which will be hosted by adventure athlete Daragh Morgan, fisheries expert and science communicator Ken Whelan and landscape architect and historical geographer Clair McDonald. Together, they will trace the story of the River Stradbally, exploring how farming, colonialism and community have shaped the river and how, in turn, the river has shaped the people around it and participants will get a real hands-on experience in the landscape as the talk will take place in an outdoor sauna and in the river itself.
Day two will see a variety of workshops, debates, activations, live music, food, comedy and stalls. On the culture stage, Hector Ó hEochagáin, Seán McKenna and Dr Rupa Marya will come together for Art as Activism as Action.
Later, Hector will join Kealan Doyle and Breda Larkin for Chewing the Fat on Nature, a conversation about our relationship with the wild that promises big questions, honesty and a proper laugh, with the doom firmly left at the door.
On food, Dr Rupa Marya will join farmers, policymakers, ecologists and health voices for a land dialogue tackling some of Ireland's most loaded territory: farming, forestry, rewilding, food, ownership and policy.
For climate cocktail club founder Tom Popple, that collision of worlds is exactly the point.
“If 2025 was about signalling what leadership could be, 2026 is about escaping the block-world of silos and moving to systems and joining those systems together.” Climate Carnival takes place at Ballintubbert Gardens and House, Co Laois on 15-16 September.
Tickets are available from the Eventbrite Climate Carnival webpage.
Sauna sessions field trip: €50, limited to 50 places; climate dinner club: €125, limited capacity; and climate carnival: 16 September, €150 individual/team tickets from €90 per person.
