— Naryan

Mycelium matters!

— Naryan

Less stuff, more joy!

— Naryan

A better economy sounds like a beautiful song sung by joyful people, on regenerative land honouring Indigenous knowledge.

— May

— Naryan

This Festival centres Canada. We welcome other voices from around the world to join us!

— Naryan

— Rose

The writing is on the wall...

— Rose

We need a different economy as the current one drives us to loneliness, despair, and apathy. We can choose conservation over consumption, cooperation over competition, and meaning over money. ~ Joyce

— Joyce

Decarbonizing the use of energy by businesses, industry and transportation.

— Ian

— Heather

Flowing, pooling, evolving, cycling.

— Heather

— Rose

Distributed Intelligence (image from The insane biology of the Octopus : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFP_AjJeP-M)

— Rose

Re-integrating the digital-virtual space with 3D public community spaces so we realize our OWN purposes in our social networks and not those of algorithmic profiteers.

— Johanna

Don't walk ON or OVER the Land. We move WITH the Land, in partnership.

— Johanna

"Sleep of the Huntress" , Haliburton Sculpture Forest. Something so calming about a representation of peaceful rest embedded in/emerging from granite bedrock of the Earth.

— Johanna

Reconnecting digital and 3D worlds with a bit of guerilla stickering out in public.

— Johanna

— Naryan

The Festival joined the Toronto Nature Stewards!

— Naryan

— May

Dreamy Futures Art Jam folks! We dreamed, danced, sang, painted. and moved towards a future we want to have, together.

— May

— Christine Joann

Closing Ceremony!!

— Christine Joann

"Came for the solutions, stayed for the relationships" -Yuli

— Yuli

We did some real good thinking together! Glad to have made so many new friends!

— Naryan

Thank you everyone for being so open and willing to share, even when it was vulnerable. This (un)conference covered a lot of ground, but it also went surprisingly deep!

— Rebecca

I discovered that i came for the solutions, and stayed for the relationships -Yuli

— Yuli

Thank you everyone for a meaningful festival for our future... :-)

— Evan

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS 😄😄😄

— Sarah

If the current economy is a brownfield, we are the dandelion and the plantain pulling toxins from the soil and making it possible for shrubs which will make it possible for trees to take root.

— Kevin

I commit to spending the time to digest what happened here, and share it intentionally with those in my network who are learning with me - Reimagining Education Conference, Limicon and COhere Boulder

— Naryan

Commitment: digest from the harvests!

— Yuli

— Christine Joann

We're in this together!

— Christine Joann

— Naryan

This festival centres Canada, though we welcome participants from around the world!

— Naryan

This festival centres Canada, though we welcome particaption from around the world!

— Naryan

Festival for Re-imagining the EconomyRe-imagine Festival

Two weeks online & local · co-created by everyone who joins

The economy is a story.
It's time we wrote a new one.

Across Canada, people are already building something different — rooted in wellbeing, not extraction. The festival is where we bring it all together: pooling research, frameworks, and lived experience into a shared, evolving picture.

See how it works

📅 2 weeks, August 12–26🪶 Pay-what-you-can, $0 option always available🌱 Every voice shapes the program

Make this festival your own

This festival comes alive when participants become co-creators, animating the two weeks with offerings that are as meaningful for the hosts as they are for the collective. This website is an example of this — once registered, you can add your own thoughts, doodles, and images to shape this festival publicly.

Plus — join our weekly ‘co-creation sessions’ ahead of the festival to meet the others who are already making the festival what it might become.

Prologue

One story we made up — and can rewrite

The economy isn't a law of nature. It's a story we agreed to live inside: profit first, growth always, consequences later. The cracks are showing — in wellbeing data, in inequality, in the places we live.

For decades, people across the country have been writing a different story — through research, cooperatives, land trusts, and communities that already live the alternative. This festival is where those threads meet.

The shift is fractal: it shows up in how one person thinks, how an organization defines its purpose, and in the policies that shape us all.

ExtractiveRegenerative

Profit-firstWellbeing-first

Short-termLong-term

Isolated effortsCollective insight

This shift happens at every scale: in how you think, in how your organization works, and in the rules that govern us all. The festival makes room to work on all three, together.

How it works

This festival is what we make of it

There's no fixed agenda from above. The program comes from sessions that participants propose — conversations, workshops, practices, and stories that fill the shared calendar everyone explores.

You bring it

Create Session

Host a dialogue, workshop, story circle, or practice — on anything that moves us toward a better economy. You pick the title, format, and capacity.

It's shared

It joins the calendar

Your session appears on the shared schedule alongside everyone else's. Participants browse, RSVP, and build their own path through the festival.

We gather

Meet with curiosity

Sessions are transcribed and summarized. Reflections afterward ("harvest") pull out what was learned — for hosts and for the wider festival.

It compounds

It enters the Commons

Recordings, harvests, and insights go into a shared library — a growing picture of what a better economy actually looks like.

Many lenses, one shift

Whatever you call it — there's room for it here

No single framework has it all figured out. The festival is a meeting place for the movements, models, and vocabularies already pointing the same direction.

This is a starting point, not a boundary. If your work points toward wellbeing and shared flourishing — it belongs here.

Once we're underway

Watch the program take shape, in real time

As people propose sessions, a live feed appears here — and as they join, a map of the community grows alongside it.

Recently proposed sessions

Updates live during the festival

Dialogueadded 19d ago

Festival Synthesis #4

Along with our usual weekly co-creation time, this session continues the post-festival synthesis process. Ops team and synthesis team will bring in some seed topics and questions. You're welcome to bring your curiosity and desires. All are welcome. We hold this as a friendly and welcoming space for all, don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions or suggestions!

The growing community

Anonymized

Join the festival to see the full map, get to know the others, and watch as the shape of us emerges.

Why gather like this

From many ideas of a better economy, one complex picture

"Difference is a catalyst for learning, not a problem to solve."

We're not here to agree on one model. We're here to see how degrowth, cooperatives, doughnut economics, and a dozen other lenses fit together — and where they disagree in useful ways.

"The work itself is where we find wellbeing."

This isn't a festival about wellbeing held at arm's length. The pace, format, and facilitation are meant to feel like what we're working toward.

"A movement grows because it's felt, not just argued."

Every session, harvest, and connection goes into a shared Commons — proof, for anyone who finds it later, that a better story is already being lived.

Real people, real work

The story is already being written

This festival is for the people and groups who are already working to transform our economy and society. A space to bring your live questions and share what you've learned over the years. It is also for folks who do not yet see themselves in the work, to discover how your experience and skills might contribute to the larger picture. This is a movement that will reach every Canadian, and each of us has a chance to bring the conversation into new places.

And should our union with the future become harvest
Should the tree we've planted
In whose shade we will never live to sit
Bear bountiful generations in her branches
It will be because
We mingled

— excerpt from Putting It All Together, by Kevin Sutton

Participants laying out blankets and mats in a circle under a large tree — Open space

A harvest board covered in colourful sticky notes from opening ceremonies — Collective wisdom

A small group of facilitators in a close huddle on a wooden floor — Real relationships

Your seat is waiting

Come help write the next chapter

Registration is pay-what-you-can — including $0 — because this story belongs to everyone. A short survey on arrival helps us connect you with your people and your sessions.

The economy is a story.It's time we wrote a new one.

Make this festival your own

One story we made up — and can rewrite

This festival is what we make of it

Create Session

It joins the calendar

Meet with curiosity

It enters the Commons

Whatever you call it — there's room for it here

Watch the program take shape, in real time

Recently proposed sessions

Festival Synthesis #4

The growing community

From many ideas of a better economy, one complex picture

The story is already being written

Come help write the next chapter

The economy is a story.
It's time we wrote a new one.