The Neighbourhood Futures Festival is a community-powered celebration of nature, creativity and connection in the heart of Birmingham.
This free 3-day festival brought to you by charity Birmingham Settlement takes place 26th-28th June 2026 at the Birmingham Settlement Nature & Wellbeing Centre – a tranquil urban oasis beside the Local Nature Reserve of Edgbaston Reservoir.
The Neighbourhood Futures Festival begins on Friday 26th June with a spotlight on local action and urban green spaces. People of all ages are warmly invited to join, experiment and take action for healthier, fairer and greener urban futures.
View the full Power in Place agenda with speaker details here.
Power in Place: Friday 26 June
A welcoming gathering for community, green and growing groups and anyone interested in regreening their street, neighbourhood or workplace in Ladywood and beyond.
Too often our urban spaces aren’t designed for US.
Join Birmingham Settlement for an inspiring day of connection, learning and mutual support surrounded by trees and birdsong as we explore how communities can reclaim and regreen shared spaces to create futures where everyone – people and nature alike – belongs.
From community gardens to micro-movements, grassroots organising, hands-on experimentation and community-led change, gather around the campfire as we deep dive into place-based climate action and shine a light on the inspiring work happening across Ladywood and Birmingham.
Grab lunch from the Red Shed Community Café and explore drop-in activities throughout the afternoon – stay for the whole day or simply dip in as you please.
Later, we warmly welcome everyone to a friendly community picnic – share food, try hands-on activities, enjoy music, dance and play.
It’s a day to share learning, showcase what’s working, grow collaboration, generate practical ideas and find mutual support. Whether you want to relax in a beautiful green space, meet new people, discover local projects or feel inspired to make change in your own neighbourhood, there is something for everyone!
What to expect: Friday 26 June
We’d love you to spend the whole day with us, or alternatively drop-in to the activities that interest you!
View the full Power in Place agenda with speaker details here.
All Day: Festival Marketplace
Browse our vibrant community marketplace – meet funders, connect with local groups and organisations creating a fairer, greener, healthier Brum.
10.30am-11am: Coffee & Calm
Start the day with relaxing yoga or mindfulness in the beautiful surrounds of nature or enjoy a quiet coffee on the terrace.
10.45am-11.45am: Green Connections with Ladywood NNS (Neighbourhood Network Scheme)
Do you run green or nature activities – or want to start? Thinking about improving a local green space, sharing ideas or meeting like-minded folk? Join the Ladywood NNS team for a pacy networking session connecting local groups growing greener neighbourhoods.
11am-2pm: Friends of the Field: Community Compost Build
Our Friends of the Field volunteer group meets every Wednesday and Friday to help care for our 3-acre space. Drop in for as long as you like and get hands-on helping to co-build a new community compost bay – reducing waste and supporting growing across the site.
12pm–1.30pm: Campfire Conversations
Inspiring stories from the people, organisations and groups working with and for communities – from allotments and community gardens to planters, pop-up growing and acts of guerrilla gardening. Hear reflections, lessons and practical ideas from those taking action from the ground up.
– What’s already growing in Birmingham?: Wonderful work is happening across Ladywood and Birmingham. Through stories and conversation, gather round the campfire as our speakers share their journeys of starting and nourishing community green and growing spaces: what has worked (and what hasn’t!) and what they have learned along the way.
– Tales from Another City: In conversation with Nottz Garden Project, a Nottingham-based CIC on a mission to reclaim green spaces with communities so that people of all class and culture can experience horticulture.
– Tiny Gardens Everywhere: Explore the power of the micro – how balconies, containers and street planting can support biodiversity, wellbeing and community connection, and how small-scale growing contributes to the region’s wider Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
Featuring speakers and contributors from: Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF), St Germains, SPECTRA, Warm Earth, Grand Union, Birmingham’s City of Nature Alliance, ecobirmingham, Nottz Garden Project, National Trust Sky Gardening, Community Medicine Birmingham, plus more TBC.
1.30pm-2.30pm: Wellbeing Through Nature with Birmingham Mind
Join Birmingham Mind for a wellbeing discussion exploring improving mood through grounding techniques and nature. All welcome. Biscuits provided.
1.45pm-2.30pm: Climate Action Demonstrator Site Tour
Enjoy a guided tour of Birmingham Settlement’s Nature & Wellbeing Centre demonstrator site. Discover how we transformed an underused 3-acre space for people and nature, explore growing and wellbeing projects, and see climate action in practice through our living green roof, community composting, rainwater harvesting, solar power and ground source heat pumps – and be among the first to hear about ambitious plans for the site’s exciting next phase of development.
2.30pm-5pm: Seeing in Colour with Community Energy Birmingham
Community Energy Birmingham is a volunteer-led community benefit society helping Birmingham residents cut carbon and reduce energy bills through community-owned renewable energy, practical advice and local climate action. Drop-in to see life through a thermal imagine camera, discover how this colourful technology can help make homes warmer, greener and more energy efficient.
2.30pm-3.15pm: Navigating complex systems: Q & A
Whose land is it, and where can we start? From access to green space and funding to permissions, partnerships and community ownership structures – we take a grounded, honest look at the challenges to community-led greening and the support out there.
3pm–6.30pm: Neighbourhood Picnic & Play
We warmly invite friends and neighbours to join us for a community picnic on the field! Bring a blanket and your choice of food or grab something from the Red Shed Community Cafe, meet neighbours, drop-in to activities, enjoy the space and relax!
- Nature Navigators inclusive nature activities – explore the Overnight Moth Trap, get hands-on with pond dipping.
- Plant with Pat – a friendly beginners gardening drop-in. If you’ve never grown anything before, Pat will show you how!
- RECLAIM! Co-design your dream community garden, imagine a greener future using found and recycled materials.
- Sports, kids crafts and classic family games on the field.
3.30pm-4.30pm: Birds & Butterflies of Edgbaston Reservoir Walk
Join Chris Millward from Friend of Edgbaston Reservoir, founder of Brum Biosphere and Team4Nature for a fascinating wildlife walk. Explore the birds, butterflies and biodiversity of this important urban nature reserve and learn more about this ‘Friends Of’ group. Sign-up here or at their marketplace stall.
4.30pm-5pm: SHE: Through the Wild
Keneish Dance present SHE: Through the Wild – a contemporary African-Jamaican music and dance experience celebrating women as nurturers, providers and life-force. A reclaiming of freedom, connection and resilience.
Time TBC: Film screening: The People’s Emergency Briefing
An eye-opening new film bringing the latest evidence on what’s happening with climate and nature and the impact on everyday life in the UK. Followed by a guided discussion with Greenpeace Birmingham.
5pm-6.30pm: Campfire Open Mic: Neighbourhood Voices
For the people – stories, poetry, song and conversation around the fire. Sign up on the day and share your voice in this relaxed and welcoming open mic celebrating neighbourhood, creativity and collective power.
Who is it for?
Power in Place is for community groups and organisations both with and without a green space, community gardens and growing spaces of all shapes and sizes as well as residents and anyone interested in bringing more nature, connection and climate action into their street, neighbourhood or workplace.
Power in Place celebrates the work being done by the people in Ladywood and across Birmingham: the change that happens not because the system makes it easy, but because people care enough to make it happen anyway. It’s the stuff happening despite limited funding, the structures that don’t always make space for communities and the decisions being made far from the streets and neighbourhoods they affect.
It’s driven by people who care deeply about fairness, justice and the places they live – who are organising, growing, reclaiming and creating change from the ground up – putting community power into place.
You don’t have to already be doing it – come along to be inspired and find the support and inspiration to get started! We also welcome councillors, funders, academics and researchers, local businesses, investors and commissioners to join us to see the power of local.
Is it for families?
While the talks and workshops are primarily aimed at adults, our green space can be enjoyed by everyone! We have a small children’s play area plus sports, games and kids crafts on the field.
More dedicated family activities begin from 3pm at the community picnic, as well as throughout the weekend Play & Discovery Days.
About the Nature & Wellbeing Centre next to Edgbaston Reservoir
In 2021, Birmingham Settlement began transforming a three-acre green space beside Edgbaston Reservoir. It has since become our Nature & Wellbeing Centre – a safe, accessible and inclusive green space for nature, social connection, and improving community wellbeing.
Facilities include a warm and welcoming Community Café (fondly known as the ‘Red Shed’), two geodesic learning domes for nature connection, an amphitheatre for arts and performance, community composting, grow plots, and open green space for physical activity and play.
Everyone can enjoy and be part of our community, with a particular focus on Ladywood and North Edgbaston and serving communities that lack access to safe green space, that are isolated, facing financial challenges, and with physical and/or mental health needs.
Our unique spaces can also be hired for community and corporate events.
We always keep our activities and events free so they are accessible for everyone. If you are able to make a small donation to our charity to help keep the festival open to all, and to support care of our site, we would really appreciate it.
Partners & sponsors
The Neighbourhood Futures Festival is delivered in partnership with many other passionate, environmentally-conscious organisations, community groups, artists, educators, wellbeing providers – far too many to mention here but we are eternally grateful to you all!
Thank you to CIVIC SQUARE for supporting the day and Ladywood Network Neighbourhood Scheme (NNS) for supporting our networking event.
© Birmingham Settlement | Charity Registration Number: 517303