Regen Storytelling, Music & Community Action – MEERGroen Community Garden Visit
Spend the morning after KFF26 with your hands in the soil at one of the Netherlands' most quietly radical community gardens — a volunteer-built proof that former grain fields can be turned into thriving food forests, biodiversity corridors, and gathering spaces.
Saturday May 30 · 10:00–14:00 LincolnPark Community Garden, 531 Bennerbroekerweg, Hoofddorp
LincolnPark sits a short ride from Schiphol on land that, not long ago, was monoculture grain farmland. MEERGroen turned it, and keeps turning it, into a living demonstration of what regeneration looks like when communities (not budgets) do the heavy lifting: vegetable beds without pesticides, rescued trees from MeerbomenNU and MoreTreesNow finding new homes, pollinator meadows, and people learning the practice by doing it.
This isn't a panel and it isn't passive listening. You'll work alongside the MEERGroen team and fellow KFF26 participants on real garden and biodiversity tasks, hear stories from active ecosystem restoration projects, and share food, music, and conversation in small groups. Bart van Ulden — ecosystem restoration practitioner, MEERGroen board member, and musician with Amsterdam street band Toeter en Bellen — anchors the day, weaving ecological practice together with music, culture, and community storytelling.
Coming off a festival week of big ideas about regenerative futures, this is the chance to put the conversation into a wheelbarrow. Strangers become collaborators, stories become tools, and regeneration stops being abstract.
A grounded, hands-in-the-soil closing chapter to KFF26's Metamorphosis week.
YOUR EXPERIENCE INCLUDES (Free)
Hands-on garden and biodiversity work alongside MEERGroen, MeerbomenNU, and MoreTreesNow Regen storytelling and small-group conversations on what scaling nature-based solutions actually takes Music and cultural connection with Bart van Ulden and Toeter en Bellen Shared community food and drinks from the garden First-hand exposure to a working pesticide-free urban farm and pollinator meadow Fresh air, fresh ideas, and a soft landing after the festival
WHAT TO BRING
Rain jacket, outdoor shoes, and clothes you don't mind getting muddy A can-do attitude and curiosity
YOUR HOSTS Grant Holton, MEERGroen / MoreTreesNow, focused on scaling nature, social, and community value capital through community-based regeneration. Bart van Ulden, ecosystem restoration practitioner, MEERGroen board member, and musician with Toeter en Bellen.
A NOTE ON THIS EVENT This is a community-organised side event on the KFF26 Luma calendar, hosted by MEERGroen, MeerbomenNU, and MoreTreesNow. It's not part of the official KFF26 programme; it's one of the gatherings the community is putting on around the festival to extend the conversation and the connections.
This side event is open to KFF26 ticket holders only. You'll be asked to confirm at RSVP.
Capacity is intimate (5–25). Reserve early.