York Environment Festival is back for 2026!
After a successful run in 2025, the Festival will return for its seventh year from Saturday 3 October – Sunday 1 November 2026.
York Environment Festival is a chance to showcase and celebrate the brilliant work being done by local environmental groups, campaigners, businesses, universities, schools, arts organisations – and more! All events in the festival will be open and free to attend, offering York residents a chance to get involved and find out more about how they can champion their local environment.
YEFest2026: a focus on the future
The number seven carries significance in a number of ways. Cells in the human body take on average seven years to regenerate, for example, whilst the Seventh Generation Principle encourages decision-makers to not only consider the present day, but to plan for a world that will be sustainable seven generations into the future.
With this in mind, the focus of this year’s festival will be on the future and the power of younger generations to make change. We will wonder; how can we build better for future generations? For our own resilience? For communities? As seven years have come and gone, now is the moment to look back on how far we have come, but also acknowledge the risks of repeating ourselves and falling into inertia, or even hopelessness.
Take part in York Environment Festival
The call for events for YEFest26 will open on Friday 1st May. We are looking for events that offer a chance to connect with the future-focused theme – whether through education, activism, connection, creativity or hands-on practical activities. Ready to get involved?
Past events have included everything from nature walks to film screenings to arts workshops – you can browse our event calendar for inspiration here. We welcome any event that engages in some way with the local environment and/or the climate and biodiversity crisis., provided it meets all of our event guidelines (you can read our event guidelines here).
Event organisers in previous years have commented that being part of the programme offers greater visibility for events, enables them to reach new audiences, and gives them the sense of being part of something bigger. Why not join them?
If you have any questions about York Environment Festival or your proposed event, you can contact us at: info@yorkenvironmentfestival.org.uk.
The History of York Environment Festival
York Environment Week was started in 2020 by York Environment Forum as an annual opportunity to raise awareness of how people in York are working hard to tackle climate change, increase biodiversity and make the city more sustainable. Since then it has grown year on year, expanding to become a multi-week programme of events.