The Green Festival began in 1995 as an offshoot from Newcastle University’s Green Society and has slowly morphed over the years into the event we know today.

1995 saw the first Green ‘Fair’ take place in Leazes Park. To demonstrate how popular and great the park is, Friends of Leazes Park invited the Students' Union to host a festival there. Our first event had a music stage, held direct action workshops, and hosted stalls and craft workshops. Activities included learning how to tree climb and doing lock-ons! Within a year, the range of activities had greatly expanded to include three stages, a bar and many more green activities for all the family.

By 1998, it was decided to make the festival a two-day event. The number of volunteers wanting to run activities at the festival had grown greatly and we reckoned that since we had to bring the kit on site on the Friday, why not make best use of the whole weekend! Thus, the Sunday remained the same festival event with a great party feel and the Saturday ‘family’ day was born – a much more restrained, alcohol free day.

Over the course of its history, the festival has grown into a flagship environmental event in the region and is now dubbed the North’s ‘mini Glastonbury’. We intend to continue improving that reputation; raising awareness of environmental issues, not to mention giving the community a great weekend of entertainment in one of Newcastle’s most beautiful parks.