Living the Green Way Festival returns EastSide

A fantastic four day festival of events and activities called ‘Living the Green Way’ aimed at encouraging people to live ‘greener lives’ will take place across the EastSide Urban Village from 13th to 16th September. The jam packed programme of events will also mark the first anniversary of the completion of the Connswater Community Greenway.

The festival, now in its second year, is organised by the Connswater Community Greenway Trust supported by The Urban Villages Initiative. The Urban Villages Initiative is a key action within the Northern Ireland Executive’s ‘Together: Building a United Community’ Strategy. A strategic action of this initiative is optimising local green spaces and to encourage healthy and resilient communities in the EastSide Urban Village area.

Events will take place in different venues along the EastSide Urban Village area and will include walking tours, fitness sessions, ‘bloom’ workshops, cookery demonstrations, yoga and ‘Reduce and Reuse’ workshops to encourage recycling. The festival will culminate in a ‘Green Living Fayre’ at C.S. Lewis Square on Sunday 16th September from 11am to 3pm.

It has been an exciting year for the Connswater Community Greenway with highlights including; receiving Green Flag Award status, winning Urban Project of the Year at the UK Rivers Trust Awards, hosting the first Christmas Market and cycling festival on C.S. Lewis Square, and the completion of the “What’s Growing on the Greenway?’ online blog. Connswater Community Greenway and C.S. Lewis Square continues to grow in popularity achieving just under 300,000 visits to date this year.

Michele Bryans, Connswater Community Greenway Trust Manager, commented;

“We are delighted to see the return of the ‘Living the Green Way’ Festival. Residents living in EastSide will have access to a range of fantastic events encouraging them to live a greener life style. This is a great opportunity for people to get out in the open spaces, engage with their local community, have fun and maybe learn something new!

Michele added;

We are also delighted to be celebrating the first anniversary of the completion of the Connswater Community Greenway. It has been a year filled with many fantastic achievements which is testament to the hard work and commitment from everyone involved. We look forward to continuing to animate and protect our beautiful green and open spaces in east Belfast for many years to come.”

Linsey Farrell, Programme Director, Urban Villages Initiative commented;

“I fully support the Living the Green Way festival as it encourages people to lead greener lives. The Urban Villages Initiative is committed to investing in the EastSide Urban Village area through a range of important community-led projects like this one, as well as a number of capital projects. We are delighted to support this worthwhile project and I would encourage people to come along and get involved.”

Susan Rollins from Yoga Quarter, one of the local companies taking part in the festival, said:

“On behalf of the Yoga Quarter, Ballyhackamore, we are delighted to be involved in the ‘Living the Green Way’ festival. We believe initiatives like this go a long way to encourage health and well-being. It also helps bring communities together in positive and meaningful ways. The overwhelming success of our recent Green Yoga programme, held at Victoria Park, clearly reveals a strong local appetite for getting active in activities held outdoors. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Connswater Community Greenway on a fantastic first year and look forward to working together with the team in the years ahead.”