1st Sustainable Favela Festival ‘Favela Solutions at the Center’ Welcomes 1,100 People to Experience the Socio-Environmental Power of Favelas
One month ago, on Saturday, October 19, following seven years of growing activity, the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN) hosted its first event open to the general public. The 1st Sustainable Favela Festival: Favela Solutions at the Center brought together 1,100 people from across Greater Rio in Lapa, in the heart of downtown Rio de Janeiro. The event featured 100 activities, all free of charge, led by organizers from over 90 favelas, including artistic interventions, hands-on workshops for adults and children, discussion circles, film screenings, exhibitions, stalls, a fair, and both individual and group healing practices.
The Sustainable Favela Network (SFN) was established in 2017 and has since been expanding its activities in favelas across Greater Rio. Today, it is comprised of 700 members, including community organizers from over 300 favelas and technical allies. The SFN works to implement climate justice by amplifying the potential of favelas as models of sustainable communities.
Held at Fundição Progresso, the 1st Sustainable Favela Festival (SFF) was organized by these favela collectives and allies as a grand meet-up to foster exchanges of socio-environmental solutions between members of the SFN and the general public. The festival featured diverse cultural presentations, hands-on workshops, discussion circles, exhibitions, stalls, a fair, and group healing therapies. Explore the extensive program that unfolded during a full day of activities.
This program reflects work taking place today to build on the ancestral knowledge and technologies emerging from favelas, enabling a rich exchange of experiences during the festival. Over the course of the day, traditionally marginalized communities took center stage, literally and symbolically occupying the city center, presenting solutions, as spaces that devise and implement infrastructure, generate technology, promote research, and advocate for climate justice, socio-environmental education, participatory policymaking, culture and local memory, food sovereignty, collective health, solidarity economy, basic sanitation, energy justice, just transport, and sustainable housing.
