At Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat, Greenpop recently hosted its annual Reforest Fest over the Easter weekend, where more than 1000 participants came together to party with the planet in mind. Guests attended informative and inspiring talks and workshops led by both local and global voices; enjoyed live music, and a variety of nutritious, unique food experiences, all making for a truly transformative experience. This year also marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter: laying the foundation to scale restoration festivals globally, with Reforest Fest as a model for climate action through cultural celebration and active community-led restoration.

Together, We Planted 5021 trees!

Greenpop’s 14th annual Reforest Fest marks another step forward in their reforestation journey. After initially restoring the bare patches of Platbos Forest from 2011 to 2019, restoration efforts expanded in 2021 to the neighbouring Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat. Last year, planting efforts continued there and extended to a third, intermediate piece of land: Blomerus, under the custodianship of Georgina Hamilton.

This year, we had the pleasure of planting both on the Bodhi Khaya property with our youngest attendees, and the Blomerus property with our adult teams. Our goal, as always, is to support Greenpop’s Uilenkraal Forest Restoration project in linking the forests across properties, restoring Africa’s unique southernmost indigenous forest area.

Photographs courtesy of Shari Lee Thompson and Christian Khayó

A Weekend of Fun for All Ages

The event is as much a celebration of restoration as it is of culture, arts and incredible food, and the Bodhi Khaya grounds were sprawling with something for everyone.

Across the site, each area came to life with its own unique offering. At the Wellness Lounge, Restoration Tent, and Ubuntu Stage, inspiring talks expanded our horizons. Culinary experiences delighted guests at the Conservation Wine Tent and Wellness Food Village, culminating in a delectable Harvest Feast on Easter Sunday. The Main Stage buzzed with incredible live music throughout the weekend, while the Secret Stage, tucked above the dam at Bodhi Khaya, kept the party going late into the night with DJ sets.

Around one-third of the attendees were children, and the festival was packed with kid-friendly activities like storytelling sessions, an Easter Egg Hunt, and improv workshops. A highlight this year was a special paper-making workshop with Growing Paper, where participants learned how to create their own seed paper, combining creativity with sustainability. For the adults? Poetry workshops, wood carving, wellness activities, and a trail run with Gone. Outdoor, a guided forest walk with Francois Krige, and even an Adult Treasure Hunt on Sunday morning.

Photographs courtesy of Shari Lee Thompson, Christian Khayó and Kamielah Davids

“Think Global, Act Local”

From the Western Cape to the world, this year’s Reforest Fest was a celebration of local to global unity for land restoration. This year’s festival brought together changemakers from across the world: grassroots leaders, international delegates from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – G20 Global Land Initiative, and local communities working every day to regenerate their environments.  This year’s theme, Think Global, Act Local, echoed through every corner of the festival. 

Reforest Fest was a live case study of what the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration can and should look like: locally led, globally supported, deeply rooted in community and culture. Through a range of informative talks and workshops hosted at the Restoration Tent, with speakers like filmmaker and ecologist John D. Lui, Platbos custodian Francois Krige, Dr Derek Berliner, an international environmental consultant, and Corne Brink from Grootvadersbosch Conservancy, we showcased that without local action, there can be no global impact. 

Delegates from across Southern Africa and beyond shared powerful stories of on-the-ground restoration, highlighting community-led forestry efforts in Ghana, Lebanon, and Zambia, to name a few. This collaboration with the UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative not only brought international visibility to local efforts but also positioned Reforest Fest as a launchpad for a much bigger vision: scaling restoration festivals globally. 

“There is no green transition without Africa,”  noted Kofi Debrah, Co-Founder & Partner at OKO Forests and member of Reforest Fest’s UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative cohort, underscoring the urgency of elevating African leadership in broader restoration conversations. With the Global Landscape Initiative gaining momentum, the exchanges in the tent mirrored the mission: bridging global frameworks with tangible, local action.

For Misha Teasdale, Greenpop’s co-founder, Reforest Fest has always been about more than trees. It’s about healing people as well as ecosystems: “In a world where so many of us feel overwhelmed by environmental grief,” he shared, “Reforest Fest offers something rare: agency, joy, and community. It’s a cure for eco-anxiety.”

As changemakers from across continents shared stories of land restoration and cultural resilience, the festival became more than a South African success story — it became a prototype for what restoration celebrations could look like worldwide. By demonstrating the power of community-driven restoration in action, this year’s event helped lay the foundation for a new wave of festivals that inspire, educate, and mobilise people around the planet to care for the Earth — together.

Photographs courtesy of Shari Lee Thompson, Danel Wentzel and Christian Khayó

“I Am Because We Are”: Imagining the Spirit of Ubuntu with Hazendal

Across the lawns and labyrinth of Bodhi Khaya, the Ubuntu Stage—presented in partnership with Hazendal Wine Estate—offered a space to imagine a vibrant future with creatives and changemakers in the restoration space. Between festivities and outdoor fun, festival-goers could tap into a sense of Ubuntu: the idea that “I am because we are.” The Ubuntu Stage featured three activations across the weekend: Friday welcomed the inaugural Imagined Futures session, where movement, music, poetry, and reflection brought strangers and friends together. The first 45 attendees received sunglasses from Ballo Eyewear. Saturday invited all writers and non-writers alike into a moving poetry session where we laughed, cried, and connected over shared purpose. Sunday expanded our thinking with insights from experts in permaculture, environmental law, indigenous knowledge, and land restoration, leaving us inspired and informed.

The festival united people from across the globe and connected South Africa’s environmental challenges with its resilient community spirit, sparking change. Thanks to Khashana’s sponsorship, local community organisations joined to care for the environment and grow holistically. We featured BRAVE Girls, a movement started by 10-year-olds in Manenberg in 2011 to challenge gang violence and create safety. Through mentorship and road trips, they’ve reached over 500 girls and installed 58 safe space benches. Creative talents from Bridges for Music in Langa empower emerging artists from underserved communities, while Star Search Overstrand inspires and trains youth to pursue their dreams in the arts.

Photographs courtesy of Shari Lee Thompson, Danel Wentzel and Christian Khayó

The Wellness Lounge: Reconnection as Restoration

In partnership with Wellness Warehouse, the Wellness Lounge returned as a space to explore the connection between ecological restoration and personal well-being. Highlights included Dr. Murray Rushmere on integrative healing and nature therapy, Tim Wigley’s forest walk on co-creating with nature, Roushanna Grey’s edible plant foraging, and Ben Getz’s insights on food forest design. Each reminded us that reconnecting with nature is not just healing — it’s essential.

Photograph courtesy of Christian Khayó

Wellbeing From the Inside Out 

Across the welcoming grassy lawn of Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat—our annual venue for the event—food trucks serving delicious plant-based meals, offering everything from dumplings and pizza to smoothies and Ethiopian cuisine. The Wellness Food Village, in collaboration with Wellness Warehouse, offered a vibrant space featuring seasonal produce and local vendors like Happy Earth People and Pesto Princess, who hosted a pasta stand, Bliss, NUDE Foods, Nigiro Tea and Love Kos Mos (to name a few) — where food became an expression of self-care and ecological awareness. 

Wellness Warehouse’s ethos, ‘Let Food Be Thy Medicine’, echoed throughout the Food Village, highlighting the importance of whole, seasonal, and locally sourced foods — all while keeping the environmental impact of our food choices front of mind.

On Sunday, a Harvest Feast allowed the foodies to indulge in Kolossal Hospitality’s Chef Bridget Bartleman’s cuisine for a gorgeously curated Easter Sunday extravaganza. Behind the scenes, our epic team of volunteers kept the festival energy high, fuelled by hearty, wholesome meals made with locally sourced, stone-ground flour from Eureka Mills.  

We’d also like to extend a big thanks to Soaring Free Superfoods for stocking our Wellness Food Village condiments space with nourishing cacao and superfoods, fueling both our audience and crew, plus a power hamper prize for our Adult Treasure Hunt!

Photograph courtsey of Shari Lee Thompson

Wines in the Wild

Wines in the Wild at the Conservation Wine Tent, hosted in partnership with  WWF South Africa, came to life in a cosy corner of Bodhi Khaya, featuring Conservation Wine Champions and other leading wineries working toward sustainable wine-making practices. Over the weekend, attendees enjoyed two tastings featuring a range of reds, whites, and rosés, along with a flavourful wine, chocolate, and honey pairing. Served in repurposed glass jars, each tasting highlighted the Western Cape’s shift toward regenerative, sustainable wine farming. 

Local farms present at the Conservation Wine Tent activation, aptly dubbed Wines in the Wild, with WWF South Africa, included: Hazendal Wine Estate, Creation Wines, Skipskop Wines, Organic Wines by Sophie Germanier, Bosman Wines,  Lubanzi Wines,  Black Oystercatcher, and Boland Cellar. Each wine farm was carefully selected for their commitment to sustainability, with people and planet in mind in their wine-making processes. Wellness Warehouse and Honey Bee Heroes were also present, helping curate the wine, chocolate and honey pairing.

Photographs courtesy of Christian Khayó and Shari Lee Thompson

Restoring Nature With Local Partners

The important restoration work done over the weekend would not have been possible without our implementation partners on the ground (especially Francois Krige and Georgina Hamilton), incredible participants who got stuck in with us, and our local government partners – Western Cape Government, Overstrand Municipality, and Gansbaai Municipality. A special thank you as well to our regional tourism partner, WESGRO, and the Driven by Nature Foundation team, who joined us in transporting tools and trees for the planting day, as well as Burmar Plant Hire, who supported us with trucks and logistical assistance to transport gear to and from the event. 

A special thank you as well to our  Dacha Wellness for keeping our skin protected during the planting day, and Corona, Live Kindly ProVeg, Pesto Princess, Santa Anna,  AGT Foods, Peregrine Farm Stall, ButtaNutt, and BOS for sponsoring the delicious snacks enjoyed at the planting snack time. 

Photographers: Shari Lee Thompson and Kamielah Davids

Grooving to Local and International Live Musical Acts

The Main Stage boasted acts with the likes of local legends Grassy Spark and Zolani Mahola (The One Who Sings), as well as vibrant newcomers Congo Cowboys, Sibusile Xaba, The Rivertones, and Greenpop’s own Tree E O, Misha Teasale on the decks as DJ Crash Love. We’d like to extend a special thank you to Bothners and Cape Audio College for helping us bring a world-class sound experience to our event.  And a special shoutout to Connisseur Electronics for supporting our sound needs with two JBL speakers that kept the good vibes flowing all weekend. 

Across from the energetic Main Stage was the festival’s main bar, which was the perfect place to unwind and soak up the good vibes! Festival-goers could grab a refreshing drink and mingle while enjoying offerings from some of our favourite conscious brands — from spirited sips by Leonista and Hammer Live: Inverroche and Glenlivet, to botanical blends by Tea of Life, and vibrant mixers from Fitch & Leedes.

Photographs courtesy of Christian Khayó and Shari Lee Thompson

Sharing the Journey

Our beautiful venue, Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat, is nestled about 2.5 hours outside of Cape Town, and while road trips can be a blast, not everyone has access to their own transport. That’s where  Nomad Africa Tours & Safaris stepped in, providing eight buses to transport both participants and crew to the forest. Their support not only helped reduce our carbon footprint but also reminded us that eco-friendly travel is possible — and even better when we journey together.

Photograph courtesy Shari Lee Thompson

Treading Lightly

Reforest Fest was designed with care, not only to restore ecosystems, but to celebrate in a way that treads lightly on the land — from waste and water to energy and design, every element was approached with intention. We’d like to say a huge thanks to Petco, Gooi, and Viva con Agua for helping make Reforest Fest a powerful example of conscious celebration and environmental action! PETCO brought waste education to life with an interactive station and helped divert 1,704 kg of waste from landfill, including plastic, glass, tin, paper, and 562 kg of compost. With just 1.5 kg of waste generated per person, our strong focus on low-waste practices really paid off.

Viva con Agua advocates for water as a human right, leading water conservation efforts globally. They provided their Nina Manzi mobile showers and supported the festival in new water monitoring systems throughout the site. A huge thank you to the Viva con Agua team for joining us and showcasing what’s possible when we use water sparingly and wisely, with Better Earth products ensuring biodegradable care. With just 2,150 kWh of energy used and 2,500 kg of humanure to be processed, Reforest Fest continues to raise the bar for sustainable events.

The grounds of Bodhi Khaya sparkled at Reforest Fest thanks to Litehouse South Africa’s locally designed, energy-efficient solar LED lights. Their warm glow turned the forest into a dreamy escape each night, while using 80% less electricity! Besides the gorgeous lighting that illuminated the evenings, the festival grounds were brought to life with sustainable, eco-friendly décor. Hemporium’s hemp fabrics adorned the iconic Reforest Fest archway and were featured in a striking hemp banner above the Main Stage, boldly displaying our festival catchline: The Age of Restoration. 

We’d also like to say thank you to The Computer Hut Gansbaai, who provided solar stations and Wi-Fi across the site for our build period and during the festival for seamless internet for our team. A special thank you to The Pole Yard for assisting us with sustainably sourced timber for use in the event’s structural elements, as well as Regenerative SPACE, who assisted us with building beautiful benches from locally harvested alien vegetation. Thank you as well to Dimensions Tents & Structures, a key sponsor who provided the beautiful stretch tents that helped bring the festival to life.

Photographs courtesy of Shari Lee Thompson, Skyla Haley and Kamielah Davids

Looking to the Future

As we wrap up our 14th Reforest Fest, our green hearts are full. Together, we planted not just trees but seeds of connection, creativity, and community. And as we look ahead, may the spirit of Reforest Fest inspire us to keep showing up for people and planet, not only during a festival, but every day in between. This year marked a powerful first step toward scaling restoration festivals around the world, rooted in local, community-centred action and global collaboration. The Age of Restoration isn’t just a theme — it’s a growing global movement, and it’s only just begun.