The IDN Events Fund 2025 | International Degrowth Network

In March 2025, the International Degrowth Network received a 7,500 euro budget from the Degrowth Conference Support Group to be split between organisations that plan regional/thematic degrowth events, festivals, conferences, or other types of community events. In the spirit of increased transparency, democracy, and participation, the IDN's Events Circle was given the responsibility to handle this distribution. With help from the Support Group and Steady State Manchester, more than 15,000 euros were raised. To make things as transparent as possible during the call, we published guidelines for applications and a criteria for evaluating the submissions. The selection process involved 12 people going through 54 submissions, with at least 3 people checking each one according to the criteria. In the end, 16 submissions were chosen, one was dropped after much deliberation, and 15 were confirmed for receiving funding, for a total of €13,225.

The Events

As of 25.02.2026, these events have already taken place:

La Bascule, a festival of social and ecological shifts (France)
The Degrowth & Delinking Pavilion, a parallel event to the Oslo Degrowth Conference (Norway)
Stepping Back to Go Forward. Trespassing Christiania, an art/activism event (several Nordic countries)
Răgaz, a degrowth festival (Romania)
Degrowth for youth, a thematic week event (Hungary)
Degrowth Advocacy: An Experience Sharing Forum (Taiwan)
Towards a Greener Future: Engaging Farmers in Degrowth Advocacy, a gathering for farmers (Zimbabwe)
Nabanna Utsav: Harvest of Enough, a festival (India)
Degrowth as Sovereignty for the Periphery, a conference (India)
脱成長祭り・Degrowth Matsuri, a meeting for degrowth enthusiasts (Japan)

These events are either taking place or about to:

Degrowth on Air: Dispatches from Futures Beyond Capitalism, workshop and radio broadcast series (Slovenia)
Portals - Egypt, a festival / micro-residency (Egypt)

Lastly, these events are either delayed, or it is unclear if they will actually take place:

Degrowth and labour struggle—coalition building workshop on climate and labour justice (UK)
Beyond the human-nature dualism: an (un)learning training, an intense training camp (Spain)
Re-incarnating the traditional Labdanum Resin Harvest from Mediterranean Rockrose in Mount Lebanon, an arts/activist project (Lebanon)

Highlights

We asked event organizers to send us a report of their events. Some highlights include:

Lavrenty Repin set out to walk backwards to Copenhagen, Denmark, "because the world is going in the wrong direction!" His performative walk awakened curiosity in people and invited dialogue, showing the power of art and activism in raising awareness in the most unexpected places. "By disrupting the commonplace (how we walk) in both physical and digital spaces," his project/performance, Trespassing Christiania, "invited ordinary people to question consumerism, food waste, and wealth inequality, and to imagine and witness alternative, ecological, and especially autonomous ways of living."
A very different scale could be felt in La Bascule, a four-day festival in Le Havre, France, which welcomed 500 people to its panel discussions, workshops, concerts, an activist bookshop, and much more. Thanks in part to the funding from the IDN, they could provide all this without an entry fee. The event had great repercussions, including the visit of MPs, several local radio interviews and local newspaper articles, and even a mention on a national radio program. The impact of the festival will be longer-lived than just four days, with the building of a semi-permanent stage for Le Hangar Zéro and two new murals.
Far from Europe, The M. Mutica In Action association brought together a smaller group of people in Taipei, Taiwan, for the Degrowth Advocacy: An Experience Sharing Forum. "The event presented insights from our degrowth practice and summarized each team's annual work, including the website initiative, housing-focused interviews, outreach activities, and future plans, while also offering a livestream for public participation and a documented recap shared afterward." Integrating the ideas of degrowth in their association operations is a challenge, given that it "might challenge the mainstream understanding of democracy, subjectivity, and diversity", so this forum was a great opportunity for all present to exchange experiences and learn from each other.
Jumping to yet another continent, the Zimbabwe Land and Agrarian Network organized Towards a Greener Future: Engaging Farmers in Degrowth Advocacy, a workshop for its members centered on degrowth, with a particular focus on tobacco farming. "This was the first degrowth event in Zimbabwe convened to diverse stakeholders to introduce and explore degrowth principles. It promoted dialogue on how degrowth can inform sustainable environmental policies, with participants sharing insights on integrating the concept into Zimbabwe's socio-economic and ecological frameworks for a more equitable and sustainable future." In addition, two event organizers, Lavrenty Repin and Steve Mberi, shared their experiences and what they learned from their events in an online call in February.

What have we learned from this experience?

1. It is not necessary to have a huge budget to make a gathering or community event. The maximum funding per project was €1500, the minimum €550, and the average €944. Many events took place even without our funds. This makes us consider the amount we might give in the future to each project, and reflect on how we can strike a good balance between supporting more events, and funding those that attract more people.
2. We received submissions from 30 countries! There is clearly a lot of interest for spreading the word about degrowth around the world. We were particularly excited about events happening in places where there is little discussion around degrowth, and we look forward to funding submissions from even more countries in the future.
3. Coordinating with informal groups and communities around the world is difficult. There are cultural differences which need to be taken into consideration to avoid frustrations from both sides. We should strive to communicate not only criteria and conditions for submissions as clearly as possible, but also any additional information that can make the process smoother.
4. Transferring funds internationally can be challenging, especially outside of Europe and Global North countries. There are restrictions in place both for receiving and sending money, and local accounting needs to be impeccable to avoid problems with tax authorities. We are looking at how we do this in the future and hope to have a much smoother experience next time.
5. In their feedback, many organizers highlighted the importance of the IDN helping them spread the word about their events. Some asked for continuous engagement in communicating their results.

Final words

All in all, the experience was so positive, that we are already hard at work on the Events Fund 2026! It takes a lot of work to review submissions, and to coordinate this work. Please step up if you would like to help us!