Transition Town Totnes celebrates 20th anniversary with Midsummer Festival

This year Transition Town Totnes (TTT) is celebrating their upcoming 20th birthday with our first Midsummer Festival, a vibrant weekend-long celebration to honour nearly two decades of climate action and community-led change, with a weekend of music, art, theatre, and interactive visioning events.

Whether you’ve been part of the Transition story for years or are just discovering it now, the Midsummer Festival offers a unique opportunity to reflect on what’s been achieved—and to imagine what’s still possible.

The festival opens Friday evening in the beautiful Leechwell Gardens with a special performance on Whose Wild World? by Troubadour Theatre, followed by a journey through TTT’s roots with a look back at its earliest days in—how a small town in Devon sparked a worldwide movement. The evening concludes with performances from local musicians, welcoming the solstice weekend with sound and celebration.

Saturday begins in the early hours with a solstice walk to the Life Cairn in Sharpham, honouring species lost to extinction and reflecting on what it means to transition with compassion. The day continues with a showcase of <20 years of Transition work, including screenings of Transition films, exhibits from flagship projects like Totnes Pound, Grown in Totnes and Transition Streets, as well as businesses who’ve been supported by the Reconomy project, and some Transition groups from around the country. The event will include a screening of the Transition 1.0 film, and a Systems Games workshop to dive deeper into systems thinking and Transition principles.

On Saturday evening, at 5pm and 8pm, Rob Hopkins and Mr Kit have kindly come back from the future to bring a multimedia experience “Field Recordings from the Future”; transforming St John’s Church into an immersive, musical and visual journey into a hopeful, possible future. There will be music and drinks late into the night at the Totnes Civic Hall with Shakalaka and The Shred Band.

On Sunday TTT are thrilled to support the launch of South Hams District Council’s new E-bike scheme with a celebratory bike ridebthrough Totnes, followed by Zumba in Borough Park, and a community picnic in Leechwell Gardens. Local storytellers Steph Bradley and Mara Green will lead an imaginative, all-ages ‘Quest’ game, inviting participants to explore new narratives and pathways into the future.

Full info and tickets for all the events are now on our Eventbrite. These events have been supported by the Totnes Town Council and Arts Council England.

Reduced rate and free tickets are available for all ticketed events to reduce any financial barriers to folks attending. If you have any other accessibility questions, ticket wise or otherwise, please reach out to El via comms@transitiontowntotnes.org.