Seeds of Hope is a brand-new festival celebrating community gardening in Calderdale. Building on our rich heritage of growers and community gardens, in the birthplace of the global Incredible Edible movement,we will be celebrating our boroughs gardeners and creatives through thecreation of micro show gardens at the Seeds of Hope Festival at Shibden Hall this summer, celebrating 100 years of Shibden Park.

CultureDale are looking for applications from community groups and organisations for the creation of a series of unique micro show gardens, that will form the Seeds of Hope trail around Shibden Park. The gardening festival will be free to attend and will also include family trails, talks and activities. After the festival the gardens will return to the groups who made them for everyone in the local community to enjoy.

By taking part in the project, groups will be able to develop new gardening areas, increase opportunities for local people to volunteer and to connect gardening groups to the schools we will be working with as part of the wider engagement project.

The inspiration for the festival came from Lights, Camera, Score! a UNESCO Seeds of Hope schools project, where English Chamber Orchestra musicians and animators are brought together with schools to dream up musical scores and animations to inspire environmental action. UNESCO asked us to think big to widen the impact of the project beyond the participating schools and Seeds of Hope Festival was the outcome!

Create a Micro Show Garden
‍This is the big one – would your group like to create a show garden orparklet to present at the Festival in August? We are looking for groups to collaborate with local creatives to create an inspiring Micro Show Garden. Established groups can apply for up to £5000 to create a micro show garden to show case at the festival.

The fund will be launched and open for applications on 12 February 2026:
- Application deadline Monday 2^nd March 2026
- Panel decisions will be made by Thursday 5^th March 2026
- Successful applicants will be notified by Friday 6^th March
- Creation of the micro show gardens will take place from March to August 2026
- Installation of the show gardens at Shibden Park will commence 10^th August 2026
- The show garden trail will be open to the public from Thursday 13^th August to Sunday 16^th August 

‍If you are a business and would like to apply to exhibit a self-funded micro show garden please contact our team using the Expression of Interest form.

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SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
HERE

Deliver an event, talk, tour or workshop
‍Are you a creative with an idea for an event, talk, tour or workshop linked to the Seeds of Hope Festival?

We are looking for a variety of free and ticketed events to present as part of the wider programme both at the festival and in our community gardens and would welcome connections to help support our successful show garden applicants.

You can upload your profile to the Calderdale Creates directory and tag it with ‘Seeds of Hope’ to enable our team of successful gardens to find and contact you or contact our team directly with your ideas by emailing culturedale@calderdale.gov.uk.

Volunteer
Would you like to volunteer at one of the community gardens or at the Seeds of Hope festival in Shibden Park this summer? All of our projects will be looking for hands-on gardening volunteers to support the creation of the gardens. We will also be recruiting event makers to support visitors during the festival in August.

You can find out more about the benefits of volunteering and register your interest on the CultureDale volunteer page here.

Schools
The inspiration for the festival came from Lights, Camera,Score! a UNESCO Seeds of Hope schools project, where musicians and animators are brought together with schools to dream up musical scores and animations to inspire environmental action. UNESCO asked us to think big to widen the impact of the project beyond the participating schools and Seeds of Hope Festival was the outcome!

The 10 Lights, Camera, Score! participating schools for 2026 will be announced soon and our community engagement team will be working with these schools to link them up to the Seeds of Hope show gardens to share ideas, knowledge, and practice.

We will be creating an educational resource with free workshops and ideas to download for wider schools’ participation. Check back soon to find out more. 

SEEDS OF HOPE ON YOUR STREET

Ward Forum Grants
Do you have an idea for a project that could improve the environment in your local area?

Calderdale Council has Ward Forum Grants available each year for constituted groups to apply for up to £500 for activity that will benefit people in each ward. Ward forum funding supports projects and activities that bring people together, improve wellbeing and improve the environment.

You can find out more about these grants if your area by speaking to our team or reaching out to your local neighbourhood team:
Ward Forum Priorities | Calderdale Council 

Active Calderdale
Are you an established group in Cornholme, North Halifax, Park, Rastrick, Sowerby Bridge or Todmorden wanting to improve a small area in your local community? This could be a ginnel, patch of unloved land, or a green space in your local park: help to make somewhere look and feel more appealing to enable people to move and be more active. 
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The Active Calderdale team would love to hear from you:
Cornholme, Sowerby Bridge, Todmorden contact Emma.Carter@calderdale.gov.uk
North Halifax contact Simon.Duckenfield5@calderdale.gov.uk
Park, Rastrick contact Anthony.whittaker@calderdale.gov.uk