Climate-focused arts and culture festival returning and expanding in Toronto

An arts and culture festival with a special focus on climate change is returning this year in an expanded format in Toronto.

We Create Our Futures is all about the future of the climate and the environment, and following its inaugural year in 2025 the festival is now expanding in its second year with three full days of programming.

That programming will include a fashion show, Flavour Harvest food experiences, conversations about housing, democracy, and community wealth, and practical workshops about saving money, reducing waste and strengthening resilience.

Recent data states that 56 per cent of young Canadians aged 16 too 25 report feeling afraid, sad, anxious or powerless about climate change, 78 per cent say climate change is affecting their mental health, and nearly half of Canadian adults report significant concern about the impact of climate change on future generations.

The event loosely bases its ethos on a “solarpunk” philosophy.

“‘Solarpunk’ is a literary, artistic and social movement that envisions and works toward actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community,” reads the official website for We Create Our Futures.

“​​The ‘solar’ represents solar energy as a renewable energy source and an optimistic vision of the future that rejects climate doomerism, while the “punk” refers to do it yourself and the countercultural, post-capitalist, and re-indigenizing aspects of creating such a future.”

The festival was created through a collaboration between multidisciplinary artist Katrina Anastasia, social innovation leader Tonya Surman and dozens of organizations and individuals.

“We Create Our Futures is rooted in a simple idea,” said Katrina Anastasia, Co-Founder and Creative Producer of We Create Our Futures. “People don’t need more reasons to feel overwhelmed. They need places where they can experience possibility, connection, creativity, and action. This festival creates space for people to connect and remember that the future isn’t something that happens to us. It’s something we create together.”

“For more than 20 years, I’ve been helping build solutions to our biggest challenges,” said Tonya Surman, CEO of the Centre for Social Innovation. “What excites me about We Create Our Futures is that it doesn’t ask people to choose between imagination and action. It brings them together. We need places where people can connect, create, experiment and discover that a better future is already being built all around us.”

Tickets are now available online starting at $35 for one day, with three-day passes available for $80.

We Create Our Futures will be taking place from Oct. 16 to 18, 2026 at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto.