Save the date: Creative Harvest returns in 2027
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The gates are opening again
Creative Harvest returns on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 January 2027, with the full food gardens festival back across West Gippsland after a change of pace in 2026.
For one weekend, private garden gates across the region open to anyone who wants to walk in. You'll follow a self-guided trail, meet the gardeners, and pick up ideas you can take straight home to your own patch.
Some gardens are compact and carefully planned. Others sit within larger ornamental gardens or working rural properties. What connects them is a love of growing food, and a willingness to share what they've worked out along the way.
First, about 2026
Last year looked different, and we loved it. Eighty of you joined us at Yarragon Public Hall for a garden afternoon tea, and we ran a handful of workshops. Sourdough baking. Seed propagation. Grafting avocado trees. Plenty of scones, jam and cream provided by the CWA Drouin Nighthawks.
The 2026 garden afternoon tea at Yarragon Public Hall. Eighty guests, Merry People boots planted with flowers, dress-ups, scones with jam and cream, and a talk on sustainability.
It was a recharge year, and it did exactly what we hoped. We caught our breath, took stock, and got to work on the tenth year properly.
If you'd like the full story behind the change, we wrote about it here.
A festival that gets you thinking
Creative Harvest is West Gippsland's food gardens festival. It's less about admiring gardens and more about working out what's possible in your own.
Whether you've been growing food for thirty years or you're still at the thinking-about-it stage, expect practical ideas, honest conversations, and a fair few moments of "hang on, I could do that at home."
If you leave itching to get your hands dirty, we've done our job.
What's taking shape for 2027
Planning is well underway, with nine gardens currently in development for the trail.
The program will include:
Private food gardens across West Gippsland
Free talks and demonstrations in selected gardens
Separately ticketed workshops at Yarragon Uniting Church Hall
Local artists, makers, food vendors and market stalls at selected locations
Not every garden hosts extra activities. A few of the larger sites become festival hubs with plenty happening. Others are quieter, and that's the point of them: room to wander and talk to the person who grows there.
The final trail, workshop program and participating creatives will be announced closer to the weekend.
One ticket, one weekend
A weekend ticket gets you into every participating garden across both days. Single garden entry will be available too, though the trail is where the fun is, since no two gardens solve the same problems the same way.
Kids come free. Some gardens will welcome dogs on leads. Full visitor information comes with the ticket release on 1 November 2026.
Ten years in
Creative Harvest started in 2018, and 2027 is our tenth year.
Presented by the Baw Baw Sustainability Network, it runs on generosity. Gardeners share their gardens. Presenters share what they know. Creatives share their work. Volunteers share their time. Visitors go home with ideas, encouragement, and usually a plan.
Save the date
Creative Harvest, West Gippsland's food gardens festival
Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 January 2027
The gates are opening again.
Subscribe to the Creative Harvest newsletter for garden announcements, workshop details and ticket information as the program is revealed. Tickets go on sale 1 November 2026, and subscribers hear first.
Thinking about being part of it rather than just visiting? There are seven ways to get involved, from opening your own garden to volunteering across the weekend.
They're all on our Get Involved page.
