GROUNDED FESTIVAL
ABOUT
GROUNDED Festival was founded in 2024 by Matthew Evans. It is a cross between a roaming farming conference, field days and a food festival, with multiple talks, demonstrations, food vans, a bar and plenty of chance for social interactions.
Each year we pitch up on a different farm, in a new region, showcasing the landscapes, people and ideas that make Australian agriculture so unique. In December 2024 Fat Pig Farm hosted the inaugural event. 9 months later, in September 2025, it was hosted by Galloway Springs near Bridgetown in Western Australia, and in 2026 we will be visiting the Otway Ranges in Victoria, holding the festival at Yan Yan Gurt West Farm.
Matthew is a trained chef turned farmer, writer, broadcaster and food activist. He co-owns Fat Pig Farm, a mixed enterprise on 70 acres south of Hobart in the Huon Valley. For over seven years he ran the on-farm dining room at Fat Pig with his partner Sadie where a team of talented cooks, growers, waiters, farmers and washer uppers took paddock to plate to its ultimate conclusion and grew just about everything served on site. In the process, they improved soil health, sequestered carbon and produced enough food for about 10 000 meals a year.
He has been the host of six seasons of Gourmet Farmer on SBS, fronted two documentaries For The Love Of Meat and What’s The Catch, and is the author of over a dozen books on food, including his ethical meat manifesto On Eating Meat, the groundbreaking SOIL, and his most recent revelatory book, MILK.
After visiting the UK’s Groundswell in 2023, Matthew was inspired to bring that same idea of a fun, informative and ground breaking agricultural festival to Australia.
GROUNDED is for farmers, growers, soil lovers, food systems thinkers, nutritionists, school garden enthusiasts and their friends. How to grow food better is important for ecosystems, food systems, health systems, financial systems and communities.
We know that practical advice is always best shared by farmers with other farmers. Knowledge is easier to digest when done on-farm, in a casual and entertaining fashion.
Expect 2 days of exceptional speakers and workshops on a multitude of topics, with stalls, great food, the Lazy Springtail bar, live music and on-farm camping.
We want everybody to not only be inspired, but also emboldened to make change, both on their farm and in their community. Farming better and getting food to all parts of our community in the best shape and most nutrient dense condition is in everybody’s interest. Participants leave not only with the tools to do better, but the confidence and inspiration to make it so.
Interested to see what our previous events looked like? Check out the programmes and recorded presentations from our past GROUNDED Festivals here.
GROUNDED Festival was established with the incredible support of an advisory panel compromising farmers and farm supporters with roots in all aspects of agriculture, including dairy, cropping, horticulture and grazing.
After the first event, with some experience under our belt, we’ve consolidated the team to a core group of hardworking individuals.
