Ballintubbert Gardens & House, Co. Laois
IT'S SYSTEMS TIME
Welcome to Climate Carnival 2026. If 2025 was about signalling what leadership could be, 2026 is about escaping the block world of silos and moving to systems, and joining those systems together. We welcome you all on that journey. Be part of this radical system connect business, policy, science, finance, art, activism, impact and more at the Climate Carnival 2026.
- Tom, Chief Troublemaker
2026 VISION
No more silos. Stop. We are in the age of systems - small, big massive and connected.
Climate Carnival 2026 is two days, three core events, four stages, 1000+ changemakers.
Day 1 - turns the lens inward, on your thinking, your leadership, your capacity to act.
Day 2 - turns it outward, onto the systems that shape the world we're trying to change.
2 DAYS 3 EVENTS 4 STAGES
CULTURE HABITATS FOOD OCEAN
We major on four systems: Culture, Habitats, Food and Ocean. We will discover, explore and connect them - weaving science, business, finance, policy, creativity and activism across 30+ sessions. Time to learn, challenge, collaborate and grow. 50+ world-class speakers, leaders and performers will bring you on that bold journey. Giving you the insight and inspiration to take back into your role, organisation or community - and drive change beyond the silo.
BIG VOICES
PROVOKE. CONNECT. SHIFT.
Meet some of the thinkers, doers, creators and changemakers bringing big ideas and fresh perspectives to Climate Carnival. Different worlds, different voices, one shared purpose: moving us from silos to systems.
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You’ve met a few of the voices. Now see where the conversations take you. Explore the full Climate Carnival programme across Food, Culture, Habitat and Ocean, with talks, workshops, performances and plenty of unexpected collisions along the way.
3 EVENTS
Field Trip, Dinner, Carnival Day
Three events. One climate carnival. One big shift from silos to systems. We begin with the Sauna Sessions, stripping things back and opening up the conversations that matter. As evening falls, we gather around the table for an intimate Climate Carnival Dinner, with Mary Robinson in conversation with Harrison Gardner and a zero-waste dining experience created with FoodCloud, surrounded by 14 acres of organic gardens at Ballintubbert. Live music from Seán McKenna of Mary Wallopers no less.
Then we turn up the volume for the Main Carnival Day: four stages alive with ideas, culture, workshops, music and changemakers from across business, climate, food, energy and community. Come for one. Come for all three. Leave seeing the system differently.
FIELD TRIP 15th
A two-hour sauna session for 50 people. Strip back, leave the ego at the door and reconnect - with the landscape, with each other, with what actually matters. Expert talks from an ecologist (Ken Whelan), landscape historian (Claire McDonald) and wild swimming adventurer (Daragh Morgan). Tracing how the river of Stradbally has been shaped by farming, colonialism and community, and how it shaped it back.
CLIMATE DINNER CLUB 15th
A unique evening hosted by Tom Popple founder CCC, with honorary guest and world leading systems thinker Mary Robinson, interviewed by Harrison Gardner. Bringing together 100+ changemakers for a zero-waste regenerative dining experience provided by FoodCloud - where every course tells a story. Zero waste - story rich and radically delicious. Set under canvas in the organic gardens of Ballintubbert Gardens & House, this isn't formal dining. Live music from musician and activist Sean McKenna (former Mary Wallopers) preceded by traditional music from local musicians Lírnan.
CLIMATE CARNIVAL 16th
This the main event. Five zones, four stages, 50+ speakers, 30+ sessions, live music, food, workshops, stalls and the kind of conversations that don't happen anywhere else. Where CEO and leaders sit cheek-and-jowl with changemakers, solutionists, peers and grassroots activists. Culture, Habitats, Food, Ocean and Explore - connected and challenged across a full day of insight, inspiration and activation. Come ready to learn, to be provoked, to collaborate and to leave with something you didn't arrive with - a system.
CLIMATE CARNIVAL DAY
THE MAIN EVENT
The main Climate Carnival Day is where it all comes together. Five zones, four stages, 50+ speakers, 30+ sessions. One day built to get us out of our silos and into the system. Across Culture, Habitats, Food, Ocean and Explore, we’ll reveal the connections between how we eat, live, create, work and care for the natural world around us.
Expect bold conversations, practical workshops, fresh perspectives and unexpected collisions of ideas, all unfolding across the gardens and grounds of Ballintubbert House. This isn’t a conference where you sit quietly at the back. Come curious. Get involved. Make connections. Leave ready to do something with them.
4 MAIN STAGES
Four stages. Four lenses on one interconnected world. Culture, Habitats, Food, Oceans. Explore the ideas, people and conversations shaping each, and discover what happens when we stop thinking in silos and start seeing the system.
This is THE ALTERNATIVE to stuffy, grey, generic and uninspiring corporate sustainability events. Climate Carnival is built for people who want to be part of what comes next. Come as an individual ready to connect, learn and be inspired.
Bring your organisation on a field trip with purpose, giving your team a day outside the usual walls to think differently and make new connections.
Join us as an exhibitor and put your work, ideas and solutions right at the heart of the Carnival.
We’re also looking for strategic, purpose-led organisations who want to align with the event and help us move from silos to systems.
If that sounds like you, reach out and start a conversation.
However you show up, we’d love to see you there.
BUY YOUR TICKET → BRING YOUR TEAM → PARTNER WITH US
