Activate Saplings 2025 - Dabakarn

Dabakarn, 2025

Activate Saplings are pumped to bring you our FOURTH tree-planting festival created for and by the next generation of environmental stewards! 🙌🌳

We’re heading just 50 minutes out of Perth for a weekend full of action, good vibes, and community. Together, we’re aiming to plant 20,000 seedlings to help heal the land, fight climate apathy, and give back to Boodja, the country that sustains us all.

And no, this isn’t just digging holes.
It’s a celebration.

Expect live music, yummy food, and workshops that spark your creativity, connection to land, and spirit. Think art, landcare, and a little bit of soul stuff too.

Just like the forests, nothing at Activate grows alone. We’re super grateful to be planting seedlings grown by Boola Boornap Nursery, thanks to a strong partnership with Trillion Trees Australia. Big love to everyone who’s part of this growing, purpose-driven community.

Come get your hands dirty (in the best way), meet some legends, and be part of something bigger 🌱💚

Please note!!!!
This Activate event has a slightly different flavour to other ATP events….
This event is run by young adults aimed at empowering and inspiring young adults! All are welcome, but due to our volunteer capacity, we won't guarantee dedicated activities for children, supervision, early dinners etc. – and the partying will go ‘til late ;)

Alright, let’s goooo! ⚡️⚡️

WHO ARE THE SAPLINGS? 💚

Activate Saplings is the youth division of Activate Tree Planting. Our core crew is a bunch of twenty-somethings who are totally sold on the Activate festival model and its mission and values. Guided by the Activate Tree Planting leaders and elders, the Saplings are learning the ropes of organising Activate festivals. Our aim is to involve, connect with and inspire young people just like us with the Activate mission, vision and energy – to plant seeds of hope for our future through a festival of celebration and connection to place.

PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE 🤲🌱
Jo and Pete Randell are concerned about the impact of extensive clearing of the land from the 1960s. They have been re-planting cleared areas with native trees and shrubs for wildlife habitat since 2009. They are welcoming us onto their property to help restore the health of the land and expand much-needed habitat for native fauna. This project involves revegetating to increase biodiversity, ecological resilience, and to create ecological corridors through the landscape, improving habitat and movement opportunities for wildlife while increasing the health of the soil.

CELEBRATE THE COMPLEX
This year at Saplings, we’re all about celebrating the weird, squishy, and often overlooked parts of life.

Communities, ecosystems, and people are messy and complicated. There are a lot of moving parts, and not all of them are super pretty. So we’re giving some love to the grubs, mushrooms, mould, and moss; the quiet legends that keep the forest ticking, even if they’re not as flashy as the butterflies and wildflowers. It’s the same with us. We all have parts of ourselves that aren’t super shiny or Instagram-perfect, but they’re still really important. They make us who we are. This year at Saplings, we’re honouring the beautiful, the messy, the strange, and the unseen—in nature and in ourselves.

VIBES FOR DAYS 🎷💃🕺

Get ready for some seriously good tunes! 🎶

Each night at Saplings, we’ll have live music from a bunch of awesome artists across all sorts of genres. You can chill out by the fire and soak it all in, or plant your feet in the ground under the stars to our incredible DJs.

Feel free to bring your own instruments too - there’ll be plenty of room for you at the campfire jam sessions. And when the DJ hits the decks out in the field, you better believe it’s time to groove.

WHAT’S COOKING? 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♀️ 🍲

No need to hover over a camp stove boiling Mi Goreng! The real legends of the festival, our Kitchen Witches, have got you covered! 🧙‍♀️🍲

They’ll be whipping up fresh, healthy, and seriously delicious meals (plus snacks!) to keep you fuelled all weekend long. Made with love and best enjoyed together, there’s nothing better to power you through days full of planting, dancing, and good vibes.

Vegetarian food as standard, please let us know of any dietary requirements ahead of time and we’ll be sure to take care of you!

CREATING NOT CONSUMING ⚡️

Saving the world is a big job — it’s gonna take more than just one weekend. But we hope the connections and memories you make at Activate will stick around just as long.

Come be a part of our community: yarn around the campfire with new mates, dance under the stars with old ones; listen and be heard - by the trees, each other, and the land around you.

Get involved with our interactive art projects, try your hand at woodworking, and craft some special take-home memories to remember the weekend by.

Keep an eye out: we’ll be dropping the final program soon! 🌟🌿

TICKET AND ACCESSIBILITY ASSISTANCE
If you are strugglin’ to make the ticket price but are passionate about attending, please contact us as we would love to assist. Making this event as accessible as possible for young people is important to us, so please feel free to contact us about any other accessibility concerns or questions at saplings@activatetreeplanting.org.au.

STAY TUNED 🤩
Once you've got your ticket, we'll give you all the info you need for a fantastic and safe weekend!
Ticket terms and conditions can be accessed here. (Please note that refunds can only be given up to one week prior to the event, so we have time to give it a new home!)

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where this event is held and recognise their continued custodianship and connection to the land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.