Events

Summer Solstice Launch Event

Wayward Plants Reuse Centre, Cultivate Colindale

Saturday 20 June 2026

11:00 - 21:00 / Free / Family Friendly

Cultivate Colindale, NW9 5YT (accessible entrance through Heybourne Park, stepped street entrance)

Join us for a free event celebrating the launch of the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre. The day will feature free family activities, food, talks, plant giveaways and hands-on workshops in making, growing and building. In the evening, we'll gather for a Summer Solstice celebration with a communal meal and creative activities. Located at the heart of Cultivate Colindale, a new green-space hub for community growing and the circular economy, the reuse centre will give plants, trees and materials a second life while supporting local growing projects and community participation. Come and see what we're building and adopt a plant from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to take home.

Schedule of activities - Check back as this will be updated through the week!

During the daytime, there will be Malaysian street food with Lime Face alongside a Coffee Bike. In the evening, there will be a communal fire meal with Ketchurah’s Kitchen.

DAYTIME WORKSHOPS & WALKS

11:00-16:00 — Adopt a Wayward Plant from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

We’ve put aside 1,000 rescued plants from the flower show for a Wayward Plants Adoption Event. Visitors will be invited to choose a plant and complete an official Wayward Plants adoption form, taking part in a long-running ritual centred around the exchange of plants and stories.

12:00 / 14:00 / 16:00 — Walks with Wayward (Three walks throughout the day — approx. 20 minutes each)

Join Wayward co-directors Heather Ring and Thomas Kendall for a short walk through the new Wayward Plants Reuse Centre. Discover how a single rescued plant grew into a city-wide movement that has rehomed more than 100,000 plants, trees and materials through a network of nearly 2,000 community groups and schools across London. We'll share the story behind the project, explore how creative reuse can help address the waste crisis and unequal access to nature, and discuss what's next for the Reuse Centre and Cultivate Colindale. Find out how you can get involved and help this movement take root.

11:00-14:00 — DIY Solar Panel Workshop with Energy Garden

Explore community energy and see how Energy Garden builds climate infrastructure people can belong to. Visitors can build a mini solar panel, engage with a live “show and tell," explore the ambitious solar systems at Cultivate Colindale, and explore how local solar ownership unlocks social, environmental and economic value.

12:00-14:00 — Clay Tile Workshop: Build a Hedgehog Habitat

Using reclaimed clay from the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre materials yard, create a clay tile inspired by leaves, flowers and the wildlife of Cultivate Colindale. Led by designer Yuyu Lin, your tile will become part of a collective "Hogitat" sculpture, creating shelter for insects, mosses and other garden creatures while leaving your mark on this growing community space.

13:00-14:00 — Stone Swap with artist Becky Lyon

Bring along a stone or rock that you are prepared to gift to a community installation. You will sit with artist Becky Lyon for a one-on-one conversation and receive another stone in return! This activity forms part of "Solidarities", an artistic project that surfaces and celebrates our geological heritage - something that we share in common and all belong to. Solidarities alludes to the apparent solidity and grounding of rock and the act of being in solidarity with others across difference. Solidarities is commissioned by Barnet Council as part of the Light + Flight programme.

14:00-17:00 — Seed Exchange - Building the Wayward Plants Seed Library with London Freedom Seed Bank

Join Helene Schulze (Wayward Plants Programmes Coordinator, PhD researcher in urban seed ecologies, colonial botany and border politics) and London Freedom Seed Bank to swap seeds, share stories, and contribute to the beginnings of the Wayward Plants Seed Library — bring any seeds you consider wayward: rescued, volunteer, exotic, out of place, or anything with a story.

14:00-17:00 — Summer Solstice Flower Crown Making

Make flower crowns for the solstice with flower farmer and designer Cornelia McNamara, and wear them into the night.

14:00-17:00 — Summer Solstice Mask Making

Join Wayward to make paper and nature-based masks in celebration of the solstice. Draw on the season's flowers, foliage, and longest light to craft something to wear into the evening's fire supper and celebration under the longest sun.

EXHIBITIONS

11:00-21:00 — Cultures of Bio-integrated Design

Cultivate Colindale becomes a live test site for the Bio-Integrated Design MArch/MSc at The Bartlett School of Architecture: a practice of culturing living systems to propose novel ways to materialise our future human habitat. Through material samples and design small scale demonstrators that use nature as a medium, we explore the interactions between architecture, microbiome and community.

11:00-21:00 — Get on the Grass : 20 Years of Wayward Plants

It began with a single plant, rather unceremoniously thrown to the kerb, followed by adoption events for wayward plants, acts of gentle rebellion, wayward land and meanwhile spaces, followed by a decade of reuse as the Official Reuse Partner of the RHS, all leading to this place: the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre.

EVENING SOLSTICE GATHERING

17:00-19:00 — Communal Fire Dinner with Ketchurah

Join us around the fire for a shared solstice meal prepared by community chef Ketchurah Ravindren of Ketchurah's Kitchen. Known for bringing people together through seasonal, culturally rooted food, Ketchurah's work celebrates the power of shared meals to build connection and community. To keep the feast accessible to everyone, we’re offering it free with a suggested donation. You're also welcome to bring a favourite drink to share around the table. Live music with Tip the Waiter.

19:00 — Solstice Celebration

Wear your masks and flower crowns as we welcome the summer solstice and celebrate the possibilities of this meanwhile space. This land is beginning a new life as a shared place for community and nature. Gather around the fire as we mark the longest day of the year with music, storytelling and a few unexpected solstice traditions.