Cultura Circular Returns with its Fourth Cohort

An exchange programme for Latin American & Caribbean Festivals

Cultura Circular (Circular Culture) is back with its fourth cohort, in partnership with British Council Americas. The programme runs from September 2025 to April 2026, supporting arts and culture festivals across Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru.

As part of Cultura Circular, JB and guest speakers will be sharing learnings around sustainable good practice, and festivals will exchange knowledge between themselves to build strong, resilient networks across the cohort.

This year the programme spans across 32 festivals, 7 countries and 31 cities, who will join over 100 festivals and organisations across the growing Cultura Circular alumni network.

This year’s programme will be delivered in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese, covering climate literacy and environmental justice, sustainable planning and environmental management, behavioural change, and communicating with audiences on the environment.

We are also looking forward to sharing some of the valuable learning that comes out of our sessions with the cohort with you. Make sure you are on our mailing list so you don’t miss out.

Who is participating in Cultura Circular year?

The festivals involved in the Cultura Circular programme cover a wide variety of artistic disciplines including music, cinema, visual arts, poetry and performance. 

Argentina: Merlin Jazz Festival; VaPoesía Argentina; Tormenta, Festival de Arte Electrónico y Digital de Tucumán; V Festival Internacional MET – Madryn Escena Teatral; Crack Bang Boom; Festival Filba Internacional; XII Festival Internacional de la Palabra en Escena.

Brazil: Festival Outros Nativos; Festival Se Rasgum & ALMA – Amazônia Legal Música e Arte; Cultura Inglesa Festival; AFROPUNK BRASIL.

Colombia: Mercado Cultural del Caribe: Resonancias del Caribe; Cuidemos lo Nuestro: Segundo Festival Internacional de Cine Comunitario de Moravia (FICCMORAVIA); III versión del Festival Nacional de Música Tradicional y Campesina “Despensa Agrícola de Colombia”; Festival Futuro Coca; Festival Entreviñetas: Tinta Plural; Festivales al Parque; 11° Festival Internacional Cine en las Montañas.

Jamaica: Jamaica Woodland Festival; The Lost in Time Festival.

México: Salón ACME; Festival Pixelatl; 13 Encuentro Otros Territorios; Festival del Bosque.

Perú: FADIS – IV Festival de Artes y Discapacidad; Muyuna Fest; Pumpumyachkan tinkuy; Festival de Cine de Lima PUCP.

Venezuela: Apamate Fest; Festival Nuevas Bandas 2025; Festival Óperon; Festival Cuadro por Danza.

What did we learn from previous iterations?

Cultura Circular in Conversation was a five part interview series celebrating environmental stewardship featuring inspiring voices from the Cultura Circular alumni network. Listen in
on their valuable insights into the challenges and benefits of creating and experiencing culture with environmental responsibility at its core.

As part of the evaluation from our 2024-2025 cohort, some of the findings highlight that Circular Culture has truly enhanced participants’ knowledge, skills, and competencies in four key areas: understanding and applying sustainability practices; strategic planning and management; accessibility and inclusion; and collaboration and networking.

Cultura Circular’s capacity building motivated participants to see how they can play a more significant role in shaping cultural and social attitudes towards sustainability. Efforts have resulted in increased environmental awareness among festival organisers, attracting larger and more diverse audiences after implementing sustainability initiatives inspired by the Cultura Circular programme.

“The focus on sustainability drove the search for innovative and creative solutions to integrate responsible practices into the festival, enriching our offer and leading us to new artistic proposals. In addition, participation in the programme helped us to comply with sustainability regulations and requirements, which is increasingly valued by sponsors, institutions and partners.”

– Cultura Circular participant, Argentina

“The work we’ve done together here has been incredible and we’ve been able to activate other networks and people in a really special shared project, so I believe that would be the great power of Cultura Circular, to have provided these meetings and exchanges, with ecological issues as a motive.”

– Cultura Circular participant, Brazil

To find out more about the Cultura Circular programme in previous years, our Creative Green Programme Lead, Graciela Melitsko Thornton unpacks on our blog how Caribbean and Latin America’s festivals are becoming more sustainable.

Header image: Apamate Festival