Green Hustle is a free annual festival that takes over Nottingham's Old Market Square, bringing thousands of people together around the themes of sustainability, creativity, and community action. The day features live music and street entertainment, a makers market of independent sustainable retailers, workshops on zero-waste living and slow fashion, pop-up community gardens, a pedal-powered cinema, talks by local researchers and activists, and hands-on activities for all ages.

The festival is designed to be radically inclusive and joyful - deliberately avoiding the doom-and-gloom framing that can make climate action feel inaccessible. Free pay-what-you-can meals are served throughout the day. All activities are free. The approach is to celebrate what Nottingham is already doing, and invite everyone to be part of doing more.

Green Hustle launched in September 2020 as a virtual festival, funded by Arts Council England during the pandemic. It was co-founded by Adam Pickering - who had already built Hockley Hustle over 14 years - and Christine Katerere, a creative and community connector who came to the project as someone who cared deeply about climate but had never felt the green movement was accessible to her. That personal experience became the festival's founding philosophy.

The first physical edition took place at Sneinton Market in June 2021, making it one of the first outdoor festivals to take place in Nottingham city centre after the pandemic. By 2023 it had moved to Old Market Square and drew an estimated 10,000 attendees. It is now one of the city's major free events of the year, supported by It's in Nottingham, Nottingham BID, the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, and the Canal & River Trust, among others.

Green Hustle's impact extends well beyond a single day each year. The collective has planted over 10,000 trees across Nottingham, including the Hustle Holt in Woodthorpe Grange Park - the city's first Miyawaki-style mini-forest and one of the first of its kind in the UK. Permanent green infrastructure like the Broad Street planters and the Wilford Street Wildlife Ramp have also been delivered through the festival's year-round community work.

Green Hustle backs Nottingham City Council's Carbon Neutral 2028 ambition and runs an active schools programme, delivering ocean awareness campaigns, tree-planting days, and sustainability workshops across Nottingham classrooms. By combining grassroots action with a genuinely great free festival, it has found a way to bring environmental conversation into spaces and communities that have historically been left out of it entirely.