From caring for the earth to sharing resources: the principles, meaning and applications of permaculture.
This week, the Permaculture Festival returns to Bolsena, bringing back to the shores of the lake a project that was first created here more than ten years ago.
From 10 to 13 September 2026, the historic centre and several locations across the town will become spaces for meetings, discussion and experimentation dedicated to sustainability, landscape, agriculture, housing and the relationship between people and the environment.
But what does permaculture really mean? And why does a Festival dedicated to this subject find such an interesting setting in Bolsena?
Permaculture: meaning and principles
Permaculture is often associated with natural gardening or organic farming. In reality, it is a much broader concept.
The term originated in Australia in the 1970s through the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It originally referred to a form of permanent agriculture: farming designed to endure over time while respecting natural cycles.
Over time, the concept expanded to include the design of human environments and communities.
Permaculture begins above all with observation: understanding how water, soil, plants, climate, buildings, energy and human relationships work, in order to design systems in which these elements can cooperate rather than constantly come into conflict.
It therefore concerns much more than the way we cultivate land. It can involve the design of a home, water management, food production, material reuse, landscape planning, community organisation and even the way we share resources and knowledge.
Caring for the earth, people and resources
Permaculture is based on three fundamental ethical principles: care for the earth, care for people and the fair sharing of resources.
This means asking ourselves not only what we produce, but also how we produce it, how many resources we use and what consequences our choices have for the environment and for others.
These principles can lead to a wide range of practices: soil regeneration, natural water management, sustainable building, agroforestry, waste reduction, self-production and participatory design.
It is precisely this broad and interconnected approach that makes permaculture difficult to define in just a few words: rather than a single technique, it is a design method and a way of observing the relationships between things.
The Permaculture Festival and its connection with Bolsena
The Bolsena Permaculture Festival was founded in 2014, conceived by architect, landscape designer and permaculture practitioner Luca Puri, with the aim of bringing these principles beyond specialist circles and turning them into practical, shared experiences.
The second edition followed in 2015, while in 2016 Bolsena hosted the 13th European Permaculture Convergence, a European gathering that brought together permaculture experiences and organisations from different countries.
The 2026 edition therefore represents a return to the Festival’s origins, but also an opportunity to revisit these themes in light of issues that are increasingly important for territories and communities today: water use, soil fertility, climate change, resource consumption, sustainable construction, and the ability of places to adapt and regenerate.
Bolsena becomes a widespread laboratory
One of the Festival’s defining features is that it is not confined to a single venue.
Meetings, workshops, conferences, exhibitions and experiences take place across different parts of the town, turning Bolsena into a kind of widespread laboratory, in which the town itself becomes part of the story.
The 2026 programme brings together workshops, conferences, meetings, art exhibitions, books, performances, music, activities for children and guided visits.
The themes range from sustainable building and soil knowledge and regeneration to resilient agriculture and water, as well as agroforestry, architecture, food and social design.
And perhaps this is one of the Festival’s most interesting aspects: sustainability is not discussed only through conferences, but observed, experienced and connected with everyday life.
Permaculture, art and community
The Bolsena Festival also includes a dimension that goes beyond strictly environmental issues.
Art, creativity and community participation become tools through which to reflect on the landscape and on the relationship between individuals and the wider community.
The project brings together local organisations, associations, artists, professionals, residents and the permaculture community, creating connections between different skills and experiences.
The underlying principle is collaboration: a territory is not simply a physical space, but a system of relationships.
This is also why the Festival fits so naturally into the fabric of Bolsena, where the lake, the historic centre, vegetable gardens, countryside and inhabited areas all meet within just a few kilometres.
A Festival that tries to put its ideas into practice
One of the Festival’s most interesting aspects is its attempt to bring the principles of permaculture out of theory and into everyday spaces and habits.
Sustainability therefore also becomes part of the way the event is organised, through attention to waste reduction, reuse, limiting disposable products and a more conscious use of resources.
Bolsena also offers a very concrete example of the recovery and transformation of what already exists.
The former public toilets are currently undergoing renovation and will be given a new purpose as an exhibition space.
A place originally created for a completely different function is therefore being recovered and returned to the town with a new cultural role.
Rather than necessarily building something new, the idea is to recognise the value of what already exists, adapt it and make it useful once again.
A principle that fits well with the permaculture approach of observing, recovering and creating new relationships between available resources.
Why discover permaculture in Bolsena
Bolsena offers a particularly interesting setting in which to explore these themes.
The volcanic lake, the woods, vegetable gardens, olive groves, vineyards and reed beds create a landscape in which the natural environment and human presence have coexisted for centuries.
During the Festival, visiting Bolsena means being able to move from a conference to a town square, from a workshop to a vegetable garden, from an exhibition to a walk along the lakeshore.
And perhaps this is the simplest way to approach permaculture: not as something to be learned only from books, but as an invitation to observe what surrounds us from a different perspective.
The Festival encourages exactly this:
to observe the territory, understand its relationships and imagine new ways of caring for it.
And for a few days this week, Bolsena becomes the place where all of this can be explored together.
👉 To learn more about the Festival and view the full programme:
https://festivalpermacultura.it/
Read also: Programme, art and sustainability
