The Norwegian Doughnut Festival 2025

Introduction

The Doughnut Festival 2025 was developed and implemented as a central part of the work of the Norwegian Doughnut Economics Network (NSN) towards the vision of quality of life for all within planetary boundaries. The festival was not intended as a standalone event, but as a unifying arena where doughnut economics and wellbeing economics could be explored, understood and experienced in practice. A fundamental purpose was to contribute to a more holistic and coordinated effort towards sustainable societal development in Norway, in a time characterised by increasing environmental and social challenges and a strong concentration of power.

The festival was based on the recognition that Norway has a large number of organisations, initiatives and professional communities doing important work within their respective fields, but that this work largely takes place in a fragmented manner. The Doughnut Festival was therefore developed in response to the need for an arena that can gather, connect and give direction to this diversity, without replacing or competing with existing organisations. NSN has not aimed to build a large organisation itself, but to help ensure that the combined impact becomes greater than the sum of the individual efforts.

Objectives: what the Doughnut Festival was intended to contribute 

The Doughnut Festival 2025 had several clear and mutually reinforcing objectives. 

A central objective was to increase knowledge of doughnut economics and wellbeing economics in Norway, and to make these frameworks accessible to a broad audience. This included both in-depth engagement for actors already working with sustainability, and low threshold communication for people and organisations that were not previously familiar with the doughnut model. 

The festival was also intended to inspire action and continued engagement, not only through inspiration, but by facilitating concrete meetings, collaboration and initiatives. The festival was meant to function as a starting point or a reinforcement point for further work, rather than as a finished product. 

Furthermore, an important objective was to bring together actors across sectors and professional fields in Norway, including civil society, trade unions, the public sector, business, research environments, young people and individual citizens. The festival aimed to help build relationships, trust and shared understanding across established boundaries, thereby strengthening the foundation for more coordinated societal change. 

A final key objective was to make visible and elevate existing initiatives and practices that already contribute to quality of life and sustainability, and to place these within a coherent whole through the doughnut model. The festival aimed to demonstrate that solutions already exist, and that many actors are already working in line with a new economic logic – often without using this language themselves. 

Organisers, co-organisers and collaboration

The Doughnut Festival 2025 was organised by the Norwegian Doughnut Economics Network, in collaboration with Spire, WEAll Norway, Fremsam, Foreningen Robust, Samskapingslabben, Holt Farm, Ustopplige.no, Grandparents for Climate Action, Pådriv Oslo and Nydalen Fabrikker. In total, around 30 organisations actively contributed to the programme, workshops, installations and implementation.
 

This broad collaboration was not merely an organisational arrangement, but a direct operationalisation of the festival’s purpose. By inviting many actors to participate as co organisers and content contributors, the festival became a shared project rather than an event delivered by NSN alone. 

Development process: from member meeting to implementation

The work on the Doughnut Festival emerged from a member meeting in NSN in 2024, where a clear desire was expressed to develop a larger, unifying meeting place for work on doughnut economics and holistic sustainability. As a follow-up to this meeting, a festival group was established and worked throughout 2024 on idea development, exploration of formats and anchoring the festival in the network’s purpose.

In January 2025, the concrete planning of the Doughnut Festival 2025 began. This work was initiated by Bjørn Hauger (NSN board), Elisabeth Paulsen (Samskapingslabben) and Maria Eintveit (NSN member), who continued the work from 2024. Early in the process, it was decided to locate the festival at Nydalen Fabrikker in Oslo, precisely because the site represents many of the practices the festival aimed to highlight: reuse, recycling, circular economy and new forms of value creation.

Organisation of planning and implementation 

Planning and implementation of the Doughnut Festival 2025 were led by a broadly composed working group, coordinated by Bjørn Hauger. In addition, the group consisted of Maria Eintveit, Mari (NSN), Sofie (NSN), Elisabeth Paulsen (Samskapingslabben), a representative from Fremsam, Ellen Sjong (NSN board) and Janne (NSN board, in the final phase of the work). The working group was responsible for overall planning, programme development, dialogue with partners, practical implementation and mobilisation of volunteers.

In parallel, a separate working group was established for the urban development seminar, consisting of Bendik and Hanna from Spire, Anett Andreassen from Pådriv Oslo, as well as Neil Alperstein, Bjørn Hauger and Ellen Sjong from the NSN board. This two-part organisation contributed both to high professional quality and to a better distribution of responsibility.

Resource base and financing

The Doughnut Festival 2025 was implemented with a very limited financial budget relative to its scope and level of ambition. Financing consisted partly of participation fees, partly of support for parts of the festival through the project Youth Shaping the Future, funded by the 

Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, and partly of financial support from the trade union Tekna, which also initiated and funded the workshop “How did we end up here?”.

By far the most important resource in the work on the festival, however, was not financial capital, but social capital. Several thousand hours of voluntary work were contributed by the NSN board, collaborating organisations and volunteers. Around 20 volunteers contributed directly to the implementation. This extensive voluntary effort is a central part of the empirical material and illustrates both the engagement surrounding the festival and the vulnerability of the organisation if responsibility and workload are not distributed more sustainably over time.

The Doughnut Festival 2025: comprehensive overview of the events, 6–8 November

The Doughnut Festival 2025 was held over three consecutive days, from Thursday 6 to Saturday 8 November, at Nydalen Fabrikker in Oslo. The festival was deliberately designed as a multi-day process, where the different events built on each other thematically and methodologically: from professional and strategic deepening, via reflection and method development, to open, broad public participation. This three-part structure was a central feature of the festival’s form and helped accommodate both depth and breadth.

Thursday 6 November: Urban and societal development – systems understanding and political direction

Thursday was dedicated to professional and strategic work, with a particular emphasis on urban and place-based development, politics and systems change. The day consisted of two main events, both aimed at actors with roles in societal development, whether as decision makers, professionals or civil society actors.

Seminar: “From growth to quality of life – a new compass for sustainable development of Norwegian municipalities and cities”

The seminar was held from 09:00 to 15:30 at Nydalen Fabrikker and introduced doughnut 

economics and wellbeing economics as holistic frameworks for the development of cities and local communities. The programme combined professional presentations, Nordic examples and dialogical working methods. Participants were, among other things, presented with experiences from Tomelilla in Sweden, Oslo (HAV Eiendom) and Copenhagen, as well as work on doughnut economics in Norway through WEAll and NSN. The seminar placed strong emphasis on exploring how municipalities and local communities can use the doughnut model as a shared language and decision-support tool when facing complex sustainability challenges.

Seminar: “Alliance for a Sustainable Economy”

Later the same day, a separate seminar was held related to the initiative Alliance for a Sustainable Economy. This event was part of a longer process initiated by the board of the Norwegian Doughnut Economics Network, with meetings both prior to the festival (including in September 2025) and following it. The seminar functioned as an arena to bring together socially engaged actors interested in systems change and economic transformation, with the aim of exploring how civil society can coordinate and co-create initiatives with political impact. The festival functioned here as an important node in an ongoing process, not as a concluded activity.

Friday 7 November: Quality of life, children and youth – method development and futures design

Friday focused primarily on quality of life for children and young people, and on how sustainable societal development can be anchored in upbringing, education and local communities. The day was characterised by active and participatory working methods, with a strong emphasis on co-creation and methodological learning.

Workshop: “Quality of life for all children and young people – within planetary boundaries”

This full-day workshop (09:30–15:00) used doughnut economics and wellbeing economics as frameworks for understanding the relationship between ecological sustainability, social justice and living conditions for children and youth. Young people played an active role in the implementation, and the workshop was based on the futures workshop method, in which participants developed future visions, maps, models and prototypes of what local communities and school districts might look like once doughnut economics is realised. A dedicated method booklet was developed for the occasion and was tested and further refined through the workshop. The event was supported by the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB and formed part of the project Youth Shaping the Future.

Event: “How did we end up here – and are there alternative paths forward?”

On Friday afternoon and evening, an open workshop and conversation were held in collaboration with the trade union Tekna. The event explored psychological and sociological mechanisms that cause societies to remain on unsustainable trajectories despite knowledge of the consequences. Through short presentations, a panel discussion and social mingling, the event facilitated reflection and dialogue among participants from different professional and sectoral backgrounds. Tekna initiated and funded the event, which broadened the thematic scope of the festival and contributed to linking sustainability issues to democracy, decision making and system dynamics.

Saturday 8 November: Open and living festival day – The Living Doughnut in practice

Saturday was the festival’s open day for the general public and functioned as a popular and sensory highlight. The event was free and open to all, bringing together children, young people, adults, organisations, volunteers and local communities in a vibrant market and learning arena.

The Living Doughnut and open market hall

The core of the Saturday programme was the installation The Living Doughnut, in which the doughnut model was made physical and experiential through a walkway between an outer ring of planetary dimensions and an inner ring of social dimensions. A total of 18 organisations participated as “guardians” of the different dimensions. The installation enabled visitors to experience the interconnected nature of sustainability challenges, while also making concrete practices and solutions visible. Several of the participating organisations had no prior knowledge of doughnut economics, illustrating the installation’s role as an entry point and shared frame of reference.

Around the installation, a lively market space was established with a wide range of activities: toy swap initiatives, repair activities, handicrafts, mosaic workshops for children, drawing activities, exhibitions, sales of environmentally and socially friendly products, as well as food and drinks from Nydalen Fabrikker’s own actors. Musical and cultural contributions, including performances by SambAttac, helped create a festive and inclusive atmosphere.

Drop-in seminars and thematic tasters

In parallel with the activities in the hall, drop-in seminars were held every hour, offering short introductions to topics such as sustainable economics, democracy, urban ecology, political governance of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, rights of nature, and new business models within doughnut economics. This format lowered the threshold for participation and made professional content accessible to a broad audience without requirements for registration or prior knowledge.

Saturday concluded with a celebratory gathering featuring music, slam poetry and informal conversations, celebrating the community and the collective effort invested in the festival.

Overall scope and participation

Over the three days, the Doughnut Festival 2025 brought together approximately 500 participants, involved around 30 organisations, and was made possible through several thousand hours of voluntary work contributed by board members, partner organisations and volunteers. The festival programme ranged from professional seminars and political dialogue to practical workshops, artistic expressions and popular meeting places, providing a holistic picture of how doughnut economics can be understood and lived in practice.

The Doughnut Festival 2025 – goal achievement and organisational learning

The Doughnut Festival 2025 is the most extensive, complex and resource-intensive initiative undertaken by the Norwegian Doughnut Economics Network (NSN) to date. With around 30 involved organisations, approximately 500 participants over three days, a wide range of events and several thousand hours of voluntary work, the festival represents a concentrated expression of both the network’s capacity and its organisational challenges. Precisely for this reason, the festival constitutes a particularly suitable case for analysing how NSN functions as a network organisation in practice, and how the organisation should be further developed to safeguard both purpose and people.

The analysis in this section explicitly draws on the events as described above and examines how, taken together, they contributed to the festival’s objectives and what organisational learning they offer for future work.

Goal achievement in practice – how the different events contributed

A central objective of the Doughnut Festival 2025 was to increase knowledge of doughnut economics and wellbeing economics in Norway. This was not pursued through a single form of communication, but through a deliberate composition of events with different depths, target groups and methodologies.

The urban development seminar on Thursday 6 November illustrates this clearly. Here, doughnut economics was presented as a strategic framework for municipal and local societal development, with concrete examples from both Norwegian and Nordic contexts. The seminar contributed to professional deepening for participants already working with planning, politics and place-based development, and provided space to discuss how the doughnut model can be used as a shared language and decision-support tool when facing complex sustainability challenges. This event represents the festival’s most explicit contribution to professional and strategic capacity-building.

At the same time, The Living Doughnut on Saturday shows how knowledge was also developed through sensory, experiential learning. Here, the doughnut model was made physical and tangible, and visitors could explore connections between social and planetary dimensions through direct encounters with organisations working with these issues in practice. That several of the participating organisations were unfamiliar with doughnut economics prior to the festival, yet found it meaningful to situate their work within the model, demonstrates that the festival functioned as an effective translation arena between different languages, fields and practices.

Together, these two events – the urban development seminar and The Living Doughnut – illustrate the poles of the festival’s knowledge strategy: from analytical and political reflection to experiential and relational understanding. Combined, they contributed to making doughnut economics both intellectually comprehensible and practically relevant.

Inspiration for action: from reflection to continued initiatives

Another stated objective of the festival was to inspire action and continued engagement. Here it is crucial to view the festival as part of longer processes, rather than as a closed event.

The seminar Alliance for a Sustainable Economy is a clear example of this. The event was anchored in an initiative that had held meetings prior to the festival and that was also followed up afterwards. The festival functioned here as a temporary gathering point that provided energy, visibility and new connections to an ongoing process. This illustrates how the festival can function as a catalyst for initiatives that have a life both before and after the festival.

The Tekna event “How did we end up here?” on Friday afternoon, in turn, expanded the space for action through reflection. By exploring psychological, social and structural mechanisms that lock societies into unsustainable paths, the event opened up deeper understanding of why change is difficult – and thereby also for more realistic strategies for action. That this event was initiated and funded by Tekna demonstrates how the festival functioned as a framework within which external actors could take ownership of content aligned with the festival’s purpose.

The follow-up gathering “From Idea to Action” in December 2025 provides concrete empirical evidence that the festival did indeed contribute to further mobilisation. Here, participants met who wished to build on relationships and ideas that had emerged during the festival, and several committed to continued involvement. This shows that the festival functioned in practice as a starting point for new initiatives, not merely as an inspiration arena.

Quality of life, children and youth: method development as organisational learning

The workshop “Quality of life for all children and young people – within planetary boundaries” on Friday 7 November represents a particularly important contribution to the festival’s objective of developing concrete tools and practices for transformation. Through the use of futures workshop methodology and active involvement of young people, doughnut economics was translated into a language and form relevant to upbringing, education and local communities.

This event was not merely a standalone workshop, but part of the project Youth Shaping the Future, in which method development and learning are explicit goals. The festival thus functioned as a test arena for methods and materials that can later be used in other contexts. This illustrates how the festival can also contribute to organisational learning and capacity building within the network, beyond communication and inspiration.

Organisational learning: what the festival’s practice reveals about NSN 

Participant logic in practice – and the limits of informal organisation

When examining how the different events actually came into being, it becomes clear that the Doughnut Festival in practice is based on a participant logic. The urban development seminar had its own working group with clear ownership. The Alliance for a Sustainable Economy was driven by an initiative with its own trajectory. Tekna took responsibility for its event. The youth workshop was anchored in a dedicated project. The Living Doughnut was carried by a broad spectrum of organisations.

At the same time, the experience shows that the absence of clear organisational frameworks for how such initiatives are integrated into the festival has resulted in the board and a small number of key individuals carrying a disproportionately large responsibility for the whole. This has led to high workload and has made the festival vulnerable to dependency on specific individuals.

The festival as a platform – implicit, but not explicitly organised

Taken together, the empirical material shows that the Doughnut Festival already functions as a platform: it provides frameworks, legitimacy, meeting places and a shared narrative that others can connect to. The challenge is that this platform role has not been explicitly defined or organisationally anchored. As a result, much of the platform work has been carried out informally, through voluntary effort and personal engagement.

Implications for further development: from a successful festival to sustainable organisation 

The need for clearer framing and role clarification

The experiences from the Doughnut Festival 2025 clearly indicate that further development of NSN is not primarily about doing more, but about organising the work differently. The role of the board should be clarified as steward of purpose, principles and learning, while ownership of concrete initiatives should increasingly lie with the actors who actually lead them.

The festival as lasting infrastructure for action and learning

The Doughnut Festival should be further developed as an annual platform for co-creation, learning and mobilisation, where events are not understood as isolated items in a programme, but as nodes in a larger network of practices and initiatives. The experiences from 2025 show that this is possible, but also that it requires conscious organisation in order to protect both people and relationships.

Concluding reflection

By analysing the Doughnut Festival 2025 with explicit reference to the actual events, it becomes clear that the festival has largely fulfilled its purposes. At the same time, it provides a clear picture of the organisational adjustments now needed if NSN is to continue serving as a unifying force for societal change—without depleting the social capital that is the network’s most important resource.