When is GROW 2026?

Friday, February 20, 2026.

9.30am – Gates open: enjoy a coffee or late breakfast, meet up with friends or plan your day

10.30am – Program starts

5.30pm – Live music, dinner, drinks and time to catch up with friends new and old

We’ll publish program details as they come to hand, with a final program available a couple of weeks out from the event.

Where is GROW?

Kyneton Racecourse, 44 Campaspe Place in Kyneton, Victoria, Australia.

It’s a green, shady, roomy venue in Kyneton, a historic rural town an hour by freeway from Melbourne (Tullamarine) airport, an hour from Bendigo and just over an hour by car or train from Melbourne CBD.

How much are tickets?

A ticket to GROW is a pay-what-you-can contribution towards the cost of putting on this festival.

We hope our pay-what-you-can approach addresses a range of financial circumstances and acknowledges that many among us are doing it tough.

We’ve set the base price for a pay-what-you-can ticket at $25, which assigns an approximate market value of $25 a session. This secures your commitment to attend (which helps our planning). If that’s all your budget can stretch to or you plan to just pop in for a look for one session, that’s absolutely fine with us. We hope that regardless of the amount you’ve been able to contribute, you’ll find enough to see and do to stay for the whole day.

Children 15 and under are free with a ticketed adult.

I don’t like pay-what-you-can ticketing. What should I do?

We acknowledge and respect that some people are uneasy about a pay-what-you-can or pay-what-you-feel ticket. That’s okay.

There’s also a $125 fixed-price option.

However, if $125 feels like too much or too little for you, then reconsider popping a smaller or larger number you’re comfortable with into the pay-what-you-can option.

Our greatest wish is that everyone gets more out of GROW than they imagined possible. If that’s you and you have such an amazing time that you feel you’ve underpaid for your ticket, we welcome tax-deductible donations at any time. You can do that HERE. Thank you so much.

What does a ticket include?

Your GROW ticket includes entry to any (or all!) of the more than 40 talks, walks, workshops, demonstrations, discussions and exhibitor displays. You could, if you have excellent stamina, make it to more than 10 sessions across the day!

Every ticket includes entry to every session, regardless of your financial contribution to the cost of GROW.

Who puts on GROW?

GROW is an event by not-for-profit Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group, a registered charity. GROW’s volunteer organising committee are MRSG members – most of us farmers – based in the Macedon Ranges. We originally came together with a shared interest in regenerative agriculture and land stewardship and learned that learning together is so much more fun than the lonely journey of learning via YouTube.

We started GROW as a way of growing our professional networks and getting the world’s best practitioners and innovators to come to us!

Where does my ticket fee or donation go?

We promise to be financially transparent and to spend your financial contributions very carefully. We are very frugal, but we also want everyone who’s interested to be able to attend, regardless of financial circumstances.

This festival is possible because it is powered by volunteers and contributions from presenters and exhibitors.

However, the event needs to be safe and comfortable, so we do spend money on simple audio-visual equipment hire, toilets and toilet paper, first-aid officers, venue hire, overnight security for equipment, simple shade structures, hay-bale seating, bags of ice and a coolroom, poster design and printing, annual website fees and some simple decorations. That really is about it.

But, no matter how we slice it and dice it, that adds up to around $30,000.

Every dollar we collect goes directly to putting on this GROW. If we end up with a small surplus, it will seed the next GROW.

What are you doing to minimise landfill from the day?

We’re pleased to offer reusable dishes and cups washed by Wash Against Waste, a service for hire and staffed by volunteers from Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group. Any single-use food and drink containers and any printed material will be compostable or recyclable. We won’t be selling bottled water at GROW but Coliban Water will provide a free drinking-water station. Please bring your own refillable water bottle.

What about photographs and filming?

By entering GROW you consent to being photographed or filmed during this event for promotional purposes by GROW. These photos may be used on our website, social media and marketing materials.  If you do not wish to be photographed, please inform a GROW team member. We will not publish identifiable film or images of children present at GROW without permission.

GROW is happy for you to take photos and short videos for your own records and your own socials but please do not record more than snippets (15-30 seconds) of any of our presenters. Be mindful that others may not wish to be filmed.

Is the venue suitable if I’m differently abled?

We have accessible parking and toilets, a lift if we’re using an upper level and the venue is relatively flat but if you’re unsure, please send us an email via the contact form and we will do our best to answer specific questions.

Can I bring my children to GROW?

This an agricultural learning day designed for adults and is not designed specifically for children. You are very welcome to bring children – especially if they’re really into agriculture – and there is no charge if they’re 15 and under and accompanied by a paid adult. They must be supervised by you at all times.

What about dogs?

Assistance dogs aside, GROW is not for dogs. Please leave your canine colleagues at home for a well-earned day off.

What if I have other questions?

Please get in touch via the contact form on this website and we’ll answer as soon as we can.