Behind The Scenes: Asia’s First Conscious Festival

Singapore’s food, fashion and lifestyle brands came together under one roof to show how we can all live a little greener. Nutritionist Dominique Rauber-Musey joined Asia’s first conscious festival – Green Is The New Black 

Green Is The New Black hit the Jen Hotel in Tanglin to help show us how we can make the world a better place. The one-day festival featured workout classes, talks and workshops where you could see how you too could make a small change to your life. When I arrived at the event it was already bustling. It was hard to decide where to head first. There was the Marketplace featuring more than 70 booths selling anything from gluten-free food to sustainable baby clothes. Then there were the food vendors just ready to tempt your tastebuds. And then there were the Workshops and Talks, alongside the Soulful Stage Performers.

It was like touring a glamorous Glastonbury, minus the headache the next morning. So where to start? Stephanie Dickson, Co-Founder of GITNB, didn’t hesitate: “Consciousness needs to start with yourself!” It wasn’t a case of turning your life upside down. If everyone makes one little step the butterfly effect will do the rest.

So as a foodie, I decided that my first step would be joining the Super Farmers team and learning how to grow my own herbs in its Urban Gardening workshop. Its founder, Cynthea Lam’s dream is to make everyone a super farmer by teaching economical and organic ways to grow your own food. You don’t have to spend a fortune on gardening tools and pots – most of it can be found in your kitchen.  Use the empty milk bottles as a pot or turn a ceramic teapot into a nice flower vase.

During her workshop, Cynthea explained the basics of growing your own herbs in the humid and hot weather of Singapore. The amount of moisture you have to provide to your plants highly depends whether you live in higher floors (less) or in the ground floor (more). Additionally, herbs need ventilation and not too much sun. And did you know that chili, garlic, dishwasher and olive oil would make an organic insecticide?

A workshop wouldn’t be a workshop without getting your hands dirty. So with a few planting tips from Cynthea I started planting my own crop. The workshop made me confident that I’ll manage to grow some herbs even in the Singaporean humid weather. Cynthea equipped us with fundamental knowledge of urban gardening and introduced some easy ways to start our own herb garden.

Then I learnt to overcome my inner critic with Ferina Aziz, Founder of The Wellness Report, Cheryl Liew-Chng, author of The 24 Hour Woman; Richard Phu, founder  of The Ultimate Man and Solonia Teodros, Co-Founder The Change School. I decided that I wouldn’t scold myself for getting soil all over the counter at the Urban Gardening workshop and instead concentrate on the fact that I had made a change, no matter how small it was.

And that’s exactly what the festival was about. We can’t wait for the next one.