RMIT City North Shared Futures Festival 2026

03 Oct 2026
11:00am - 04:00pm
FREE
RMIT City North Social Innovation Precinct: Cardigan Street, Carlton VIC 3053

RMIT City North Shared Futures Festival returns to Cardigan Street on Saturday 3 October for a free day of creativity, community and discovery. Explore food, performances, workshops, technology, design, urban growing and hands-on activities for all ages, and experience the City North Social Innovation Precinct as a living lab in action.

Save the date! City North Shared Futures Festival returns for its third year, bringing Cardigan Street to life with creativity, community, food, performances and hands-on experiences.

On Saturday 3 October, RMIT students and staff will join local communities, partners, artists and organisations for a free day of making, playing, learning and exploring within RMIT's City North Social Innovation Precinct. Everyone is welcome.

What's on

There'll be plenty to see, taste, make and experience throughout the day, with activities for all ages.

Walking Together: A Cardigan Street 'Civic Gym'

Journey along Cardigan Street and explore the stories, people and ideas shaping the City North Social Innovation Precinct. Pick up your Civic Gym Pass and follow the trail to discover, contribute and imagine what could come next.

Frugal Canteen

Enjoy super-cheap meals cooked by the community, for the community, including cheese toasties, East African curries, Zimbabwean home-grown greens, Indonesian delights, wild fermented drinks and more.

Play about Place

See the precinct become a playground through place-based installations created by RMIT School of Design students. Encounter, interact with and help shape their ideas as they're tested with the public.

Pavement Print Studio

Get hands-on with letterpress printing and create your own postcard using unique 3D-printed typefaces. Choose your words, set the type, ink the press and pull your own print.

Reciprocity and Regeneration: Lessons from the Murnong

Join a yarning circle, creative workshop and exchange exploring reciprocity, regeneration and our relationship with Country, guided by First Peoples Knowledge Keepers and the story of the murnong daisy.

Stories of Community, Culture and Belonging

Gather around a traditional Somali nomadic hut, or aqal, created by artist Muhubo Sulieman. Hear the story behind her craft and journey in Melbourne and contribute your own through weaving, mapping and postcards.

Urban Garden Pop-Up

Explore vertical growing towers filled with seasonal produce and discover an emerging RMIT pilot investigating how urban food growing could support more local, sustainable and connected food systems.

City North Futures: Architectural Film Screening

Experience imagined futures for the City North Social Innovation Precinct through an immersive short film created by RMIT Master of Architecture students using gaming environments, simulations and cinematic storytelling.

2035 Battery Negotiations

It's 2035 and Australia is drowning in dead EV batteries. Take on the role of a household, recycler, manufacturer, policymaker or community advocate and negotiate solutions to one of the energy transition's biggest challenges.

City of Melbourne Pop-Up

Drop by for games, activities and a chat with local Neighbourhood Partners. Discover local grants, programs and opportunities and share your ideas for the neighbourhood.

Connect the Dots

Follow the yellow dots and discover the City North Social Innovation Precinct from a different perspective through an installation by RMIT Master of Architecture student Sophie Stavrakis.

Make, Play, Design: An Open-Air Living Room

Pull up a seat and make, play and design with RMIT Industrial Design students. Try an interactive digital game, watch a 3D printer in action, contribute to a drawing wall or join a design sprint.

Student Clubs and Performances

Meet RMIT student clubs and try engineering challenges, Women in STEM trivia, technology puzzles and Philosophy Hot Takes, plus catch live performances from RMIT's Funkadelics.

Magic Makeup World

Add some colour to your day with professional face painting for children and adults, from favourite characters and superheroes to colourful and completely imagined designs.

Hydrogen Street

Get up close with hydrogen technology, including a Toyota Mirai, hydrogen-powered bikes and motorbike and a hydrogen BBQ, while exploring how renewable energy and waste could become cleaner fuels for everyday life.

Industrial Design Open Studio

Step inside RMIT's Industrial Design studio and experience design in action. Test prototypes, challenge ideas, play with a large-scale interactive artwork or jump into a 20-minute Mini Design Sprint with a table of strangers. No design experience needed, just bring your curiosity!

Experience the precinct as a living lab

The festival brings RMIT's City North Social Innovation Precinct to life as a living lab, where students, researchers, staff, community, industry and government come together to test ideas, build connections and explore new approaches to social and urban challenges.

Come for an activity, stay for lunch or spend the afternoon exploring. Bring your colleagues, classmates, friends or family and experience the City North Social Innovation Precinct in action.

Getting here

The City North Shared Futures Festival takes place along Cardigan Street in RMIT's City North Social Innovation Precinct, within easy reach of Melbourne's CBD.

By train: State Library Station and Melbourne Central Station are the closest stations, with the precinct a short walk away.
By tram: Swanston Street is serviced by tram routes 1, 3, 5, 6, 16, 64, 67 and 72. La Trobe Street is also serviced by routes 30 and 35, providing easy access to the RMIT City campus.
By car: Parking is available at RMIT's City Campus car park at Building 91, 110 Victoria Street, with entry via Cardigan Street. The car park is open 6.30am to 10pm, seven days a week. Weekend parking is $8.

Upcoming events

Monthly RMIT Games Day 2026

25 Jan 2026 - 14 Dec 2026

RMIT City campus

RMIT are back for RMIT Games Day 2026 tournaments!

Circular Campus to Community Making Workshop: Student Led Community Repair Session

15 Sep 2026

Brunswick

Are your garments in need of mending or alteration? Bring your items along to a 2-hour clothing restoration workshop with assistance provided by RMIT Bachelor of Fashion (Design) students.

'The First Inventors: How People Shaped a Continent' | An evening with Larissa Behrendt AO, Billy Griffiths and Sean Ulm

15 Sep 2026

The Capitol

To celebrate Social Sciences Week, and the research that helps us understand and shape society, RMIT University is proud to present celebrated Eualayai/Gamillaroi author, filmmaker and academic Larissa Behrendt AO, award-winning author and historian Billy Griffiths and one of Australia's leading archaeologists, Sean Ulm, as they discuss their new book 'The First Inventors: How People Shaped a Continent.'

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples