Festival celebrates olive harvest, sustainability and community
Published on 04 May 2026
The City of Whittlesea is once again partnering with CERES to deliver the popular Olives to Oil Festival in 2026, inviting the community to come together and celebrate local food, sustainability and shared traditions.
The festival will take place on Saturday 9 May at City of Whittlesea’ s Civic Centre in South Morang, featuring food, music, compost week celebrations and hands-on activities for children and families.
Residents are encouraged to attend the free festival and enjoy a vibrant day of activities, including face painting, coffee and toasties, gardening activities for kids, celebrating the harvest, and exploring the Scraps to Soil program. The program shares simple ways to reduce food waste, how to use your food and garden waste bin, and tips to grow a more sustainable garden.
Each year, olive trees across the City of Whittlesea produce an abundance of fruit that often goes unharvested. The Olives to Oil program helps rescue this produce and transform it into high-quality, locally made olive oil.
While olive drop-off bookings are now sold out for standard allocations, some capacity remains for larger-volume olive drop-offs.
In 2025, the initiative saw City of Whittlesea residents help save more than 3.1 tonnes of olives from landfill, producing approximately 440 litres of olive oil. Community feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with one resident saying the oil “tasted just like my relatives’ oil in Italy”, while another described the experience as “an amazing opportunity to connect with nature and the community, giving a genuine sense of achievement and self-worth.”
Participants who secured drop-off bookings will be able to collect their freshly pressed oil from the CERES Preston warehouse on Sunday 12 July, 2026.
For those who missed out on drop-off bookings, there are still opportunities to get involved. Residents can participate in an Olive Pickling Workshop on 14 May, where they will learn how to preserve and prepare olives at home, helping reduce food waste while gaining practical skills.
For more information about harvesting olives or attending the festival, visit the Olives to oil festival page.