Trains rumbled overhead at Zapopan Centro station as vendors laid out honey, coffee, potted plants, handmade jewelry and clothing beneath the tracks, turning a busy transit center into a hub of homegrown, regenerative culture called the Festival de la Tierra. Over three days, hundreds of passersby stepped off the station stairway into a compact but dense gathering of workshops, ceremonies, performances and a “Solidarity Economy” street market that organizers describe as “a small spark made with a lot of heart and enthusiasm” for the Earth.
What the festival is
Now in its ninth year, The Festival de la Tierra is organized by a collective of collectives that has reshaped the event since the pandemic into a year‑round process, with activities tied to dates like the Aztec New Year on March 11-12 and International Earth Day on April 22.
Co‑founder Javier Reyes Rodríguez Curiel, who collaborates with the Escuela Campesina and the Mexican Institute for Community Development (IMDEC), said the November gathering in Zapopan marks the end of a nine-month process, spread across different locations.
He described the site under the train lines as a strategic place where small‑scale producers can meet an urban public in motion: three days where artisans, food producers, and land defenders converge at a human scale, even as “more than 300 people per hour” stream through the station.
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