With weeks to go before Christmas, one festival that celebrates creativity for sustainability combined with a market that aims to promote a happier, healthier, more sustainable lifestyle offers socially-conscious consumers more than just well-designed, high-value products. At the THRIVE Festival & MUNI Market, shoppers can already help make meaningful change happen simply by purchasing products and supporting the event’s lineup of well-curated merchants.
According to Jen Horn, THRIVE director and founder of MUNI, “We did our best to select only those [merchants] who we felt could contribute to a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle—choosing only to accept brands or companies that promote healthy food, locally handcrafted or eco-friendly items, and other products or services that contribute to overall wellness.”
This year’s MUNI merchants include the following, with more in the offing:
Healthy Food and Drinks
Bayani Brew, Edgy Veggy, Greens, Jertie’s Kitchen, Proudly Promdi, Kayumanggi Organics, Take Root, Stanford Shaw, Nipa Foods, Picole, The Superfood Grocer, Tsaa Laya, V Kitchen, Villa Socorro, Commune, Theo & Philo, Manila Bake
Eco Home & Fashion
Rags2Riches, Risque Designs, Gouache, Hacienda Crafts, Obrano, Rume, Taclob, Habi, Sustainably Made by Marsse, The Green House Project, Yadu, Guerilla Bags, Sparrow, V&M, Wonder Paws
Green & Active Lifestyle
Bambike, Certified Calm, Cropital, Jeepneed, Kimochi, Lunchbreak, National Bicycle Organization, The E-Waste Project, Solaric, Urban Ashram Manila
Complementing the MUNI Market’s mission to encourage responsible consumption is a lineup of THRIVE forums with partners and merchants. These insightful sessions will cover topics such as healthy and sustainable eating, ideas and innovation to address climate change, and conscientious sourcing and production for brands and entrepreneurs. There will also be a yoga sessions, terrarium-making, and a weaving workshop by award-winning social enterprise Rags2Riches.
“Manila is brimming with creativity, and dreamers and doers out to create a better world, and I wanted more of these groups to learn about each other’s initiatives, connect, and collaborate,” Horn shares.
And, of course, what is a festival without great music? For Horn, who has greatly infused the MUNI Markets with her personal taste and “mindful living” philosophy, “Music and the arts have a unique way of rallying people for a unified cause, and creating more of a community feel.”
THRIVE Festival’s ‘live playlist’ will be curated by Amplify.ph, with live performances by Anj Florendo Music, A Problem Like Maria, BennyBunnyBand, Fools and Foes, Hans Garcia Dimayuga, LM Cancio, Maya’s Anklet, Paola Mauricio, We Are Imaginary, and more.
For Horn, who is known to be an influencer and connector online and offline, THRIVE is an opportunity to get people involved in making Manila—and the rest of the Philippines—a better place to live in.
“More than anything else, at the risk of sounding cheesy, being part of this gives me a sense of hope, without sweeping claims of heroism, that the world can be a better place with a person-to-person planting of seeds to create a culture of caring. Once we really look beyond our personal bubble and start caring about our impact on others and the planet, that’s when we can really make a difference.” ADVT.