Imagining tomorrow together: highlights of the 4th edition of the Green Shift Festival

From April 9 to 11, 2026, the Green Shift Festival brought together experts, artists, athletes, and cultural actors in Monaco around a renewed ambition: to create spaces for dialogue, emotion, and encounter to support the transition towards more desirable futures. At the Yacht Club of Monaco, the event successfully united audiences and inspired new ways of seeing and acting upon the world.  

At the heart of the festival's programming since its inception in 2023, the public evenings welcomed nearly 300 people throughout the event.  

For its opening night, entitled "From Story to Action: Rewriting Our Collective Narrative", in partnership with the Institut des Futurs souhaitables (Institute for Desirable Futures), the speakers explored how narratives shape our visions of the future and can become levers for transformation. The discussion, moderated by Mathieu Baudin, historian, futurist, and director of the Institut des Futurs souhaitables, brought together Stéphane La Branche, climate sociologist and coordinator of the IPBC - International Panel on Behavior Change, who works to revalue the human factor in the analysis of our behavior in the face of climate change, and Jeanne Hénin, artist-researcher and animator of workshops exploring the power of words, which encourage dialogue among audiences about the emotions that the ecological and social crisis awakens within us.  

The second theme addressed this year was: “Our Territories Tomorrow: Rethinking How We Inhabit Cities and the World” in partnership with the Jacques Rougerie Foundation. Traveling through time, meeting explorers of the future who come to tell us what will happen in the coming decades… This is the incredible experience offered to us by Rob Hopkins, British environmental activist and author, famous for having initiated the international “Transition Towns” movement, and Jacques Rougerie, visionary architect and explorer specialising in marine and underwater habitats, self-proclaimed “mérien” (inhabitant of the sea) who has been designing biomimetic, bio-inspired, resilient and sustainable architectures for more than thirty years.  

Finally, the last evening brought together seven committed athletes – Flora Artzner (wingfoil), Julie Gautier (freediving and underwater dance), Nolwen Berthier (climbing), Younès Nezar (athletics), Arthur Le Vaillant (sailing), Yannis Pelé (mountain biking), and Sebastian Steudtner (big wave surfing) – around the theme of “Inspiring Stories to Change the Rules of the Game”. Each shared their journey, first through a personal testimony and then in a group discussion: the love of a sport that leads them to protect the natural environment that makes it possible; the mastery of a discipline that can help change the rules of the system; and the knowledge of a world shaped by strong values, where the emotions experienced and shared become powerful drivers for communication and change.  

As a prelude to each evening, the “Happy Hours to get involved” gave the floor to local actors leading remarkable ecological initiatives: the SMEG Group and the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, the Petites Cantines du Village Charlot in Beausoleil, the Monaco City Hall, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco and the Department of Education around the Ecoletopie project, the Junior Ambassadors of the Jacques Rougerie Foundation, the BeMed association, Icepire, Noliju and the Columbus Monte-Carlo hotel.  

Alongside the evening events, the festival also offered two “Culture Fresk” workshops for cultural institutions in the Principality and a conference for the administrators of these entities, four educational activities for schoolchildren, seven wellness sessions, an author’s event and two writing workshops, a museum exhibition visit and five exhibition spaces within the festival grounds and on the Quai Louis II, a bicycle repair workshop, a children's show, and creative activities for families.  

A concert by the Americana folk singer-songwriter and guitarist Bobbie brought this edition to a close, offering a blend of gentleness and soulful nostalgia.  

A free event open to all, the festival is a cornerstone of the Green Shift initiative launched by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to inspire and highlight diverse and positive forms of environmental engagement. It aims to be a laboratory of ideas rooted in the local community, driven by the power of art and emotion as catalysts for transformation.  

The Green Shift Festival 2026 was made possible thanks to the support of the SMEG Group, the Department of Cultural Affairs, MTB Recycling, and Columbus Monte-Carlo, and the collaboration of its partners: the Monaco City Hall, the Yacht Club of Monaco, the Institut des Futurs souhaitables, the Kate Powers Foundation, the Jacques Rougerie Foundation, the Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, the Aleksandr Savchuk Cancer Charity, and Actes Sud.