Doors: 20:30
Starts: 20:45
Unreserved- In The Box
Tickets: Talks and DJ £15, DJ set only £5
Plus £2 venue levy
Age: 18+ only
Proudly presented by The Old Market and Brighton Festival
Step into an hour of inspiration, connection, and celebration as we gather for the Seeds of Hope - where climate courage takes centre stage.
Six brilliant storytellers will each share a short, uplifting tale about progress in the climate movement: moments of regeneration, community action, innovative solutions, and pathways toward a thriving planet. We’ll then all come together for a banging DJ set by Nico de Transilvania to round out the night in style.
This is a chance to remember how far we’ve come, how much is possible, and how much more there is to do.
The Line-Up
Six voices. Six stories. Each one a thread in the tapestry of hope for Earth’s future.
Nico de Transilvania (Forest Without Frontiers): Nicoleta Carpineanu is a Romanian-born, Brighton-based cultural leader, filmmaker, and environmental advocate working at the intersection of music, heritage, and nature. In 2018 she founded Muzica Without Frontiers, a record label and production company that launched in 2019 the non-profit Forests Without Frontiers (www.forestswithoutfrontiers.org), supporting conservation through music and the arts.
As Nico de Transilvania (nicodetransilvania.com), she is a DJ, producer, and creative director who spent over 20 years touring globally before releasing her own music. Her sound blends electronic beats with global and traditional influences, often incorporating field recordings and nature sounds—placing the natural world at the heart of her compositions. Also, a speaker and filmmaker, she creates work recorded and filmed in nature, where wild landscapes become both stage and story—bridging art and activism to inspire deeper connection with the natural world.
Nicky O’Malley (30x30): Nicky O’Malley is CEO of 30x30 UK and founder of Nature’s Voice. Her work is all about helping people reconnect with the natural world and imagining a future where both people and planet can truly thrive. Through her talks and projects, she invites us to see Nature not as something separate from us, but as something we are deeply part of and stand with.
Nicky O’Malley is a nature-positive leader, entrepreneur, and CEO of 30x30 UK, driving support for the UK’s contribution to protect and restore 30% of land and sea for Nature by 2030.
She is also the founder of Nature’s Voice, a future-leadership studio exploring how we bring nature into the rooms where the future is decided - in boardrooms, communities and at government-level.
Working across business, policy, and community, Nicky is part of a new wave of leadership redefining our relationship with the natural world. She believes the future must be built with Nature at the table and that this shift is already underway. Her work invites us all to step into that exciting future now.
Dean de Aragon Spears (Sussex Bay): Dean is a Geographer who advocates for leadership grounded in kindness and purpose. He has paused his corporate career to lead Sussex Bay, a large-scale nature recovery project spanning 100 miles of coastline and serving 1.7 million residents across the South Coast. With over 20 years of experience in education, sustainability, government, charity, and technology, Dean focuses on inclusion, impact, and partnership. He is passionate about connecting people, place, and nature, and champions community collaboration as a path to meaningful change.
Rianshi (YESfest): Guest speaker Rianshi comes to us from YESfest - a CIC that introduces 8, 9 and 10-year-old children (English school Years 4 & 5) to peer networks and gives them a supportive community, practical tools and resources in order to ‘do something good in their part of the planet’.
Sam Zindel (Gen-R): Sam Zindel is Managing Director of marketing agency Propellernet, founder of Low Carbon Leaders, and a key member of the Sussex Bay movement. His work centres on finding new ways to engage people with positive action on climate change and nature restoration. His latest project called GEN R uses music and art to generate a much needed positive narrative for nature restoration.
Dylan Walker (Wilderlife): Dylan is an ecologist and social entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience shaping how people connect with nature. He facilitates engaging workshops that help people step away from day-to-day pressures and imagine the futures they want to create. His sessions are playful and full of laughter, using creative tools like LEGO, cardboard, and even the office lift as a time machine to spark new ways of thinking.
Through his consultancy, Experience Wild, Dylan and his team work with organisations to design experiences that connect people with nature through food, drink, music, and sport—meeting people where they feel most comfortable and discovering fresh ways to link our cultural and natural heritage.
He has co-founded four conservation-focused non-profits and led countless community-led projects including the groundbreaking People’s Park for Nature. A specialist in rewilding and responsible tourism, he’s also a World Responsible Travel Award winner.
This event is part of The Old Market’s and Brighton Festival’s Of Land, Sea and Sky programme.
Rooted in our own connection to the soil beneath our feet, the waters that shape our coastlines, and the landscapes that hold our daily live, this season invites audiences to see themselves as stewards of this place we call home.
Of Land, Sea and Sky is Part of Brighton Festival’s 60th Edition, taking place Sat 2-Sun 24 May 2026 - brightonfestival.org
This event takes place In The Box
An exclusive programme at TOM that takes events and turns them 360 degrees.