Festival of Mud

Design Feature

Type of project

Festival

State

South Australia

Location

Urban

The Festival of Mud was created through a partnership of over nine organisations based in the inner metropolitan area of Adelaide. The project was inspired by findings of a study exploring child development as part of the Australian Early Child Development census, which proposed a need to focus on resilience and the development of motor skills in the region. As such, the Festival of Mud was born as a celebration of nature and unstructured play for healthy child development.

A variety of activities were provided to spark children’s sense of creativity and fun. Through this initiative, families and educators were encouraged to support children’s engagement with the natural environment and to develop facilities for outdoor play.

A celebration of nature and unstructured play

The Festival of Mud was an inter-sectoral collaboration conducted during April 2016. This included outdoor play activities for parents and children, as well as a school holiday program which was nature themed. Activities included Mud Play, Recycle Craft Storytime, Parkour, Cubby Building and Nature Crafts. In addition, the program provided professional development activities for educators and support for children’s facilities to create nature play activities. School and early childhood facilities engaged in mud play, with some installing mud kitchens.

The project aimed to increase appreciation of outdoor play, as well as to enhance the council’s capacity to promote outdoor and nature play. It was informed by the 2014 ‘Active Unley – Sport and Recreation Research Project’ which included extensive community consultation and indicated the need for Council to actively pursue these play opportunities.

An evaluation was undertaken following each event and whilst a variety of methods to capture feedback (relevant to the event), consistent questions were used. Over 750 people engaged in the different events, and over 4,000 people of all ages attended the ‘Mud Central’ event in late April 2016. A Facebook page was set up for the event, which attracted the majority of feedback, however, 55 responses to a survey were received.

A summary of feedback is as follows:

Over 90% of educators surveyed felt the program was valuable and increased their confidence to implement new ideas regarding nature-based play within their classrooms
Educators felt the program increased their awareness of the various resources available and the links between children’s play habits and physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Educators identified the primary barriers to implementing new ideas centred on time and safety considerations (i.e. directions from DECD).
Over 90% of responses rated the event as ‘good’ or better, and advised they would attend a future event, if it was to proceed.
45% of respondents stated they had learnt something new at the event (relating to nature play).

The information, networking and professional development provided through this initiative will facilitate use of community settings for free nature play. Mud kitchens in schools and kindergartens will be available for ongoing use and Council will continue to support free nature play in community settings. Evidence from DECD primary schools in the City of Unley alone indicates that four schools have recently or are planning to develop nature play areas and are implementing nature, mud and ‘loose parts’ play into student learning.

Project team

City of Unley (Lead)
Natural Resources Adelaide & Mt Lofty Ranges
Department for Education and Child Development
Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources
Nature Play SA
City of Burnside
Principals Australia Institute
Playgroup SA
Kidsmatter

Project cost

The Festival of Mud had a budget of $10,000, and involved over 200 hours of staff time across the nine partner agencies.

Health value

This project recognised the cultural changes that have led to a risk-averse and screen dependent society, and sought to facilitate child development by connection with nature.
Benefits for children from creating their own outdoor fun include improved wellbeing and resilience, physical fitness and motor skill development.

Economic value

Children’s connection with nature can be expected to yield future benefits as the value of green open space is recognised.
An emphasis on use of natural and recycled materials also promotes sustainability.

Social Value

Over 4000 participants participated in mud play and nature play, and were given information about how to implement these activities at home.
Over 40 educators were informed about how to implement important unstructured play activities

Use value

The project brought together nine different agencies to create a project that provided mutual benefit for each organisation, the patrons immediately serviced by each organisation, and the wider community.
As part of its Community Plan 2033 and relevant supporting plans, the City of Unley has a mandate to support events of this nature in the future and plans are currently in progress for future events.

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