49 - Can Music Festivals Regenerate Land? Mobilising Thousands to Repair Water Cycles, and How to Build a Regenerative Company - Nathan Stranart, Ten Lives Festival

In this episode, Rob Wreglesworth sits down with Nathan Stranart, co-founder of Ten Lives Festival, a bold new “regenerative festival” movement aiming to tackle land degradation and desertification by pairing hands-on restoration work with music, joy, and community. Nathan explains how Ten Lives formed as a founder collective (not a solo hero story), why governance and “relationship to profit” matter more than most founders think, and how festivals can become a scalable vehicle for behaviour change rather than just entertainment. They dive into alternative investment models (steward ownership, capped returns, climate dividends), the idea of scaling like a tree rather than a rocket, and why Ten Lives is fundamentally an education project that trains local guides and future festival builders. If you care about regeneration, systems thinking, and building mission-led ventures without falling into the usual VC traps, this one goes deep in the best way. Topics covered: Regenerative festivals, community-led entrepreneurship, systems thinking, post-growth business design, scaling impact, eco-anxiety and purpose, alternative finance models, and building movements people actually want to join. To back the project and secure a ticket to the first edition of Ten Live click here https://www.ulule.com/ten-lives-regenerative-festival/ Learn more about Ten Lives here. If you have any ideas for future guests drop me a direct message on Instagram or Linkedin