The award-winning Fusion Food and Culture Festival attracted almost 50,000 people to the City of Gosnells, in Perth’s south-east, on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 November, celebrating the region’s vibrant cultural diversity.
Mayor Terresa Lynes said the festival brings people together and makes people feel proud to live in the City.
“The City of Gosnells is one of the most multicultural areas in Perth, and Fusion sends a powerful message that everyone belongs in our City,” she said.
“It just keeps getting bigger and better, with new elements introduced each year to keep Fusion fresh and relevant in the community.”
The growth and popularity of Fusion presented an interesting challenge for the City – how to ensure the festival aligned with the City’s Sustainability Action Plan.
In response, the City introduced a container reuse and recycling program, with support from the State Government.
“The City of Gosnells partnered with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions’ Plastic Free Riverpark Program to deliver a more sustainable event,” Mayor Lynes said.
“Thousands of festival-goers who purchased food from participating mobile vendors were given their orders in a reusable plate, bowl or cup, which they returned to the GO2CUP team to be cleaned ready for the next diners.”
The GO2CUP team estimated this initiative prevented the generation of about 13,000 litres – or more than 50 x 240 litre rubbish bins – of serve-ware waste.
More than 7,500 litres of compostable material was diverted from landfill and around 9,000 dishes were reused by 32 participating food vendors.
Throughout the event, MCs on two stages regularly reminded festival-goers to place any rubbish or recycling in the clearly marked bins at the GO2CUP waste stations on site.
Waste stations at Fusion included rubbish, recycling, compost and Containers for Change options. Any glass or plastic containers with the 10c logo were able to be placed in the Containers for Change bins and the team from GO2CUP was on hand to help.
The 2025 City of Gosnells Fusion Food and Culture Festival also received major support from Lotterywest and support from Maddington Central shopping centre.
Earlier this year, Fusion took top honours in the Arts and Culture category at the 2025 National Awards for Local Government.
