The sixth annual Harvest Festival on March 22 invites crowds to celebrate and learn more about the benefits of growing, buying and eating locally.

Held from 12pm to 4pm at Canberra Environment Centre adjacent to the National Museum, the festival offers live music, sustainable living workshops and local food and wine tastings.

“For the first time we are having a wine bar at the event which will be supplied by Gardner's Ground, a local organic wine producer,” Canberra Environment Centre director Ryan Lungu said.

“There is a fantastic community buzz, showing appreciation for local farmers who are often forgotten when we shop at big supermarket chains,” he said.

Caroola Farm permaculturalist and grower Penny Kothe said each year Canberra's harvest festival was growing, bringing more interested people in touch with ideas, designs and food provider's that operate sustainably.

“It's quite an interactive day,” she said.

“It's not a market where you might buy a few things and then leave. People hang out for the day or the afternoon and enjoy the bands, local food tastings, information sessions and workshops.”

Adapting Caroola Farm in Mulloon, between Bungendore and Braidwood, to operate as a permaculture farm took time, Ms Kothe said.

She said opportunities to think and talk through ideas, and share tips about implementing sustainable practices, even in a small way, was what the Harvest Festival was all about.

“To me the important part is educating people about what that difference is,” she said.

“When I grew up, and it wasn't that long ago, you had to shop at the butcher and the grocer and there wasn't a supermarket. Our culture has gone right away and prioritised convenience but I think it is starting to swing back.”

Mr Kothe said providing alternatives for people in the city to grow a little, or buy to support food producers in their region had too many benefits to ignore.

“Everyone in their own situation can do different things,” she said. “Those that live in an apartment can't have chickens in the backyard but that doesn't mean they can't source their eggs locally, for example.”

Gardens Ground grape grower Jenny Gardner said the Canberra community understood the significance of sustainable practices in farming and broad looming concerns for food sovereignty.

“I think the Canberra community is a big pusher of it,” she said.

“They are quite an educated group of people, politically aware and motivated to follow what they think is the right thing is to do.”

Apart from showcasing her organic wines at the upcoming Harvest Festival, Ms Gardner said she hoped to take time out to enjoy the live music and festival atmosphere.

“It's a great day out. It's friendly, a great family place, great music, food and wine, and a lovely location for this time of the year," she said.