The Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival began on Friday at Dolamore Park, about 15km west of Gore.
The festival's theme was ''Shaping Our Future - We Have Options''. It was hosted by Coal Action Murihiku (Cam).
The festival built on the success of last year's inaugural Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival held on Mike Dumbar's farm south of Mataura.
Cam co-convener Jenny Campbell said the group, formed after last year's festival, was designed to provide a forum for people with concerns about proposed lignite developments in Eastern Southland.
Cam is connected with the national group Coal Action Network Aotearoa (Cana), which ran the inaugural summer festival.
The festival keynote speaker was Rob McCreath, a Queensland farmer and founding president of Friends of Felton, a community group that won an almost five-year battle against a proposed open-cut coal mine and petrochemical plant in the Felton Valley, Queensland. Mr McCreath said he hoped the group's success would give hope to others opposed to mining in their communities.
Mr McCreath and his wife Sally are in New Zealand for two weeks, and have already toured Otago-Southland.
''I can't believe the carrying capacity of the farmland - it's incredibly productive here.''
When he looked at Solid Energy's New Vale mine near Waimumu on Friday, he saw ''good farmland'' ripped up by machinery to get to the coal underneath.
An open day for the public was held yesterday in Gore. Speakers included Mr McCreath, Peter Hardstaff of WWF,
and Cana members Kristin Gillies and Jeanette Fitzsimons.
On Friday,
Coal Action Network members presented Solid Energy with a ''low-carbon future'' basket of sustainably-grown vegetables to represent the future of Southland's fertile farming, paired with some mothballs for its lignite projects.
Summer festival attendees toured Solid Energy's coal projects in the area, including the briquetting plant in Mataura, where they left the basket for the company. The gates to the plant were locked, with security guards on site when the group arrived outside.
The plant is expected to process about 148,000 tonnes of low-grade lignite coal from a nearby mine annually, turning it into 90,000 tonnes of higher quality briquettes suitable as fuel for households and industries. The festival, which is due to wrap up this morning, also included an update on lignite projects and a series of workshops.
