Westland Impact Festival returns to Whitefish

The 2026 Westland Impact Festival is June 11-13 in Whitefish. Presented by Project Winterland, the event features 26 films, 15 panels, 40 speakers, live music, four venues and an opening night Indigenous Forum, and all of it all battery powered.

Screenings and panel discussions will take place at the O’Shaughnessy Center, Depot Park and at participating downtown businesses.

Westland Impact Festival reflects the belief that when people gather with purpose, new ideas and new partnerships can take root, helping to find solutions to environmental and social issues.   

“The Impact Festival we’ve built this year has truly exceeded every expectation. The sheer volume of groundbreaking content, noted experts, artists, speakers and elite scientists would have been hard to imagine when we set out to chart our programming just five months ago,” said Anderson Rosenthal, founder. “We’re pulling off a first of its kind, clean energy demonstration project on-site.” 

The festival includes films and filmmakers from Sundance Labs, the Rockefeller Foundation, National Geographic, the Bush Foundation and Emmy winning producers and writers —along with projects that include Academy Award-winning actors, directors, and celebrated names. 

The festival brings a curated selection of experts spanning finance, biomimicry, sustainable data center innovation, attainable housing, regenerative agriculture, AI, philanthropy, and traditional ecological knowledge. Culture tracks include two panel discussions on the future of sports and entertainment. The Ignite Speaker, Ayisha Siddiqa, was a Time magazine’s Woman of the Year at age 23.  

An Indigenous forum will feature filmmakers and leaders representing the Blackfeet, Salish-Kootenai, Sicáŋğu Lak̇óta Oyáte (Lakota Rosebud), Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Dine, Navajo, Pueblo, and Crow Nations, and other Indigenous nations across Canada, Mexico and South America. 

Live performances include Sterling Drake, Rachel Crow, AY Young, 20 Grand, and Katels. 

The festival will be powered with solar energy from panels supplied by Northstone Solar, deploying a suite of transportable batteries provided by partner, New Use Energy. Battery charging will not rely on the grid, as they will be charged at an on-site solar pavilion.  

All festival merchandise is custom-made by local partners at FDES. They will be using thrift-flipped garments in partnership with Flathead Industries, and repurposing into one-of-a-kind tees, hats and button downs.   

For more information and tickets visit projectwinterland.org.