First Greener Festival Awards announced for 2009
Seven English festivals, one Scottish, one Italian, two American and five Australian events are the first recipients of the coveted 2009 Greener Festival Award, acknowledging the events' efforts to reduce their environmental impact. In the UK, The Sunrise Celebration, Download, Firegathering, the Glastonbury Festival, Wireless, Hard Rock Calling and the Isle of Wight Festival all were praised by environmental group A Greener Festival for their green policies and on-site activities whilst in Scotland T-in-the-Park was congratulated for its innovative approach to water use and engaging with the audience to reduce the festival's greenhouse gas emissions - the massive Rototom Reggae Sunsplash in Italy was similarly praised.
In America, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the 80,000 capacity Bonnaroo Festival were both praised by the award organisers for coherent and effective environmental best practices whilst in Australia the five Festivals who received the award were Peats Ridge, The Falls Festival, Bluesfest, WomAdelaide and Southbound were all congratulated for their efforts. All the award winners in 2009 will receive a special trophy designed by sixth form student Sade Goddard from Keswick School in Cumbria whose competition winning design is constructed from recycled plastics made from crushed CDs, remoulded plastic water bottles and unwanted wellington boots. The recycled plastic boards made by Smile Plastics "combine a strong environmental message with an evocative and distinctive appeal linked to the processing of plastic waste."
The Greener Award is based on a 56 point checklist which covers green office policies, energy use and carbon reduction, travel and transport, support for green initiatives, waste management, recycling, water use and environmental protection and noise pollution and the Awards organisers have a team of environmental auditors who visit festivals to assess environmental good practice and effective green policies.
The Award scheme is supported by Robertson Taylor, specialist insurance brokers for the music and entertainment industries.
Ben Challis, co-founder of A Greener Festival said "this is the third year of our awards scheme and it is clear that our participating event organisers are doing more and more to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste and move towards a carbon neutral infrastructure. The key issue now is working with the audience to reduce travel emissions - which can sometimes make up almost three quarters of a festivals' carbon footprints. Our auditors have noticed that more and more festivals are starting to work with the audience to promote sustainable lifestyles - the team that came back from the Isle of Wight raved about the really clever initiatives there. In the US the Bonnaroo Festival was praised for its innovative education programmes and both Glastonbury and T-in-the-Park both work hard to promote green issues - by adopting new and improved practices each and every year, and by working to publicise new initiatives. We are also delighted with the new Award trophy designed and made by students at Keswick School in Cumbria which combines an attractive design with recycled plastics, CDs and Wellington boots, thousands of pairs of which are sadly left behind at festivals.
Highlights of individual festival reports from the environmental auditors
Peats Ridge Festival (Australia)
"Not so fast sonny Jim" or the police might want a "word" - not from the boys in blue you understand, but from the on-site green police who aim to help and educate patrons via their green and theatrical approach to waste - if you want to bin it - they can help you recycle or even reuse. This was just one great ideas alongside deposits for drinking vessels that encouraged customers to think about their. Our auditor said "it was a pleasure to see that a festival located in an environmentally sensitive area has such well thought out and cohesive environmental management plans."
Southbound Festival (Australia)
Southbound takes place in a semi-urban / semi -ural location and is organised by
Sunset Events who also host the West Coast Blues ‘n' Roots Festival - who were recipients of a 2008 Greener Festival Award. Sunset proudly introduced their new Ecobound initiative in 2009 which resulted in 20,000 trees being planted and 39% of festival patrons paying an optional Green Fee to offset the carbon emissions involved in getting to the event. Marvellous!
Bluesfest (Australia)
Byron Bay's Bluesfest is the Mother of all Easter weekend festivals and like your Mum she doesn't like it mentioned that she has more than 20 years experience of event greening under her belt. Electricity is reduced to night time only lighting for stall holders - and sensible reusable fluro-vests are available for the Green Team. Public awareness is engaged using artists and the big screens to promote environmental initiatives. We cannot wait to see Bluesfest located to a permanent site and we hope that this will give big Mama a lovely new home.
The Falls Festivals Lorne & Marion Bay (Australia)
With duel locations in both Victoria and Tasmania, praise has to be given to The Falls' team for fiercely protecting two beautiful areas. A winner of the Greener Festival Award in 2008, it is a pleasure to see the good work continuing with a particular focus on passing on information on environmental issues to patrons and the festival's efforts were rewarded with another year on year reduction of waste going to landfill. Especially inspiring is their re-use of the previous year's unloved dumped camping equipment, this year providing the backbone to a special carnival inspired celebration of the New Year. Go The Falls!
WOMADelaide (Australia)
WOMADelaide is thehe first South Australian festival to take part in the Greener Festival Award -and it has come out shining, much like the sun does over it's botanic garden home! The Festival provides parking for 700 bicycles to encourage greener transport by urban patrons and for those who might otherwise use public transport or the car and the festival has a partnership with Greening Australia which uses locally collected seeds to build diversity in local tree plantings and offsets any carbon produced. Not content with carbon counting, WOMADelaide raises awareness of environmental and social issues with the Global Village, an area which is dedicated to non-government organisations and interacts with a large number of patrons over the weekend, spreading the word and the love. Let's hope we see more of that love at the 2010 Awards.
Atlanta Jazz Festival (USA)
The Atlanta Jazz Festival's Go Green initiative represents an ongoing commitment to sustainability in recycling, transportation and event administration and the festival has a comprehensive and cohesive waste management and recycling programme, a biodiesel recycling plan for waste vegetable oil from concessions, encourages walking, bikes and public transport and promotes car pools and ride share on the ‘Clean Air Campaign' website. We are delighted to say that the Atlanta Jazz Festival is a worthy winner of the 2009 Greener Festival Award.
Bonnaroo (USA)
Bonnaroo is at the forefront of sustainability and won our "outstanding" award in 2008, just one of six festivals worldwide to achieve this and Bonnaroo continues to be a leader in environmental awareness within the festival circuit. In 2009, Bonnaroo concentrated on a "Buy Local" message, and improved their energy footprint by installing new electrical capabilities. This allowed them to plug directly into the local power grid, and reduced their energy consumption in the process. Other onsite features include permanent water wells, a composting pad and the newly planted Bonnaroo Victory Vegetable Garden. One of the greatest successes that Bonnaroo offers is its educational efforts. Whilst the organisers' many attempts at reducing the impact of the festival are to be applauded, the greatest change comes when the people who attend Bonnaroo take their knowledge home with them and spread it to their communities. Bonnaroo's many areas of education include the necessity of carbon reduction, the need for composting, reducing bottle water usage, viable uses of solar energy, recycling everything possible, and reducing the use of unnecessary items. They continue to strive to examine different areas in which they can improve, and it shows by the continued additions of environmental actions.
Now 6 years old, Firegathering is a lovely festival held on the Sussex Surrey border and it is a great active event full of fun and games for all - and very child friendly too! This is the first festival we have assessed with electricity completely from the mains power supplied by a green energy supplier. Firegathering team up with the Big Yellow Coach company to provide biofuel coach travel from Brighton the site. There was organic, Fair Trade and vegetarian food available and clear recycling facilities for both the audience and staff. We would recommend this festival to all people who like a festival that is green, fun and involves fancy dress!
Sunrise (England)
Back from last years rain deluged wash out and cancellation (due to acts of the rain god!) and back better than ever. This year Sunrise had a new site and what seems to be a more intricate and scaled down production - with no real 'main stage' at all. This really worked well for the atmosphere of the festival. Sunrise have sustainability at the core of their planning and festival ethos. Waste, Power and traffic policies all reflect this and there are almost 100% compost toilets too! With ethical stalls scattered all around site it was a really environmentally friendly festival - and the weather was kind too - it was a scorcher!
Download (England)
Download is another festival with a successful cup deposit scheme with no paper cups on the floor and the occasional rocker stumbling past with a wobbly green tower of ones they'd collected!! The promotion of lift share and public transport was good to see, and this year East Midlands trains had put on additional services to facilitate the audience travel to the site. Download didn't use renewable energy for any part of the event, but festival organisers Live Nation told us to watch out for more improvements in this area for 2010!
Isle of Wight Festival (England)
The headlines in the music press may have been all about Neil Young, Simple Minds, The Prodigy and the Ting Tings - but the Isle of Wight Festival 2009 also had a strong and carefully crafted message about all things ‘green'. With a sustainability plan being put together and managed by the wonderful Eco Action Partnership there were some neat ideas about conveying a targeted message to the festival-goers which included using Twitter updates reminding people to leave no trace and to take tents home, ‘The Hive' chill-out with costumed honey bees delivering the message ‘give bees a chance' and reusable signage backgrounds so the words can be changed from year to year. A veritable army of litter pickers helped to leave the site spotless - reducing waste by 50% from 2008! Nice work everyone!
Glastonbury has a well-established ‘green' and environmentally friendly ethos that has evolved over many years - it's a fundamental aspect of event. This means that many good environmental practices, such as recycling, have been embedded and built on. This year those practices were enhanced following a thorough review in 2008 which included examining the site's biodiversity and a review of waste management. Targets were set for many aspects, such as audience travel and on-site transportation, leading to the increased use of bio-diesel fuel in site vehicles as well as generators and the use of many forms of alternative energy including solar, wind and human generated power wherever practicable. Glastonbury's real strong point is that it works with, supports and actively encourages its audience and staff to go green and builds on their willingness and determination to hold a ‘green' festival.
Wireless Festival & Hard Rock Calling (England)
Wireless and Hard Rock Calling had a huge advantage in terms of carbon emissions - it's in London in a central urban location with excellent public transport system hugely - vastly reducing it's carbon footprint from audience travel compared to some other events. Most of the audience travels by public transport and the event organiser's (London based Live Nation) environmental policy encourages staff and crew to stay locally and do the same. The event environmental policy enabled traders to be directed to provide food in compostable containers and drinks were provided in plastic bottles as these are easier to segregate post-event. There were stalls were on site promoting environmental issues and video display screens on the main stage were used to provide environmental messages between performances. Wireless is held in a Royal Park who provided information about the Park's fauna and flora and means of limiting impact of the event on them.
The ten day long Rototom Sunsplash is Europe's biggest reggae festival now in its 16th year! Hats off to the crew, production and indeed audience for super stamina. Rototom go to great lengths to protect the environment. Separate bins are provided for recycling and then all are sorted by Michael and his crew on site. Biodegradable cutlery and plates are used with compost collected. There are no chemical toilets, and a free shuttle to ferry people from local train stations. Audiences are encouraged to get involved with recycling points where you exchange a bag of recyclables for a lottery ticket to win great prizes. Rototom have also done an extensive analysis and carbon calculation of the festival so they can monitor progress and improve year on year.
T-in-The-Park (Scotland)
T in the Park is committed to reducing its impact on the environment and works hard to be as green as possible. This year the Redeem, Reduce, Recycle Cup deposit initiative was back, significantly reducing on-site waste - T now hits a 60% recycling rate. The big hit for T this year was the innovative approach to water: The festival takes place in the beautiful surroundings of Balado in Kinross-shire, very close to Loch Leven which has been designated a Site of Specific Scientific Interest by Scottish Natural Heritage and all contractors and working staff on-site stick to very strict rules about waste water - none is poured onto the ground and there are multiple "Grey Water" collection points around the site which are emptied safely and securely daily. The festival is taking action to recycle waste at source and improve the toilet provision - there has been a significant reduction in water usage through the re-use of shower water to prime a number of toilets, plus the introduction of vacuum toilets at one location. With low energy ‘festoon' lighting around the site which turn off automatically when not needed, staff bicycles, T is the world's largest ‘carbon neutral' festival - T's carbon dioxide emissions, which are generated by the event's energy use, waste, diesel and artists, crew and fan travel, are offset through various global carbon offset schemes. T gets the Greener Festival Award for the second year running.
