The Final Greener Festival Awards have announced and thirteen more festivals have picked up the eco-award bringing the total to thirty one around the world - on top of eighteen festivals who picked up the Green n Clean award in mainland Europe.
Eight English festivals including The Big Chill, Bestival, Summer Sundae Weekender, Shambala, Reading, Leeds, Waveform and End of the Road along with Scotland’s Hydro Connect, Ireland’s Electric Picnic, Portugal’s Boom, Southbound in Australia and the Rothbury Festival in the USA have joined the illustrious list of winners for the 2008 Greener Festival Award. All of the award winners were praised by organisers www.agreenerfestival.com for thier efforts to promote environmentally friendly music festivals. The independent award is based on a seven part questionnaire which covers event management, travel and transport plans, CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, fair trade, waste management and recycling, water management and noise pollution. Points are awarded for festivals which can show an active plan to promote public transport, reduce on-site waste, recycle and compost wherever possible, re-use water and use sustainable power. Festivals are expected to have a coherent environmental policy and the organisers have environmental auditors who visit as many festival sites as possible to assess how festivals implement their plans. In total twenty three UK festivals and eight international festivals have won the award. Six festivals gained the ultimate accolade of the ‘outstanding’ award from the organisers including the Waveform and Shambala festivals in the UK and Bonnaroo in the USA. A Greener Festival co-founder Claire O’Neill said “this year applications for our awards more than doubled and this is fantastic news. More and more festivals are making the effort go green and adopt environmentally friendly practices. Some festivals are still improving and going through a steep learning curve, others are old hands now who keep improving their green credentials year on year. The UK and international festival scene is now making a concerted effort to be leaders in changing behaviour to protect the environment”. The organisers also congratulated the eighteen festivals who had won the Green ‘n’ Clean award from Yourope, the European festivals organisation. A Greener Festival’s Luke Westbury added ‘We fully endorse and support Yourope’s award and the progress they are making. Across both Europe and the UK we can see significant and positive change. Green n Clean have some fantastic festivals taking part including Denmark’s Roskilde, St Gallen Open Air in Swtitzerland, Rheinkultur in Germany, Pinkpop in the Nederlands and Finland’s Provinssirock. We salute them! The Full list of 2008 winners is below:
THE GREEN FESTIVAL AWARD: Bestival, Big Chill, Big Session Festival, Camden Green Fair (outstanding award), The Cambridge Folk Festival, City Blues Festival (Leicester), Download. End of the Road, The Glade Festival, The Glastonbury Festival, Hard Rock Calling, Hydro Connect, Latitude, Leeds Festival, Leicester City Blues Festival, Lounge on the Farm, 02 Wireless Festival, Reading Festival, Shambala (outstanding award), Summer Sundae Weekender, T-in-the-Park, Waveform (outstanding award), Workhouse Festival, 2000 Trees GREENER FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL AWARD: The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (USA) (outstanding award), Rothbury Festival (USA) (outstanding award), Bluesfest - Eastcoast Blues & Roots Festival (Australia) (highly commended), The Falls Festival (Australia), West Coast Blues n Roots Festival (Australia), Southbound (Australia), Electric Picnic (Eire), Boom Festival (Portugal) (outstanding award). The Greener Festival Awards are supported by Robertson Taylor, international insurance brokers GREEN N CLEAN AWARD from YOUROPE: Hultfred Festival Sweden, Lowlands The Nederlands, Rheinkultur Germany, Rock Werchter Belgium, Paléo Festival Nyon, Das Fest Germany, Pukkelpop Belgium, Roskilde Festival Denmark, Gurtenfestival Berne, Illosarirock Finland, Ruisrock Finland, Taubertal Festival Germany, Pinkpop The Nederlands, Provinssirock Finland, Les Recontres Transmusicales de Rennes France, T in the Park Scotland, Rip Curl Festival Franc, eOpenAir St.Gallen Switzerland. www.yourope.org www.agreenerfestival.com
