New green innovations at UK festivals

UK’s festival organisers’ green efforts have been ackowledged by organisers of the UK Festival Awards in their Innovation Award. Amongst the highlights were the Beachdown festival where all shuttle-buses and official transportation ran on used cooking oil; The Glade festival whose ticket scheme saw festival goers pre-sent an access card to swipe at the gate; Glastonbury for the biodegradable, starch tent pegs handed out to festival goers; Scotland’s Hydro Connect for the Rickshaws used to ferry festival goers and artists around the site; The Isle Of Wight Festival who distributed wristbands two weeks before the festival to speed up entry; Latitude whose Theatre Arena was the world’s first fuel cell powered festival stage; Lovebox for real-time webcasts of artist interviews and performances on website and stage screens; Solfest who had kids-only toilets to make things easier for children and adults alike; Standon Calling who hosted the UK’s first festival underwater dance arena in a swimming pool; The Big Chill where Big Issue vendors sold the programme on site, while buskers were invited to perform.

www.agreenerfestival.com  also announced nominees for the Greener Festival Award, which they choose and the nominated fetsivals are: Big Session, Cambridge Folk Festival, The Glade, Glastonbury, Latitude, T-in-the-Park, Summer Sundae, Shambala, Workhouse and Waveform.

The Awards ceremony will take place on the 30th October at the 02 (Indigo) in London and will be preceeded by the first ever UK Festivals Conference to be held in central London which is being presented by the UKFA along with Bucks New University, A Greener Festival,  Virtual Festivals and Yourope and features a keynote speech from Julie’s Bicycle director Al Tickell as well as two panels on  green festivals and managing sustainable events.

For details of the UK Festival Awards and the UK Festivals Conference see www.festivalawards.com and vote for your favourite festival!