WOOD Festival - Case Study

COMPANY:
Truck Enterprises Ltd

EVENT:
Wood Festival May 16-18 2008, Braziers Park
….and returning to Braziers Park on May 15-17, 2009

WHY WOOD?:
The day before Truck Festival 2007, the July floods hit the site and disrupted transport links, forcing the cancellation of the festival in its 10th year of running. While the Oxfordshire-based festival was rescheduled for September and the event broke even, the additional costs caused by the flooding coupled with a lack of insurance meant that the body running the festival could no longer continue.

This challenge also presented a major opportunity to regroup and refocus – the core team established Truck enterprises Ltd and set about producing two new festivals alongside Truck festival for 2008 – with an even stronger commitment to a low impact approach.

The first new event was Wood, which they aim to make an example of best environmental practice. Robin Bennett of Truck observed: “we had always been aware of and interested in ecology and the flood certainly reminded us of the urgency for change.”

WHAT DID THEY DO?:
While Truck festival itself is a fairly small event for 5000 people, Wood’s capacity was set at 1000 to allow experimentation with new ways of running things, and particularly to enable a comprehensive response to recycling and waste management.

Sustainable site structures
Truck Enterprises invested considerable cost and labour in building a permanent green oak stage at Brazier’s Park. The oak was from Mackroy Timber Yard, Nettlebed, and was built by friends who specialize in oak frame construction, using no nails or screws. The stage should last for at least 10 years, and represents not just a long term vision for the festival but also a commitment to working with the community that own the site.

Joe Bennett (Truck Enterprises director) getting his hands (and beard) dirty…

Composting loos with a view
The group also built 6 new composting toilets in addition to the 6 already in the campfield at Braziers Park – as with the stage these represent an initial outlay which will see payback over the next few years of the event. The toilets include what may be the first disabled access composting loo. All the loos were customised for the festival setting and fitted with a hole for viewing the stage.

Diverse energy sources
The main stage was powered by solar panels from Firefly Solar, which ran the sound and lights for 12 hours each day, until midnight, even though the weather was overcast.

Gauging the energy output required to power certain areas proved challenging: a planned bicycle-powered tent had to be downsized as the power output from the bikes was not matched to the PA-  instead they switched to a generator running on recycled chip fat from Oxford colleges and caterers, provided by Golden Fuels. The bikes were not deterred however and provided sufficient power to run their own additional stage - the Magnificent Revolution stage.

Home-made showers were powered by a wood-burner and a campfire ran throughout the event, guarded by an old hippy who taught everyone how to make coffee and eggs in the fire.

Local hops to local workshops
Lager, cider and ale were all sourced within the county, and organically produced, from Truck’s friends at Cotswold lager microbrewery and others.

Food was provided in a camp canteen and again locally sourced, including soup made from nettles picked in the campsite. Recycling was well over 80%, including biodegradable plastic cups and bottles.

The festival featured workshops and talks on everything from making your own harp to sustainable farming – Truck see these as an integral part of the event.

Travel conundrums
Greenfield festival sites are by their very nature usually further away from populous areas which means people travel greater distances to get to the events, producing higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions. However the small scale and local base of Truck’s events (mostly coming from Oxfordshire and Berkshire) works to build community and reduce audience travel. Many had got into the spirit of the event and gone to great trouble to take buses, trains and bikes, or a combination of those. There were very few cars.

Greenfield events also provide a lower carbon way of living for the duration of the festival, and an opportunity for people to experience nature, animals and food production in a more direct way. One lad was shocked that a duck could fly! It could be argued that understanding and experiencing lower carbon living in rural environments is critical to engaging with current issues about climate change.

Watch out for WOOD 2009: Braziers Park, May 15-17