Audience Travel Initiatives
Jam Packed Part 1 (2009), Julie’s Bicycle's ground breaking publication on audience travel to festivals, found that audience travel is responsible for two thirds of the festival sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the biggest source of impact of a festival.
The report also noted that despite attempts by festival organisers to provide festival-goers with public modes of transportation, most attendants were unaware of the availability of coaches, trains and buses. The report identified an opportunity for festival organisers to intelligently communicate with their audience using their website, programming and press material to educate and promote the use of public modes of travel.
Since the publication of the report many festivals have adopted a series of travel initiatives setting an example for the industry to follow. A few such examples are:
In 2010 the festival achieved a reduction in its total greenhouse gas emissions per audience day of 33% with the audience travel emissions per audience member falling by 26% from 2009 to 2010. Despite audience travel not being under the direct control of the festival the reductions were made possible through increased car occupancy, which the festival organisers had been specifically promoting.
A particularly famous example in this space is the Melt! Train organised by the Melt! Festival to transport and house festival-goers. Starting off in Cologne and coming to a stop just outside the festival grounds, the Melt! Train provided its audience with an affordable and fun alternative to camping and using cars, reducing the impact associated with travelling to and from the festival in private accommodation and of buying and discarding camping equipment.
Shambala Festival, the only festival to have achieved 3* Industry Green as yet, offers its audience a biofuel shuttle bus service from the local train and bus station as well as subidised express coaches from 6 cities. Since 2009 it also began to offer drivers the option to offset their travel through an accredited scheme, raising £4,000 which was donated by popular vote to the World Land Trust. A partnership with Sustrans also inspired nearly 100 people to cycle to the event from 5 cities across the UK in 2009. Shambala's travel initiatives are communicated to the audiences online via the website, press releases, emails, event programme, the ticket buying process and on the festival site.
Truck Festival tackles audience travel through subsidising buses directly from Oxford and Didcot Station to Truck (£3 and £2 each way respectively), and offering a free drink to those who cycle to the event.
Blues on the Farm Festival works with The Big Lemon Bus to provide bio-diesel fuelled shuttle buses running on 100% recycled cooking oils collected locally to transport local visitors to and from the festival.
Download Festival rewards lift sharing by allowing festival-goers who arrive in a car of 4 or more to enter a competition for upgraded VIP passes.
Glastonbury Festival’s Green Traveller created for the 2011 event will offer incentives to its audience to travel by public transport, such as sole access to solar showers, discount on meals, free yogurt and festival t-shirts. Cyclists in particular are also provided with a reserved camping field.
Next steps
Liftshare and Freewheelers are two online communities which help to match up similar journeys to create car pools. The schemes operate nationally, with specific groupings emerging around particular festival events - the online community forums help to build up hype around a festival or event and a substantial number of festivals provide direct links to these sites.
While these schemes offer the chance to save money, they also save carbon: having three people in a car is the third most sustainable method of travel, behind coach travel and train, at 115g CO2 per passenger mile. A car with 1 person is a staggering 345g CO2 per passenger mile.
