Best Practices: Festivals

As zero-waste and carbon-neutral events become more popular, festivals are getting in on the action. From compostable toilets to tackling food waste, read about the many sustainability initiatives adopted at festivals around the world.

Burning Man

This festival has ten principles and touts that Leaving No Trace is the most important of them all. Every year after the festival, the Playa Restoration Team makes a map of Matter Out of Place (MOOP) left in Black Rock City after the event to help them learn which areas need improvement. Burning Man offers resources for festival-goers to learn where they can responsibly dump their waste after the event.

The festival provides resources to help campers carpool to the event, reducing carbon emissions associated with travel. Campers are encouraged to use green fuels and the festival outlines greener options for lighting, materials for making art, and for what non-toxic materials are acceptable to burn. An aluminum recycling station is set up in the camp and the cans are delivered to a local school that recycles the cans and gets to keep the deposit money. Additionally, leftover wood from building shelters can be collected and recycled on-site. All other waste must be disposed of off site by attendees.

DGTL

This Amsterdam festival has a goal to become the world's first circular festival in 2020. To measure their impact, a material flow analysis was performed beginning in 2017 so that organizers could determine areas of improvement. Festival organizers search for the latest technological breakthroughs and implement them so in a way the festival is a living-lab for future innovation. They partner with Innofest to help allow innovators to test their products at the festival.

Performers and artists stayed in Amsterdam's circular hotel Jakarta. All artists were transported in electric vehicles to and from the festival. DGTL's Smart Energy Plan maximizes the consumption of energy from the power grid and renewable sources.

Festival-goers are served drinks in reusable hard cups instead of single use plastic cups. To reduce food waste, the festival offers recycling and their menu creation is based on food residues available from local food chains. To reduce the carbon footprint associated with food, the festival is meat-free.

The festival eliminated trash bins and replaced them with Resource Collection Points where people are encouraged to properly dispose of their items. To promote reuse, the festival seeks out art installations that utilize repurposed or recycled materials.

EDP Cool Jazz

The festival neutralizes its carbon footprint, including the travel and accomodation of all artists, through agroforestry offsets. To reduce waste, reusable glass cups are used throughout the festival and participants are encouraged to take them home and continue using them. Straws are banned in the bars of the festival venue. Organizers work with Zero Desperdicio to redistribute and recover food surpluses associated with the festival.

Glastonbury Festival

This weekend festival on a farm has been rooted in sustainability since its inception. The festival has composting toilets and reuses the compost produced in the permaculture area of the farm. The "Pee-Power Project" run by Bristol University & UWE creates electricity from urine on site. Minimizing a different kind of waste, the festival does not permit plastic bottles and promotes reusable options with water filling stations throughout the festival. They sell an 80% recycled stainless steel pint cup that can be reused and either taken home or returned for a full refund. Working with the Raw Foundation, the festival is promoting alternatives for single-use items.

When festival attendees buy their tickets, they are required to sign the "Love the Farm, Leave no Trace" pledge. You can also sign up to be a Worthy Warrior and help spread the Leave no Trace message by educating others and handing out recycling bags. The Love the Farm, Leave no Trace message is widespread and extends to removing camping equipment, throwing away all trash, and cleaning up campsites.

To reduce carbon impacts, stages run on cooking oil and solar panels. Water monitoring of rivers is conducted during and after the festival to ensure healthy waterways for local wildlife. More than 10,000 native trees have also been planted since 2000, contributing to creating nature reserves and non-public zones.

Only FSC certified timber is used for festival construction and the wood is chipped and used around the farm at the end of the festival. An emphasis is placed on sourcing Fair Trade and sustainably certified foods. All serve ware must be made from fiber sources and be fully compostable.

Green Man

In an effort to reduce plastics, straws and glitter, including bio-glitter, are banned from the festival. No disposable plastics are sold at the festival and all packaging and cutlery is certified compostable. Attendees must purchase a reusable cup for alcoholic beverages and reusable coffee cups are available for purchase. If a customer brings their own mug or the festival coffee cup, they are given a discount. Water refill stations are provided for water bottles purchased at the event or brought by the attendee.

To reduce emissions associated with travel, Green Man subsidizes the price of rail tickets by 15%. If interested in cycling to the event, attendees can book a cycle trip through Red Fox Cycling and receive a £10 discount on festival tickets. Free lockable storage for bikes is provided. There is a free shuttle bus from the nearest train stop to the festival. If attendees are driving, there is a ride share program in place.

Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, and bananas are sold at the event. All meat and dairy is British Red Tractor standard at a minimum and no vulnerable fish species are sold. Local beers, ciders, and tipples are sold at the event, reducing the carbon footprint of transportation.

Alternative power sources like solar power, a hydrogen fuel cell, and pedal power are utilized for the event. Carbon offsets are purchased for all diesel generator emissions.

Composting toilets at the event reduce water and energy use while creating a new purpose for this waste stream. At the end of the festival, unwanted food and camping equipment is collected and donated to refugees around the world.

Latitude Festival

Green Team volunteers help engage festival-goers on environmental issues related to the festival. The festival advertises a car share program and offers priority parking spots for those who participate. In addition, Big Green Coach is the official travel provider for the festival. The tower and festoon lights are all LED and 15% of the total fuel used in their generators is waste vegetable oil biofuel, contributing to the festival's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

Latitude's waste strategy is comprised of composting, recycling, and general waste. All food is served with compostable service ware and utensils. Water refilling stations are provided throughout the festival to encourage reusable bottles over plastic bottles. Reusable cups for alcoholic beverages can be purchased for a deposit which is returned should the attendee choose to bring their cup back instead of keeping it as a souvenier. To reduce the amount of abandoned camping gear, tent rentals are offered.

Northside

The festival has a goal of being the world's most green and sustainable cultural event. To help achieve this, "Trash Talkers" help people sort waste into one of six bins. The event sources 100% organic food and in 2017, 94% of draft beer and 100% of wine and champagne were organic. Local food is preferred over imported options and surplus food is donated to those in need in the community. All paper and cardboard must be FSC certified and compostable.

For posters and flyers, stone paper is used as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic-coated paper. In 2013, a fundraiser for Verdens Skove was organized to raise money to restore the rainforest in an area corresponding to the size of the festival site.

There are no parking lots at the festival, so attendees must either walk, bike, or use public transportation. In collaboration with BikeSide, the festival offers bike parking and repairs.

Pohoda Festival

Pohoda offers mobile solar power stations and solar lighting of the grounds, contributing to its statistic of only using 38% of the average fuel consumption at festivals in Europe. They also partner with the national railways and buses to ensure routes are available to the festival. For those that drive, they developed a carpooling system and provide electric vehicle charging on-site.

Secret Solstice

Starting in 2016, the event became a carbon neutral music festival with carbon offsets being obtained from a trees for conservation project in Madagascar. To reduce their carbon footprint, geothermal energy resulting from Iceland's volcanic geography is used where possible.

Shambala

The festival has decreased its carbon footprint by over 80% and achieved 100% renewable energy. To help spread its goals beyond the festival, the 25Kx25 challenge was created to inspire 25,000 simple, individual positive actions by 2025. Their website links to several ideas for inspiration. 

For travel to the site, Shambala has subsidized coach buses and shuttles from the nearest train station. A partnership with GoCarShare encourages ride sharing and those who cycle to the festival receive discounts and secure bike parking on site.

At the festival, disposable plastics have been eliminated, as have meat and fish dining options. A 50p charge per drink for disposable hot cups goes toward paying for proper recycling of the cups, but attendees are encouraged to bring their own cups and mugs. For alcoholic drinks, a one pound levy is charged for the first cup customers receive. This cup can be returned for a clean cup and at the end of the event. Cups are then cleaned and reused for other events, creating an environmental impact 3x smaller than that of single use cups.

Their innovative Recycling Exchange has helped the festival become a zero waste to landfill event. A ten pound recycling deposit is charged when tickets are purchased. The deposit can be redeemed at the end of the festival when attendees go to the Recycling Exchange and properly sort their waste. For those who don't wish to sort, they receive half of their deposit back and sorters will properly handle their waste. You can also opt to drop off your recycling in exchange for a limited edition festival pack while supplies last.

For carnival costumes, participants are encouraged to use second hand, recycled, or reusable materials. Glitter is not sold at the festival and is discourages as it is a micro-plastic.

Terraforma

This festival was founded on an idea to restore an historic landscape. A three year project restored a historical labyrinth that was presumed to be present in the 18th century. Since the completion of this project, festival-goers have taken part in tree plantings and gardening projects to restore the festival space they inhabit.

We Love Green

The organizers have partnered with ECOSIA to plant 80,000 trees, the equivalent of one for each attendee. We Love Green provides a carbon dioxide calculator for festival-goers and musicians to calculate their carbon footprint and offset emissions by financing ecosystem restoration projects with PURProject. 

With Co-Recyclage, the festival participates in an online recycling program where they can share and source materials for the festival and its set design then put them back into the circular economy when the festival is over. When this isn't an option, recycled materials are prioritizes for sets and artwork at the festival.

They aim to promote green living through workshops and discussions throughout the festival including their Think Tank lab where brainstorming on sustainability issues occurs among NGO heads, entrepreneurs, and campaigners. They also have the Start-Up Lab where organizations and businesses from different sectors can raise awareness and collaborate to further their sustainable innovations.