As part of Hay Festival's ongoing environmental programme, we are  hosting a seminar for Festival organisers on the 28th of November.  Speakers include Julie's Bicycle, Seventeen Events and the Welsh  Assembly Government. Spaces are limited but if anyone is interested in attending please e-mail Andy Fryers at andy@hayfestival.com

Grundon Waste Management is the largest family-owned waste management company in the UK, operating from 7 depots across the south of England. Several years ago we created a Special Events Services team specifically to service the needs of the outdoor events industry. Our client list includes some of the most prestigious names in the events industry. We are particularly keen to spread the 'recycling' message, and are one of very few contractors able to offer recyclables collections at weekends, since we own and operate our own Materials Recovery Facilities.
 
http://www.grundon.com/whatWeDo/SpecialEventsServices.htm

Contact:  kevin.brewer@grundon.com

We have just been sent details of the RECYCLEBALL which is an inflatable sphere that litter pickers can wheel around festival sites picking up recyclable materials. We love it! The team behind the ball have already trialled it at this years Belladrum Festival. It might be a rubbish idea but we think it's a clear winner.

See the website at www.fairpley.co.uk

Hi,

I saw your site from a link on Treehugger.com today.  I thought I would introduce PickupPal.com - 100% free ridesharing service and we setup free ridesharing sites for festivals.  So far we have done events in the UK, Australia, US and Canada. Here is a list of organizations that have partnered with us for free:

http://www.pickuppal.com/pup/erpinaction/partners.html

Contact  eric@pickuppal.com

Wrist Marketing's entire range of wristbands are recyclable. They are made of a material called Polypropylene which can be recycled into other products or more wristbands. The recycled wristbands can be identified by the small impurities and flecks apparent in the material (like some types of recycled paper). Not only is the wristband recyclable but so are the fasteners. Our environmental benchmarks include UKAS ISO 14001, and EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme EC (EMAS).

Savings can be made with repeat orders, wristbands are easy to collect and return to the factory. With our barcodes, 3D or standard recyclable wristbands a meaningful contribution can be made to unnecessary waste. Check www.wristmarketing.com for more.

I am the program coordinator at Air Traffic Control. We are based in the US and resource the music community around their activism, philanthropic and social change activities. One of the main requests that we receive is around the environment and sustainable touring practices. We have developed a sustainable touring resources and recommendations page on our site, check it our here: (http://atctower.net/atc/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=359)

About Air Traffic Control: ATC believes in the power of music, the influence of musicians, and the ability that music fans have to make social change. We exist to support and provide musicians and mangers with the resources and support they need to make change. For more information, please go to our website: www.atctower.net. 

Various news articles featuring A Greener Festival of late:

- Article in The Metro on which Festivals are involved in The Greener Festival Award 2008 (PDF download - view the article at Metro online here)
- The Observer discussing the Greener Festival Award scheme
- Article about AGreenerFestival from Glastonbury Festivals
- EFestivals about AGreenerFestival's Latest Research (see Press Release Here)
- SafeConcerts article on AGreenerFestival
- The Independent cite AGreenerFestival

Optimist World – a website dedicated to provide a more positive news agenda to sit alongside mainstream media channels. As well as uplifting Optimist News, the site also investigates other aspects of everyday life which aim to inspire a positive outlook: Optimist Charities, Optimist Companies, Optimist Sports and Optimist Travel are only the beginning. The site is edited by seasoned world class journalists but is also creating a community of optimists that share inspiring stories and vote on their favourite charities and companies each week. Take a look at the A Greener Festival  feature and

VOTE FOR US HERE until Thursday 2nd October  http://www.optimistworld.com/Charities.aspx

I have built a quirky mobile disco from waste and you can read more about it and my background on my website and in my interview with getlofi.com. Tip of the Pops is a solar powered wheelbarrow disco, all of the equipment and music is reclaimed from Household Recycling Centres. But this experimental discotheque is as far from rubbish as MC Hammer is to the Beatles. Hosted by dumpmeister DJ Dirty Ali spinning classic 7" vinyl and six decades of dance. Tip of the Pops caters for every taste. You can literally make a party any time, anywhere without contributing to your carbon footprint.

It's an easy, fun way to go green for all the family

Our friend in the USA Jason Turgeon has posted up two blogs on the greening of the Rothbury Festival and compares Rothbury’s efforts with the Bonnaroo Festival, long acknowledged as a leader in environmentally friendly events.  

"It’s been 5 days now since Rothbury ended, and I’m still caught up in the post-festival bliss that you get from a really great out-of-mind-and-body experience. This was my sixth big camping festival, and the first one where I felt that just about everything right. I had more fun at this event than I’ve had at any of the past festivals, even Phish’s IT festival. But this is a green review, not a review of the festival in general, so let’s begin. Back in April, I interviewed Sarah Haynes, of the Spitfire Agency about the greening of Rothbury. I’ve done interviews with plenty of festival organizers in the past, and they all talk a good game, so I was a bit skeptical when she told me everything that the festival would be doing. But as we got closer and closer to the festival, the press releases just kept rolling out. Solar schools, a food drive, fans offsetting their emissions, seminars on environmental issues. I started to get excited a few weeks ago. Would it all work out as Sarah had promised me?"

Jason told us that in his opinion Rothbury was "the greenest festival I’ve ever been to - the whole event was dedicated to sustainability … plus a lot more to engage the fans". 

Read Jason’s reviews here:  http://green-base.blogspot.com/2008/07/greening-of-rothbury-post-show-analysis.html

http://green-base.blogspot.com/2008/07/greening-of-rothbury-post-show-analysis_11.html

A new Radio 4 programme, Costing The Earth, will be broadcast next Thursday (21st) at 9pm and repeated the next day, Friday 22nd at 3pm (15.00). The programme is presented by musician and broadcaster Tom Robinson and produced by Martin Poyntz Roberts and looks at the UK's live music industry's efforts to get greener and adopt environmentally friendly practices. Radio 4 visited a number of festivals including The Cambridge Folk Festival and the Big Chill and this programme promises to be a fascinating insight into how festivals are fighting climate change and waste. Radio 4 is at 92.4-94.6 MHz.

SheWee-inal is the eco-friendly female urinal station for outdoor events.  Saving water and time, simple, clean and fun to use, it is the pleasant alternative to queuing for portable WC.  Environmentally, SheWee-inal does away with the portable WC's blue flushing chemical, which threatens biodegradation in the water-treatment (sewage) plant. With disposable and re-usable funnel devices, e.g. SHEWEE, supplied on site, women can quickly master the art of urinating whilst standing up in its women only tented and privacy-screened enclosure.  Contact: Harris481@btinternet.com / tel: 01276 686 788 and see: www.brkh.co.uk/shewee-inal.

SheWee-inal in use at Brighton, August 2008

The Ealing Summer Festivals are looking for volunteers! And we need VOLUNTEERS to staff our box offices and information point tents for the following festivals:

Blues 19th July  / Global 20th July / Jazz 23-27th July / London Mela 10th August / Literary 6-7th September

We cover travel expenses and meals where possible (we can't cover for travel expenses over £30!!) and when we get people apply who have had relevant work experience we try and pay them instead of having them as volunteers. The festivals are quite small (3-4000 people - except the London Mela which is 60,000) but they have great spirit and the small team means that it's a lot more fun! We also require four individuals for the 19th, 20th, 26th and 27th (they don't have to do all the days) to help hand out marketing leaflets. They are only required to work for four hours, we'll cover travel expenses (where possible), meals and we'll also give them a voucher for play/hmv for their efforts :)

For anyone interested, please email events@ealing.gov.uk to apply with the subject title "Volunteers for Ealing Summer Festivals" and please specify the dates you wish to work.

Visit  http://www.ealing.gov.uk/ealingsummer for more information in regards to the festivals.

Wood, the brand new eco-friendly festival brought to you by people who give us the Truck Festival each year, was held 16-18 May in the lush surrounds of Braziers Park, near Wallingford.

How eco-friendly can a festival be, you may ask? Surprisingly, it would appear the answer to that question is: very.

The Wood Stage (main stage) was solar powered, the Tree Tent (second stage) was powered by recycled chip fat and there was even a small music tent called the Cycle Stage that was bicycle powered.

Yes, that's right. If you wanted to dance to music long into the night you had to get involved with a bit of pedal power. There was no shortage of volunteers.

The Wood bar served only local beers and ciders (which were delicious) in biodegradable cups made from maize starch. The toilets were composting loo's - and surprisingly almost pleasant.

The food was all organic, either locally produced or fair trade.

Waste recycling points were all over the park.

They handed out old 35mm film canisters (remember those!) for you to place your gum and cigarette butts in to ensure none were left littering the ground.

They even used recycled wristbands, which were unused leftovers from the previous 10 Truck Festivals.

As if that wasn't enough to make you feel better about the world, the music was fantastic.

Jo Allen, the environmental sculptor and poet who visualised our EcoGirl character, has two upcoming art exhibitions in Brighton and Seaford. All of Jo's work uses materials reclaimed and collected from Seaford's beach and then recycled into  sculptures. Jo also the re-sites and photographs the Sculptures on the beach. The two exhibitions ('On Seaford Bay') are as follows. (PDF Flyer Here)

Brighton  The Fishing Quarter Gallery    20th - 30th June  (Brighton Seafront)

Seaford   The Crypt Gallery   12th - 26th July (off Church Street, Seaford)

and see www.jo2jo.com

The Sunrise Celebration Festival, due to take place last weekend near Yeovil in Somerset was called off due to flash flooding and extreme weather conditions that took South Somerset by surprise. The forecast was initially fine for the festival, which has been fortunate with weather since it began in 2006. However that changed and the event was called off on Thursday night due to a storm aggravating the already tricky conditions on the site after the river running through the site burst it's banks and parts of the site flooded. Despite all the measures that were taken; extra metal track way, straw and wood chip shipped in to soak up the water, it was impossible for the crew to keep the situation under control and organisers deemed the site a risk to public health and safety. Local farmers and the young farmers club came to the assistance of festival-goers stranded in the mud.  Tractors were the only vehicles that could move across the site that had been devastated by the conditions.

The organisers intend to honour all tickets purchased, for policies on this ticket purchasers are asked to visit the website or contact the agent they bought a ticket from. However it looks like Sunrise will be rescheduled for later in the summer.  The festival have been offered some land adjacent to the Big Chill in Herefordshire and will be hosting the Sunrise there and existing ticket holders will be able to use their tickets to go to Sunrise and The Big Chill who have a line-up including Leonard Cohen and Roots Manuva. In addition this, the Waveform Festival will be honouring Sunrise Celebration tickets !  Waveform is the sustainable festival with an all night music license now in a new location is just off Junction 15 of the M4 up on the chalky green hills of Wiltshire; a long, long way from any floodplains. Contact your ticket agent about issuing an immediate Waveform Festival ticket replacement! Waveform takes place between September 12-14th 2008 at Warren Farm, Liddington, Wiltshire with site wide organic food and drink - award winning composting toilets - disabled facilities - Sustainable power site wide - shuttle from local transport connections - lift share - kids area - luxury camping - solar Showers - sauna and Spa.

People are advised to check the website for developments at www.sunrisecelebration.com

Comp Bio Products Ltd is a young company based in Wells Somerset. We have recently launched Compi-Sax. Compi-Sax are compostable bags meeting the Din Certo EN13432 certification. Our bags are manufactured in the UK, thus reducing the carbon footprint. We currently stock 7 lt and 30 lt bags, we have conducted extensive research regarding the availability and pricing, we believe that we can supply at competitive prices to both local retailers and direct to home users. We will soon have carrier bags, 80, 140 & 240 litre bags available.

jon.francis@comp-bio.co.uk

Luke
A Greener Festival Team

Fed up of the UK property market? MyHab are now offering luxury, affordable and critially - green - accomodation across 9 locations (currently) in the UK and Ireland. Okay, so you're only permitted to stay there for the duration of the festival you are attending; but far removed from a soggy tent miles away from the action.

MyHab are not just about recycled plastic and water-proof cardboard tents that provide lush, dry accomodation for two - they are also situated in a 'myvillage' with well maintained shower blocks and loos!

So if you're attending T In The Park, Oxegen, Latitude, Wickerman, Reading, Leeds, Hydro Connect, Electric Picnic or End of the Road; have a look at www.myhab.com and book your unique little space.

Changing the World from the Bottom up!

Natural Event who have successfully provided compost toilets at Australian festivals for over five years and we have now arrived in to the UK to provide on-site compost loos that don't smell, don't overflow, use no water, use bugger all energy and come in a flat pack the system so can fit 5 – 8 times more on a truck - and have feature art as an inspiration too! Natural Event are now looking for both festivals who want to offer the best loos in the world to their patrons, and volunteers and permanent staff. We are looking at training people in the game to carry on over the summer and beyond.

Contact: hamish@naturalevent.com.au and see: www.naturalevent.co.uk

First Step in greening the music industry

A new report and study into the greenhouse gas emissions in the UK music industry has been published by cross industry climate change initiative Julies Bicycle. Titled First Step, the report by the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University industry finds that the sale of music products and live music performances to UK consumers is currently creating at least approximately 540,000 t CO2 equivalent a year. To put this in perspective, annual emissions at this level are roughly equal to the average annual Green House Gas (GHG) emissions of a town of 54,000 inhabitants or the annual emissions from 180,000 cars. Live music and festivals together with audience travel account for three-quarters (75%) of the UK music industry’s GHG emissions whilst the recorded music sectors account for a quarter (25%). In addition and whilst the report makes it clear that there is is limited data available on international touring, an initial estimate for US and European touring by UK artists, inclusive of audience travel, puts these emissions at at least 400,000 t CO2e per annum. The report acknowledges that the music industry is very influential and makes some inititial recommendations that include:

• Managing building energy use, especially of music venues, offices and retail stores to target energy
savings and low carbon technology investments by developing GHG/energy accounting systems.
• Switching to a green (i.e. low carbon emissions) electricity tariff or, better still, 100% renewable
energy sourcing.
• Creating a variety of travel schemes, and working ith local authorities, travel companies and events
organisers to reduce audience transport emissions.
• Moving to low emissions CD packaging.
• Organising regular training, knowledge sharing and advice on environmentally responsible choices
• Engaging suppliers in GHG emission reduction programmes,

First Step, the UK Music Industry Greenhouse Gas Emissions for 2007.
Summary:
http://www.juliesbicycle.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/jb-first-step-e-execsummary.pdf

The full Report can be seen at:
http://www.juliesbicycle.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/jb-first-step-e-report.pdf

A new DVD is being released in the UK on June 23rd by Eureka video featuring Sir David Attenborough undertaking a personal journey to discover how global warming is changing the planet. ‘The Truth About Climate Change’ is a two part documentary presented by Sir David who asks the question ‘What is the future for our world?’ Sir David discovers that the world is warming at an unprecedented rate, and finds out why this is now far beyond any normal allowance for cyclical fluctuation. But are humans to blame? These changes are already in motion whatever we do now, but Sir David believes that we may be able to act to prevent a catastrophe. Sir David investigates some of the possible scenarios for the future, including rising sea levels, insect plagues and an increase in diseases. ‘The Truth About Climate Change’ is a call to arms by the man who has shown us so much over the years of our rapidly changing planet. Catalogue No: EKA40264

We are a company who produce biodegradable products for the food packaging service, with the future of Green Health, Green Envionment, Green Earth firmly within our focus. With the purpose of protecting and improving the environment that we live in, we offer new products reducing the waste and pollution.

As for our biodegradable raw material, we not only deal with 100% biodegradable, using the mixture 100% biodegradable material PHBV/PCL/PLA/PBS with corn-starch, but marketed as Cleanpol Green - a Poly Lactic Acid, known as PLA plastic. The raw material is based on a new generation of biodegradable substances, mainly made from corn starch. After use these biodegrade completely to water, CO2 and compost. The biodegradability of the raw materials is continuously tested and monitored by ISO14855, SGS and other certificates.

See: http://www.bio-sy.com

Roll up, roll up!  You are cordially invited to the test run and press launch of Firefly's solar generator, the only mobile generator of its type in the UK.  It will be powering the Firefly stage – an all singing, all dancing live music stage delivering industry leading front of house performance with absolutely zero emissions. This event takes place on Monday 31st March 2008 in Pulborough, West Sussex from 19:00 onwards.

Designed to prove the sceptics wrong and sweep all naysayers by the wayside this will be the first opportunity to grab images of the Orion system in full swing, with a musical showcase from Brighton's hottest reggae collective The Resonators at 19:30 backed by cutting edge visuals and light show from DJ magazine's VJ award winners the Pixel Addicts.

Refreshments and nibbles will be provided.

If you are interested in attending this event can you send an e-mail confirming numbers, car parking and any other requirements you may have and we will forward directions and final details.  Also can you provide us with a contact number in case of cancellation.

Looking forward to seeing you in the field, fingers crossed on the weather front!

Ed. - Firefly won the NOEA Green Award 2008; see Press Release Here

www.isanyonegoingto.com is a Social Networking car share site that puts Festival goers in touch with one another before they make a journey. Our aim is to reduce the number of cars on the roads at the same time
make introductions. Our website puts members of our online community from the same geographical locations, travelling to the same destinations together. Saving money, inconvenience and more importantly our environment...

Our members upload their details on their ‘my going to’ page, then members add a photograph of themselves and/or their vehicle a brief synopsis about what they are about, promote their events and a detailed list of their movements, where they are travelling to and from and at what times. Members can search these pages and communicate through Skype or Messenger. The database search functionality works with the latest mapping technology to pin point locations via post codes.

Ed. - AGreenerFestival would like to remind our readers: Safety First! For practical advice see: Lift Sharing Article by www.agreenerfestival.com

EU and US demand for biofuels is pushing up world food prices and increasing climate emissions. We should feed people, not cars--so join the call for global standards to clean up the biofuels industry.

Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico2 to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off4.

How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food.

Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels--alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent5, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people6.

Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming. Click here to use our simple tool to send a message to your head of state before this weekend's global summit on climate change in Chiba, Japan, and help build a global call for biofuels regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60409775

The new 'green' insurance scheme which offers discounts on public liability and employers liability insurance which has been set by Roberston Taylor and endorsed by environmental camapign website www.agreenerfestival.com has been extended to cover Europe. The scheme has also been extended in the UK to cover cancellation insurance. The new scheme was announced at the 'Green and Live' panel at MIDEM. For  more details contact green@rtib.co.uk.

Photo: Willy Robertson (Robertson Taylor), Ben Challis (Agreenerfestival) and David Bishop (Roberston Taylor) with Julies Bicycle board members Jeremy Lascelles (Chrysalis Music) and Jon Webster (MMF) celebrating the launch of the new scheme at MIDEM 2008.

JARM are a funfair company that supplies attractions to many private and public events throughout the UK and we have just announced our intention to become the most environmentally friendly funfair supplier in the UK. The initial phase of this includes constructing a number of recycling points for use at our own events;
Switching our catering units to biodegradable consumables (they have already been switched to Fairtrade); delivering our organic waste such as coffee grinds to a local company that will compost them; and
switching our generators and heavy transport vehicles to a biodiesel blend. We already have a policy of replacing light bulbs with lower wattage alternatives and ultimately will move to LED technology as it becomes more affordable. This is envisaged to be just the start, as we gain experience and new
technologies become available we will implement them. JARM's environmental plicy can be found at www.funfairgames.net/html/fairgrounds_and_the_environmen.html and see www.funfairgames.net and www.candyflosscrazy.com. You can email JARM at jarm@funfairgames.net.

Sustainable Waves specialises in sustainable solutions for the entertainment industry providing solar powered stages and sound systems, as well as a variety of conscious products and services. From pollution free concerts to innovative products, Sustainable Waves is a logical approach to creating value. With artistic inspiration, Sustainable Waves integrates with existing business models. Taking one step at a time, they strive to inspire the currents of the global economy. Clients include The Vans Warped Tour 2006 & 2007, SxSW 2007 & 2008, Lollapalooza, G Love and Special Sauce, ESPN X Games, Xingolati – The Groove Cruise, New Belgium Brewery’s Tour De Fat, The Echo Project and many more. See . www.sustainablewaves.com for more information.

Following the unbelievable wet summer of 2007 the Maker Green Team are taking new commitments with festival organisations for summer 2008 events. I can confirm that we will be undertaking recycling and re-use provision on behave of two new planned events, firstly, Gwyl Enaid Yr Enfys,

24th, 25th, 26th May 2008 at Builth Wells, Mid Wales. We are also Scumbusting at Rainbow Spirit Enlightenment Fayre, a new large new event for Wales planned for August 2008. We are also enabling provision at 2000 Trees Festival,  11th, 12th July 2008, Gloucestershire, UK. and our own event, The Maker Sunshine Festival, 1st, 2nd, 3rd August, Maker Heights, Cawsand, Cornwall. We have a number of slots presently available over the summer months and would welcome interest from not for profit community festival organisers as well as pay festivals. This year we intend to be piloting new recycling technologies such as 'glass implosion' for the first time as well as collecting a wider mix recyclbles. If you would like us at your event please contact darynmanchip@yahoo.co.uk in the first instance and please visit www.maker-green-team.org for updates.

PEATS RIDGE FESTIVAL - CANCELLATION DUE TO EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

Mother Nature has made her call and as a sustainable Festival we have had to listen. It is with the greatest regret that we have to announce the cancellation of this years Peats Ridge Festival.

The highest December rainfall on record, coupled with six months of extremely wet weather has resulted in ground conditions that make it impossible for the Festival to proceed. Although the team has done everything in its power to deliver the Festival, at the end of the day the wellbeing of our patrons must come first. In the interests of public safety the organisers and venue owner have had to make this extremely difficult decision.  
 
We want to thank everybody that has supported the Festival this year. All the ticket purchasers, families, staff, artists, performers, volunteers, suppliers, land owners and guardians, sponsors, local authorities and the many, many people who have put their heart and soul into creating what would have been the most amazing Peats Ridge Festival to date. Even though this year's Festival is unable to proceed, we will be back brighter and better in 2008.
 
All tickets bought via credit card will automatically have the value of their ticket refunded back to their card. For all other refunds or ticketing queries please contact your point of purchase directly.

Firstly The Green Stuff... Sunrise is powered by Solar, cycle, wind and biodiesel. We acknowledge that biodiesel is not an ultimate solution and we will be working towards phasing it out completely, starting this year with more Solar Powered stages! In the long term we are working on new ideas such as reed beds for grey water and bio gas generation, so let us know if you have any interesting ideas please send to info@sunrisecelebration.com (and in the subject box put: Sustain). New for Sunrise 2008 - rickshaws for on site transport! There will also be a New Green Innovations area Providing up to date info and resources to help you change to a Greener lifestyle. The Music - Sunrise shines through the incredible quality of music we bring together each year for you to shake the body and stomp your feet to! Whatever stage, genre or time, you can be guaranteed to find something to captivate you... Over the last two years Sunrise has established itself a reputation for being one of the most exciting, eclectic musical gatherings in UK . This will continue with more rising stars and rootsy vibes meeting with established favourites in 2008. We are really excited about changes planned planned to the 13 areas. The Global Tribal Village will be merging with The Tipi Circle, to create the Global Tipi Village! This will feature talks, workshops, ceremonies and performances from aboriginal and indigenous cultures (including speakers on ethnobotany and anthropology), all of which will take place in the Sun Lodges, yurts and roundhouses that make up the Village. Ths means the that there will be a new The Village Fayre area. Paying tribute to everything that is special and eclectic in the British tradition of Fetes and Fayres and carrying a rootsy inclusive and slightly surreal magic that fits so well with Sunrise . The Organic Food Emporium arrives! The organic food emporium, last seen at Waveform, worked really well so we are bringing it to Sunrise . It’s a tented dining area with the food stalls around it, creating a great atmosphere and a nice area for dining together undercover.

Seminar/Workshop presented by Yourope – The European Festival Association:
“Waste management at festivals and concerts - Innovations & Concepts"
Friday, 11th January 2008 - 10.30am – 12.00pm
De Oosterpoort CongressCentre

Host:
Christof Huber – General Secretary Yourope / OpenAir St Gallen Switzerland
Participants:
Holger Jan Schmidt   - Rheinkultur  Germany
Arnt Anderson - Oya Festivalen  Norway 
Robert Hill - Founder Probert UK

Green is the colour of the year! Global warming and the significant clima changes are alarming not just for politicians and regular people. Heavy flooding, lightnings and thunder storms are also a big danger for festivals and events all over Europe. What is our audience expecting from festival and concert promoters in terms of their duty to have proper measures to save our environment? What about the sponsors? Are the measures just expensive or are there even ways to make money out it? Since three years, the “green issues” are one of the key focus topics of Yourope – The European Festival Asscociation. Under the title “Green’n’Clean”, members can get a full catalogue of tips to make their festivals more environmental friendly and since 2007, they can also apply for the “Green’n’Clean” award if they fulfil an number of points with their environmental measures. There a lots of similar initiatives on the same field all over Europe.

On this seminar/workshop, we would like to focus on one of the most visible topics from this sector: “Waste management at festivals and concerts – innovations & concepts”. Promoters will tell their experiences and their ideas, specialists explain their view and can bring information from good practice. The seminar should be an exchange of information, ideas and concepts in terms of waste management.

This is the location where the panel is taking place: http://www.noorderslag.nl/website/

Here's to a good new idea - submit all demos digitally!

A number of Festivals have told us that they are going to start refusing to listen to unsolicited CDs and DVDs and ask all bands to submit demos by digital means only. We know not all festivals and not all acts are up to speed with the digital age as yet and of course some artists and some bookers will have to rely on CDs - and even tapes - BUT isn't it time to change? One of our friends who books a number of UK  festivals recently said this "It is environmentally appalling to encourage CDs being sent across the world which end up in landfill sites. Any act should be capable of sending digital version or link to site to festival bookers now - and actually anyone booking a stage who cant accept digital submissions shouldn't be doing it! But there is NO excuse anymore for people sending out CDs...unless invited to do so. Hopefully festivals around the world will start to promote this wherever they can.

Buesfest is a 17,500 capacity festival held at Byron Bay in Australia . Bluesfest’ focus is a clean and green event. We actively promote Waste Wise – Refuse, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. With recycling, Bluesfest only allow recyclable packaging and plastic on site. Clearly marked recycling stations are placed around the site and all food stalls on site use compostable plates and utensils. All plastic glasses are PET Code 1. All the cardboard generated at the Festival is recycled and reused in the production of other items. Bluesfest works closely with Veolia Environmental Services (VES) and the focus is to ensure that the site is recycled to its fullest potential. Bluesfest transfers general waste to TiTree BioEnergy facility, which is a state of the art site converting waste into clean energy. The recyclable products gets processed through the MRF facility allowing various products to be sorted for recycling. A total of 540 cubic metres of recyclables were collected during the course of the event. This quantity related to a total of 21.44 tonne of product successfully recycled, after a contamination level of 3.5 tonne was removed. The following products were received for recycling purposes: Glass -10 tonnes; Aluminium Cans - 3.4 tonnes; Cardboard 7.5 tonnes; PET Bottles 0.5 tonnes Contamination 3.5 tonnes.

We watch our carbon emissions: Car parking income is shared back to local schools after costs and local firms are used wherever possible.

After each Bluesfest event, the land is returned to its original state with these policies - aim for zero waste and ‘leave no trace’. Bluesfest always tries to find ‘green’ solutions and are committed to the principles of environmental sustainability.

** A GREENER FESTIVAL AWARD WINNER 2007 **

Along with our friends at Julie's Bicycle, we've put together a 'Simple Energy Saving Tips' PDF. It includes simple ways to reduce your footprint and a whole bunch of facts about how much damage we really do...

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The UK's longest running green festival - the Big Green Gathering - is in financial difficulties. In a Myspace bulletin, they explain the current situation and they say that they are appealling for pledges and donations in the hope of keeping going. You can read more on this on the wonderful eFestivals site http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/070919a.shtml

This year the Big Chill pushed public transport and produced a new transport information leaflet to advise Chillers on  best ways to get to site. The Travel page on the website had over 35,000 hits pre-festival.  A green car tax was introduced on car park tickets and this will be increased in increments over the forthcoming years - the aim of the introducing and then increasing the green tax is to encourage Chillers to seek alternative / greener methods of transport. The profit made from the car park tax funds green travel initiatives and this year the profits from the green car park tax funded 500 half price National Express coach tickets and funded the free shuttle bus from the main train station to festival site. We offer free secure cycle parks, hard standing for motorcycles, the free shuttle buses,  accessible drop off / collection points for National Express coaches and actively encourage lift share.

We actively encourage recycling and reducing the amount of waste generates by means of our long-standing Leave No Trace policy, which is covered on the website and receives editorial in the festival programme.

Key stats from our recycling totals are:
5 x Glass 8 yard skips, 95+% in arenas 80% at campsites
5 x Cans 25 yard skips, 95% in arenas 75% at campsites
3 x Plastic bottles 35 yard skips, 90% in arenas 70% at campsites
1 x Polythene 25 yard skip, 80% in arenas 70% at campsites
6 x Cardboard 40 yard skips 95+% in arenas 80% at campsites
2 x 12 yard skips of scrap metal,
6.68 Tonnes of compostable waste

** A GREENER FESTIVAL AWARD WINNER 2007 **

Music industry carbon survey launched

Development charity Christian Aid has issued a statement saying that the UK's largest retailer has seriously underestimated it's carbon footprint as Tesco doesn't count in the carbon emmissions of customers driving to and from stores or from suppliers delivering goods. Christian Aid believes that Tesco's impact on the environment could be twelve times higher than the leve the supermarket admits too according to the Observer newspaper. Tesco have agreed to meet with the charity and pointed out it had put aside £100 million fund to develop technologies to fight climate change, it has the UK's biggest fleet of biofuel delivery vehicles and plans to halve its emissions by 2020. But the story sums up one of the problems with find out accurtate data in different UK sectors.  JULIES BICYCLE, The cross music industry greening initiative, is asking everyone involved in the UK music industry to take part in a survey to compile data to understand energy use and carbon emissions in the music industry and start developing ideas for an industry-wide climate positive strategy. The research is being conducted by the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University and they have asked everyone in the industry to take part so we have a REAL understanding of the impact of the UK music industry on the environment. It doesnt take long - details of your current energy use (gas and electricuty bills!) will help speed things up. THE LINK TO THE SURVEY IS: 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xvIvW3nX20ibFJt329oJ8w_3d_3d

Julie's Bicycle are also offering music business firms a carbon audit - their environmental advisors can visit firms and organisations and prepare a report - you can contact Al Tickell at juliesbicycle@yahoo.co.uk or see the website www.juliesbicycle.com . Most of the time the report will actually save money in terms of reduced energy use and costs.

The Woodford Folk Festival has now changed to 100% recycled paper for all publications and office paper, we also will go to 100% Green power for the next festival, we are looking at building our own solar power plant with help from the CSIRO Australia, we are putting in a Water fresh wastewater plant that will treat 100% of our backwater into fertilizer and potable water, we have planted 76,000 trees on our 400 acre permanent festival site, 7,500 this year alone, we now use 100% of our own water supply , we use only compostable cups, plates etc for all food and bev outlets at al our festivals, we only allow PET plastic on site so we can recycle all of our plastic. These are the actions of our festivals. Thanks Guy's and keep up the good work!

Some 11 species burst into spring early this year - some by more than two months, as temperatures in Britain soared in April and May - but then the UK experienced its wettest summer ever with a number of casualties in the UK's live music scene. Glastonbury got muddy and The Glade and Reading go through -but Truck was postponed and Fflam, Lovebox and Wakestock were all cancelled. Statistics from The Met Office show that an average of 358mm fell in the summer of 2007, just beating 1956 (358.4mm) and comfortably ahead of 1985 (342.7mm) and 1927 (336.2mm). Heavy rain in June saw severe flooding in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands. About 7,000 homes in Hull and more than 1,200 in Sheffield were affected. In July large areas of England and Wales were left inundated after torrential rainfall led to rivers bursting their banks. Seven people died when the River Severn burst its banks in Gloucestershire, and more than 350,000 people were left without running water after a treatment works was submerged and in all an estimated £2.7 billion of damages was caused. In 2007 the UK had

* The hottest Spring
* The wettest Summer
* The second warmest Winter

Globally this was the world's second warmest year since records began in 1860. Temperatures in Greece reached 46C - as the rains hit Northern Europe a heatwave hit Southern Europe. The President of the Royal Meteorological Society, Geraint Vaughn, had predicted global temperatures will rise between 2C and 4C telling the Observer newspaper (2nd September) that humanity had to be "far more aggressive in our attempts to reduce carbon dioxide output and our use of fossil fuels".

Links / References:
www.juliesbicycle.com
http://www.virtualfestivals.com/latest/news/3882
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/6910593.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6909633.stm
www.guardian.co.uk/weathernews
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/

The Maker Green Team have reported their Scumbusting efforts (recycled and litter picked) results for this summer:

Nailstock Festival (whole event undertaken), 30th April 2007, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire - 66% by volume.

2000 Trees Festival (whole event undertaken) 13th-15th July, Foxcotte, Gloucestershire - 65% (cleanest event we've attended of 2007 by attendee contribution and use of bins provided)

Eastern Haze (Green Zone Only), 20th-22nd July, Somerleyton Hall Estate, Somerleyton, Nr Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK - figures not yet available

Maker Sunshine Sunshine Festival (whole event undertaken), 26th-29th July 2007, Maker Heights, Cawsand, Cornwall, UK - 70% achieved.

Next planned event Waveform Project , Powderham Castle, Exeter, UK 14th-16th  September, 2007.

The Maker Green Team provide voluntary recycling and re-use provision at the Maker Sunshine Festival, Cornwall. We also support other Community Festivals and Eco Events across the South West  and Southern of England and Wales. We are a ‘not for profit’ community recycling group totally dependant on donations, and your good will to succeed!

Please visit: www.maker-green-team.org

SAVING PLANET MUD

A very funny short film called 'Saving Planet Mud' is now running on Current TV. It was filmed at Glastonbury by Jonathan Brooks and looks at green issues at festivals and asks some sensible questions about just how green festivals really are and wonders if there is any more we can all do: here's the link:

http://uk.current.com/watch/82572692

For one remarkable day, many of the capital's roads will be completely traffic-free and open only to cyclists. On Sunday 23rd September, London goes traffic-freeLondoners – from Brixtoners on BMXs to Crouch Enders on choppers – will be coming from far and wide to ride down the city’s most famous roads, taking in sights like London Eye, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. It’s open to everyone and completely free.

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