A Greener Festival in the News:

- Glastonbury Article on AGreenerFestival
- EFestivals on AGreenerFestival Latest Research (see Press Release Here)
- SafeConcerts on AGreenerFestival
- The Independent cite AGreenerFestival

Latest News:

Music Fans Want Green Events!
- Over 80% think noise, waste and traffic have a negative impact
- Big rise in CO2 awareness at festivals
- 48% would pay more for greener events
- 36% say green is important when buying a ticket

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE

We are delighted with the results of a new survey conducted by Buckinghamshire New University which asked music fans what they thought about green issues at live music events. The survey of 1407 festival goers across Europe clearly shows that music fans and festival goers are waking up to green issues. The survey, which took in 500 UK fans, nearly 600 fans in Finland and 330 fans in Germany and the Netherlands, is unveiled two years after Agreenerfestival's first survey which Claire O'Neill did in 2006. Like Claire's work, most of the survey was completed online so we managed to keep the project's carbon footprint to an absolute minimum. Great news from the survey, but, there is still a lot to be done!

In the UK, 80% of those sampled considered noise at festivals had an environmental impact, 82% thought waste had a negative impact, 56% thought festivals had a negative carbon footprint, 60% were worried about water, 53% were concerned with land damage and a whopping 84% thought travel and transport had a negative environmental impact. Awareness of the link between CO2 and climate change was up 26% in two years.

48% of music fans in the UK say they would pay more for greener events and 36% say they consider a festival's environmental policy before deciding to buy a ticket.  Only 14% of European fans think about a festival's environmental impact when buying tickets and just 38% would pay more for a ticket to promote green policies. However, whilst an amazing 74% of UK fans said that they would travel on public transport if it was included in the price of a ticket, 80% of European fans would do this. In the last two years we have seen a significant rise in audience awareness of green issues, in particular the audience's own carbon footprint. Travel to and from festivals is something we all have to tackle now, looking at better public transport solutions as well as car sharing and other innovative solutions - and the rise in awareness of climate change is clear from the big rise in awareness of the impact of CO2 emissions – 56% of festival goers now consider CO2 a negative impact from festivals. It is encouraging that the willingness to adopt public transport shows a shift in thinking towards practical action by the audience.

The research also shows that 65% of UK music fans would still go to an event where their favourite band was playing even if the event was not environmentally friendly – this rises to 88% in Europe. It is not all good news - 39% of fans say that food stalls at festivals should encourage re-usable crockery and cutlery instead of disposables (although 36% disagreed) and 52% would be happy to pay a refundable £2 charge on beer cups - although 30% disagreed. Those supporting these activities are actually down in numbers from the survey in 2006 when more fans were ready to adopt recyclable utensils, cutlery and cups. European fans are very similar – 38% saying stalls should use re-useable crockery and cutlery although only 36% supported deposits on cups – and 41% were resistant to deposits in Europe.

We would really like to thank the staff and students at Buckinghamshire New University: The project was supervised by Teresa Moore Head of Programmes and Jarno Stegeman, Lecturer. The research was managed by the following undergraduate students in the Faculty of Creativity & Culture: Heli Marjanen, Malte Ernsteing, Tamsin Vell and Adam Sharples and with Robert Moore (Oxford University). Sarah Hughes managed the data inputting.

And thank you to Aylin Macnamara, Amie Green, Chris Klasinski, Sam Hinde and Freeman PR for the ongoing support.

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE

Thank you, thank you all very much
Luke, Claire and Ben (Co-founders, A Greener Festival)

CO2 –Now we know what we're doing – do something about it

We have collected some basic statistical data about CO2 emissions from festivals and DEFRA statistics for emissions from different modes of transport. And the truth is out! However hard festival organisers try and promote green energy and reduce CO2 on-site – it is the carbon footprints of fans travelling to and from events which does the most harm. At an out of town site with a nearby rail link, the most environmentally friendly way to travel (if you can't walk or cycle) is rail and ride, followed by coach, followed by the car. But to be fair, a multi occupied car (at least three) obviously reduces individual carbon footprints and four or more is fairly environmentally friendly.  So it seems that festival organisers, apart from promoting public transport, need to promote lift share – perhaps offering incentives such as parking discounts for multi-occupied cars or other incentives to get the audience personal carbon footprint down. The same applies to crew and crew travel. Festival organisers – tell your suppliers that they need a coherent travel policy before you will do business with them – and that includes crew travel. Another way to reduce CO2 emissions is to think and buy local – what supplies, from marquees and stages to food and drink, can be sourced locally. And lots of taps for drinking water saves on bottled water too!

A Greener Festival Shortlisted for Big Green Challenge

We are delighted to tell you that we have been short listed for NESTA's Big Green Challenge £1 million prize fund. Now that would be nice! Competitors were asked to suggest ways in which greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced and so we have put forward proposals about how the festival community can keep getting greener and more environmentally friendly - and hopefully encourage others to reduce CO2 emissions too. We were also very pleased to see that Julies Bicycle, the cross music industry initiative on climate change, are on the finalists list too.

The Big Green Challenge: www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk

Julies Bicycle: www.juliesbicycle.com

The Greener Festival Award 2008

Application forms are now available for our already prestigious award scheme. To get involved with The Greener Festival Award 2008 please email agreenerfestival@aol.com. There is a non refundable application fee of £100 in 2008 to cover our administration costs (payable to A Greener Festival Ltd). For cases of genuine hardship we would try and reduce or waive this. Last years winners included The Big Session Festival, Latitude, Glastonbury, Sunrise Celebration, The Glade, The Waveform Project, The Big Chill, Big Green Gathering, Summer Sundae Weekender and the Edingburgh International Film Festival. In 2007 Download Festival was awarded a 'most improved' award and this year there will be three categories of award including improving, greener and excellent for outstanding festivals. You will need to complete our 53 Point self assessment questionnaire, sign up to our aspirations and have a site visit. But this is already a recognised independent award – something fans are starting to look for and something bands are starting to look for. Get involved!

The Great Big Green Events DVD – calling all teachers and lecturers!

We are producing a DVD as a educational tool for Universities, Colleges and Schools. The DVD will include examples of best environmentally friendly practice which have been developed at festivals. If you are interested in getting a copy of this (which will be free subject to P&P) please email agreenerfestival@aol.com with the word 'DVD' in the subject box ands details of your position and your institution, with a contact email address and with a postal address. The DVD will include 'A Journey Through The Glastonbury Greenfields' (from PVP Multimedia), 'The Impact of Festivals' (from BBC Countryfile) and a number of short films from green.tv.

News Archive:

Green Festivals To Get Insurance Discounts
International insurance brokers Robertson Taylor have teamed up with A Greener Festival to offer greener festivals and events substantial savings on insurance premiums. Read more...

Greener Festival Awards 2007
The shortlist to our 2007 award was drawn up after months of festival visits; each being assessed against our 62-point checklist.
Read more and view the winners here...



The Competition is now CLOSED
A Greener Festival ran a competition to find the greatest Green Ideas from the public for greening events. We had a wealth of suggestions and gave away some great prizes - Read More...

Our Ethical Policy

We try to maintain an ethical stance and there are certain industries (along with companies and organisations servicing those industries) we cannot deal with. We will not deal with those involved the production, sale or distribution of arms and ammunition. We will not deal with those who are involved in the exploitation of non-sustainable resources in forestry and/or in the agricultural, mining and fuel industries. We will not deal with those who exploit the individual and/or who do not respect those basic human rights enshrined in the European Convention for Human Rights. We support Fair Trade and an environmentally efficient approach. Let's all try and Make Poverty History.

Is a festival a liability to the environment? - (PDF Download); an interesting document by Henrik Bondo Nielson of Roskilde Festival, Denmark.

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