1. PERFORMANCE
REVIEW
leafy depths
Summertim e… and Britain’s
. Daisy Dumas
are awa sh with festivals
rganisers are
nd s out how the o
rbon footprint
tackling their ca
92 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GREEN | SUMMER 2010

2. [ intelligencearts ]
W
e’re a nation of festi-
val-goers. With more
than 500 festivals this
year, the UK’s appetite for bands,
cider and dubious hygiene stan-
dards appears insatiable.
Blissful, liberating and muddy
as they remain, countryside festi-
vals have come a long way since
their heady, hippy roots. Gone are
free milk (Glastonbury, 1970), and
free love (Isle of Wight Festival,
1968), and here to stay are corpo-
rate behemoths, 12-pint pouring
machines and glam-camping.
It’s no surprise that 100,000
people in a eld represent an
energy-hungry, waste-producing,
lorry-dependent, car-driving,
beer-swilling, cheap-tent-buying
nightmare of an ecological sce-
nario. Environmental cost is the
price we pay for the unbridled
optimism and happy-go-lucky
release that festivals embody.
Or so it seemed. While Ben
Challis of A Greener Festival
believes “a green festival is one
that doesn’t take place”, he is
part of a wave of powerful eco-
thinking that is doing its best to
clean up the act. “Most festivals
are trying to engage in some sort
of environmental practice,” says
Challis, who has seen entries to
A Greener Festival Awards rise
JASON BRYANT
Glastonbury’s main stage, inspired
by the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
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4. [ intelligencearts ]
threefold in three years. “Not all
festivals can do everything on
our checklist, but it helps to have
targets to aim for.”
Co-founder of Sunrise Celebra-
tion, Daniel Hurring, is ahead of
most. “We’re always trying to be “ FESTIVALS ARE
innovative,” he tells me. As well LOW CARBON.
as selling only organic and local
SEVENTY-FIVE
food, creatively pushing low
carbon transport and using only THOUSAND
renewables or biofuel, they were PEOPLE LIVING
the rst to use compost loos. But AN ALTERNATIVE
it’s the Transition Movement that
really de nes Sunrise. “Festivals LIFESTYLE IS AN
are ultimately communities. They ADVANTAGE ”
suffer the same issues that wider
society faces, albeit a microcos-
mic version. We deal with ideas
of community resilience to mini- strict controls. Environmental Happily, size isn’t a barrier
mise our impact and contribute manager Aylin McNamara ex- to progress. Scotland’s T in the
to the local economy.” Their plains that “traders will upgrade Park, at more than 85,000 people,
message seems to be spread- to compostable cups so that they became the largest carbon
ing – Radio 1 recently contacted can attend, then they’ll convert neutral festival in the world in
FESTIVALANNUAL.COM; A GREENER FESTIVAL/BEN CHALLIS; CAMILLA MORRIS
Hurring for advice on how to to greener practices. People can’t 2006 and being based on a Site of
‘transition-up’ its events. help being green – just by being Special Scienti c Interest limits
Public transport is often in- there, they are greener than if organisers to leaving the site
centivised and it pays to recycle. they were at home”. exactly as they found it – mud
The Latitude festival charges She raises an interesting aside. Bestival and the revived
for reusable cups and Croissant point. Festivals are, arguably, low Isle of Wight Festival score well,
Neuf Summer Party – ‘Greenest carbon. “Seventy- ve thousand boosted by the need to take
Festival’ winner in the UK Festi- people living an alternative
val Awards 2009 – is run entirely lifestyle is an advantage,” says Moving towards a greener
on solar and wind power. Alison Tickell of campaign group festival: solar power and
Waveform, diminutive though Julie’s Bicycle, “but it’s probably reducing on-site waste are
it may be, has high hopes – and still too much carbon.” steps in the right direction
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6. [ intelligencearts ]
recklessness.” By siphoning cash
into local systems and a new
on-site reservoir, the Festival is
looking greener than ever.
The Pyramid stage is powered
“ SUPPORTING by 1,500m2 of new solar panels,
GREENPEACE, while on-stage charm offensives
OXFAM AND have changed behaviour, most
signi cantly reducing a penchant
WATERAID, for peeing in the bushes after the
GLASTONBURY IS collective call of nature infa-
A MONUMENT TO mously gave rise to dangerous
water ammonia levels in 2003.
GREEN THINKING, As a working farm, the Glas-
WITH VARYING tonbury site is kept immaculate
SUCCESS ” through grim determination
– and ingenuity. “Dad invented
a giant roll magnet – it’s so
public transport to the island for ve extraordinary days, and strong it sucks all the metal up
(though a dozen brave swimmers disappears two weeks later. into a big truck,” explains Eavis.
got to Bestival under their own “The Festival has been cham- “Everyone was like ‘Cor blimey!
steam in 2009). pioning green ideas since day Who’d have thought he’d come
For its 40th anniversary at one,” says co-organiser Emily up with that?’”
the end of June, Glastonbury is Eavis, whose father Michael Audience travel and waste
pulling out all the stops. The started the Festival in 1970. “We stubbornly remain Glastonbury’s
undisputed festival champion never assume we’re in the clear.” biggest headaches, however. It
commands crowds of up to Staunchly supporting Green- is not alone. Research by Julie’s
177,550, who are fed, watered peace, Oxfam and WaterAid, ‘the Bicycle shows that, at 68%, audi-
and entertained by an almost Festival’ is a monument to green ence travel’s portion of all festi-
entirely temporary infrastruc- thinking, with varying success. val CO2 emissions is by far the
FESTIVALANNUAL.COM; JASON BRYANT
ture. A tented city appears, stays Lucy Brooking-Clark, Glaston- biggest and hardest to control.
bury’s environmental manager, Waste, from fencing to chip fat,
As well as music and mud, green faces quite a task. “It’s all about is a close second. Despite efforts
ideas have always been part of trial and error – things don’t by Glastonbury’s 2,000-strong
Glastonbury (top) according to necessarily run smoothly – ‘recycling community’ – nearly
co-organiser Emily Eavis (above) but there’s no indulgence or half of its waste was recycled
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7. [ intelligencearts ]
above
last year – a whopping 936.28 – nature and the arts combin-
tonnes headed to land ll. ing. Environmental awareness is
There’s a long way to go. Still, given a burst of creativity.”
BRITAIN’S GREENEST
it’s a far cry from 20 years ago, Nurturing the transformative FESTIVALS
Tickell tells me. “You’d leave and power of music and art combined
there’d be scenes of Armageddon with nature, festivals can strike
Waveform
– there’s been a dramatic shift. a powerful chord. “It’s not about
waveformfestival.com
The green ticket is becoming the getting up on stage and shout-
Sunrise Celebration
brand ticket.” ing at people to turn lights off,”
sunrisecelebration.com
Traders, from Bell Tent UK to argues Tickell. “Festivals have a
Loose Tea Tent, agree. So too do capacity to engage.” The over- Sunrise Offgrid
the statistics: people are more whelming message is that the
sunrise-offgrid.co.uk
likely to buy a ticket now be- public, too, have responsibility.
cause of green credentials. Even It’s a great Glastonbury tradi- Isle of Wight Festival
bands, most notably Radiohead, tion to watch the sun seep over
isleofwightfestival.com
are choosing gigs on an eco the Somerset hills at the break of
basis. According to green record dawn. The simplicity of soak- Bestival
label Archangel’s Bruce Elliot- ing up a moment with friends is
Smith, “Being eco has seeped what festivals, and putting the
bestival.net
into normal life”. earth rst, are about.
Big Tent
Ironically, festival life is any- As Waveform’s McNamara
thing but normal. “People are in puts it, laying the foundations of bigtentfestival.co.uk
tents, part of a special com- green thinking “is about appreci-
munity and living cooperatively, ating a sunrise”.
Workhouse
so it’s not an issue not having workhousefestival.co.uk
access to mod-cons and luxury,” How we can help
says Tickell. “Green living is part
Croissant Neuf
of what they are.” Summer Party
And while some urban festivals partyneuf.co.uk/10
are low carbon because of their
infrastructure links, nothing sup-
ports this ethos as symbiotically Useful sites
as the countryside itself. agreenerfestival.com
As Sophie Rivett-Carnac, an energysavingtrust.org.uk juliesbicycle.com
avid festival-goer, says, “Festivals belltent.co.uk
are a celebration of the outdoors More summer festivals: page 116 festivalawards.com
98 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GREEN | SUMMER 2010