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Great Big Green Ideas competition closed - WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The entries are in - the judges have judged – and in the end after much deliberation we have one clear winner, Natalie Porter, and two most excellent runners up, Gearoid Maher and Ben Harris. We had so many good ideas we thought we should mention some of them here and  we would also like to point out that all of these ideas will be looked at carefully by lots of festivals and so when it gets to the next festival season, some of these ideas might well be actually happening at events  – making them greener and cleaner – thanks to you!

For the full story - see our blog entry here: http://www.agreenerfestival.com/blog/?p=2149#more-2149

EXCLUSIVE: PRE-ORDER 'Festival Harvest' Double CD of Emerging Talent

Posted | 25.05.10

28 hot new bands, picked by 6 of the best British festivals ever – all for the bargain price of £7.99. You can pre-order FESTIVAL HARVEST now and if you send us a cheque for £7.99 (including UK postage and packing) we will send you this beautiful double CD. It is also the best way for us to raise funds for A Greener Festival as we get to keep all of the funds for our good causes – and you get the CDs double quick! So write to us today at 8 Henley Prior, Collier Street, London N1 9JU and make your cheque for £7.99 payable to ‘A Greener Festival Ltd’. The album will be released on June 7th and will be available from all good record stores and download stores – including and available to PRE-ORDER NOW:


HMV:
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=522123

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/FESTIVAL-HARVEST-Various-Artists/dp/B003MUXDYA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1274453195&sr=8-4

Play.com:
http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/15159469/Festival-Harvest/Product.html

Distributed by MC9 Music / Activate Media

We want your GREAT BIG GREEN IDEAS...again...

Posted | 13.04.10

Last year’s Great Big Green Ideas had a massive response of ideas to make festivals greener – and can we say thank you again to our friends at T-in-the-Park, Glastonbury, the Big Issue and Virtual Festivals for making this happen. In fact it was so good we are going to run it again - with two fantastic goodie bags up for grabs - each stuffed full with exclusive festival crew T-shirts, CDs, DVDs and other festival memorabilia.
  
Last year lots and lots of people thought long and hard about travel - this was the top topic - with rubbish and discarded waste not far beind. In particular a lot of you commented on the waste involved in producing plastic water bottles and the number just thrown away at festivals, with suggestions ranging from banning plastic bottle altogether to providing refillable pouches to more on-site water fountains. A lot of people also suggested souvenir beer mugs to cut down on discarded plastic beer glasses – something a number of Festivals including Latitude and the Cambridge Folk Festival are already doing – and the Amazing Cup Company now provides a service to festivals to provide reusable cups and glasses - and they can wash them too!! We hope these ideas spread to other events alongside deposits on beer glasses – which really does seem to be a great idea that cuts down on waste – and cigarette butt pouches to cut down on litter.
 
Other ideas included the simple proposal that people could label up unwanted items they are leaving behind – which anyone can then take – and that everyone should “take one piece of rubbish that’s not yours home." That said, we would rather people didnt leave stuff behind at all. Other people pointed out that lots of energy is being produced at festivals and suggested using the heat or kinetic energy created – “how about a Glasto gym where the pedal power created on exercise bikes is used to create electricity”. Another unnamed entry said “Get people to jump up and down on trampolines that use the absorbed energy from the jumping to generate electricity for the stage - that way, the more excited the crowd is, the more the band can play.”  There are already bicycle powered discos - so things are moving forwards!
 
As said, travel was high on everyone’s agenda and our winner, Matt Sweeney suggested coach shuttle schemes running from larger cities and towns that are close and fairly close to festival sites, which of course usually have rail and coach links, directly to the festival site. We know a lot of festivals are now working hard to improve coach access and its great to see dedicated festival coach services like The Big Green Coach Company and new bus companies like The Big Lemon coach and bus services being set up to help fans get to festivals with a low carbon footprint - so things are getting done!
 
Other people had loads and loads of good ideas and many festivals are actively looking at these - better recycling is key- tree planting is another (A number of Australian and American fetsivals plant trees) - removing car parking from sites and replace with shuttles is another idea  - and Beach Break Live are doing this now. Getting solar panels on stage roofs was suggested and Glastonbury are going one better and Michael Eavis plants to install solar panels on his Worthy Farm buildings. We loved luminous guy ropes in campsites - we liked a ban glossy programmes and replacing them with recycled paper programmes (or even digital programmes on mobiles) and who wouldn't want to support recycling wellies and having clothing banks.
 
So now we need your GREAT BIG GREEN IDEAS for 2010. How do you think festivals can get greener? If you have an idea then please submit this (in less than 200 words please) to agreenerfestival@aol.com by midnight on Saturday May 15th 2010 - in the English language please. You can submit more than one idea but please make sure you do include your name and put the words 'Great Big Green Idea' in the subject box. The judges decision will be final and the winner and one runner up will win goodie bags. The best ideas will be published on this site in June and we will circulate the best ideas to all of the festivals participating in our Greener Festival Awards scheme 2010.
 
OK, finally, it looks like being a really excellent festival season this year - so a few quick tips for 2010: That old mantra "reduce, reuse, recycle" is as relevant as ever - if not more so - and please take tents and wellies HOME. Try and uses coaches and public transport wherever you can - and if that is impossible then at least try and share your car and - and most importantly, have lots of fun!
 

Apply for A Greener Festival Award 2010

Posted | 02.02.10

Your festival or event can now apply for the 'A Greener Festival Awards 2010'. Click below to download the self-assessment form as either an Excel Spreadsheet or PDF File.

Spreadsheets can be completed digitally and emailed to agreenerfestival@aol.com. PDF files can be downloaded to print and posted - please email us for details.

AGFA 2010 Self Assessment (Excel)
AGFA 2010 Self Assessment (PDF)

Please read the following carefully:

- Award entry must be notified to us a minimum of three weeks before date of the festival. An environmental assessor can then be appointed.

- The self asssessment must be submitted a minimum of one week before the festival

- Please provide as much supporting documentation as possible in advance (E.g. environmental impact assessment, any carbon footprinting, environmental policy)

- We need one nominated contact as a minimum with an email and mobile number

- two tickets (preferably media passes) will be needed for the environmental auditors

- Entry fee per festival is £200 / €300 (if you have a problem paying this fee please email agreenerfestival@aol.com). This is to cover our administration costs and the Assessor's travel costs.

Greener Festival Award 2009 Winners Collect their Green Awards!

Posted | 25.11.09

Several of the our 'Greener Festival Award 2009' winners collected their awards at the UK Festival Awards 2009 on Thursday 19th November. Huge congratulations to all of our winners; below is a selection of photos...


Winners from Bestival, Camp Bestival, The Cambridge Folk Festival, Croissant Neuf Summer Party, Download, Hard Rock Calling, Standon Calling and Wireless celebrate their Greener Festival 2009 Awards with Sangita from Roberston Taylor and Claire from A Greener Festival.
 

Claire, Luke and Ben with Sangita, Sue and David from Roberston Taylor
 

The Isle of Wight green team pick up their Outstanding Award from Claire and Sangita
 

The Croissant Neuf Summer Party green team pick up their outstanding award from Ben and Sangita - they went on to win the overall Greener Festival Award 2009

Final Greener Festival Awards Announced for 2009

Posted | 23.10.09

AGFA 2009The final list of Greener Festival Award winners has been announced for 2009 with another twenty festivals picking up the prestigious Greener Festival gong, adding to the seventeen which were announced in July, midway through the Festival season in the UK. The newly announced awards go to festivals including Bestival, The City of London Festival, the Cambridge Folk Festival, Szeged in Hungary, Oya in Norway and the Croissant Neuf Summer Party. These Festivals join festivals such as Glastonbury, Download, Firegathering, T-in-the-Park and The Isle of Wight festival who had already picked up the coveted award alongside five Australian Festivals. We are dead chuffed at AGreenerFestival.com with the number of outstanding festivals in 2009 with thirteen festivals being awarded very high marks out of a total of thirty seven. But to be fair, every festival who gets the Award is well on the way to being one of the greenest festivals in the world - the Award is based on a 56 part questionnaire which covers office management, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, supporting green initiatives, travel and transport, waste and recycling, water management, environmental protection and noise reduction - and almost all the festivals will receive a visit from an independent auditor to assess their green efforts. This year we had a number of new entrants to the scheme and these included Standon Calling in Hertfordshire, Y-Not in Derbyshire, the Manchester International Festival, West Beach in California, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Big Tent in Scotland and the Rototom Reggae Sunsplash, a ten dayer in Italy.  
 
This year, all the winning Festivals will receive a special trophy designed by competition winner Sade Goddard from Keswick School in Cumbria whose winning design is made from recycled plastic bottles, crushed CDs and remoulded Wellington boots. The Awards, which are sponsored by Roberston Taylor, music industry insurance brokers, will be handed out at the UK Festival Awards which will be held at the O2 Arena in London on November 19th 2009 when the overall winner of the ‘Greener Festival Award 2009’ will be announced as well. AGreenerFestival co-founder Ben Challis said “We were worried that in a year when the recession bit hard we might see Festivals shying away from their ongoing commitment to green issues, but we have been generally pleased with the efforts of festivals around the world to keep sustainability high on their own agenda and to promote environmental awareness to fans. We had more ‘outstanding’ winners in 2009 and a 20% rise in applications from 2008, with more international applications than ever with fine winners from Australia, four from the USA and four from mainland Europe. But much remains to be done and in the UK, and a car centric society means that audience travel, and indeed leisure travel in general is a massive problem, clearly not helped by an obvious lack of coherent public transport policies.

In particular this year our independent auditors were really pleased by the number of festivals that were expanding on their environmental policies and talking to fans. The Hive chill out zone at the Isle of Wight caught our attention as did Leicester’s Summer Sundae Weekender’s attention to talking to fans and T-in-the-Parks green efforts. It was also good to see a real move to use local products – festivals like Croissant Neuf make a real effort to get local suppliers to provide local products – anything from beer to bread to bikes to baltis! The other thing we noted was just how many festivals have now adopted souvenir cups for beer – festivals like Cambridge and Szeged have re-usable cups and not only do these dramatically cut down on waste and pollution, they reduce litter on site and give you a real momento to take home!
 
 
FINAL WINNERS: THE GREENER FESTIVAL AWARD 2009
 
OUTSTANDING GREENER FESTIVALS
BESTIVAL (England)
BONNAROO (USA)
BIG TENT (Scotland)
BLUESFEST (Aus)
CROISSANT NEUF (Wales)
EOLICA (Canary Islands, Spain)
ISLE OF WIGHT (England)
PEATS RIDGE (Aus)                              
ROTHBURY (USA
SOUTHBOUND (Aus)     
SUNRISE (England)       
WAVEFORM (England)
WORKHOUSE (Wales)

THE GREENER FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS
BIG SESSION (England)
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL (England)
CAMP BESTIVAL (England)
THE CITY OF LONDON FESTIVAL
THE FALLS FESTIVAL (Australia)
GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL (England)
FIREGATHERING (England)
MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL (England)
OYA FESTIVAL (Norway)
ROTOTOM SUNSPLASH (Italy)                                                  
SONISPHERE (England)
SUMMER SUNDAE WEEKENDER (England)
SZEGEDI IFJUSAGI NAPOK (Hungary)
T-IN-THE-PARK (Scotland)
WEST BEACH (USA)
WOMADelaide (Australia)
 
IMPROVING GREENER FESTIVALS
 
ATLANTA JAZZ FESTIVAL (USA)
BIG CHILL (England)
DOWNLOAD (England)
THE GLADE (England)
HYDE PARK CALLING (England)
STANDON CALLING (England)
WIRELESS (England)
Y-NOT (England)


These are winners of the European Festival organisation YOUROPE's Green’n’Clean Award. Like the winners of the Greener Festival Award ,all of these Festivals have voluntarily moved to a more sustainable basis for putting on their festival and adopting environmentally friendly practices.
 
Benicassim (Spain)
Das Fest (Germany)
Gurtenfestival (Berne, Switzerland)
Hultfred Festival (Sweden)
Illosarirock (Finland)
Les Recontres Transmusicales de Rennes (France)
Les Trans Musicales de Rennes (France)
Lowlands (The Nederlands)
Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland)
OpenAir St.Gallen (Switzerland)
Oxegen (Ireland)
Oya Festivalen (Norway)*
Paléo Festival Nyon  (Switzerland)
Pinkpop (The Nederlands)
Provinssirock (Finland)
Pukkelpop (Belgium)
Rheinkultur (Germany)
Rip Curl Festival (France)
Rock Werchter (Belgium)
Roskilde Festival (Denmark)
Ruisrock (Finland)
T in the Park (Scotland)*
Taubertal Festival (Germany)
Weekend au bord de l’eau (Switzerland)

* Also winners of the Greener Festival Award
 

Festival Wood project begins!

Posted | 03.07.09

Festival Wood is going to be a brand new wood planted by volunteers from AGreenerFestival.com to symbolise music fans' commitment to protecting the environment. The planned 5 acre wood will be planted on grazing land and will be a mix of native deciduous trees and we hope that the wood will be colonised by wild birds, mammals andinsects as it grows.

Fans can contribute to Festival Wood by making any sort of donation. Just £3 will plant a tree! £5 will plant two! This isn't an offsetting scheme - everyone should still try and reduce your environmental impact by using public transport, lift sharing, cycling or walking wherever you can, recycling and caring for the environment - but if you are going to a Festival this year why not go the extra distance and make a donation to help create Festival Wood? Absolutely anything helps and if we exceed the target we will just find more land and plant more trees! We are also hoping to be able to buy a biodigester to eat up waste food and other organic material and produce renewable gas in the process!

TEXT 'FESTIVAL' or 'festival' TO 82540 and you will plant a tree - £3 will be donated.

TEXT 'GREENER' or 'greener' to 82540 and you will plant two trees - this will cost you £5

The money you donate will be deducted from your phone - it's called reverse billing. You can also send a cheque payable to 'A Greener Festival Ltd' and post to 8 Henley Prior, Collier Street, London N1 9JU. We are a formally constituted 'not for profit' company and everything helps. The more we get, the more we can do, so please help. THANK YOU.

A Greener Festival team up with Virtual Festivals

Posted | 06.06.09

We’ve teamed up with those good folks at Virtual Festivals (www.Virtualfestivals.com) to put up some webpages called My Greener Festival that give practical advice on getting greener - and reveal what some of the more enlightened festival organisers are already doing to make their events more sustainable. Take a look at the new pages here: www.virtualfestivals.com/green.

We are hoping that this new initiative, coupled with our Great Big Green Ideas competition which we launched with the Big Issue, Glastonbury and T-in-The-Park, means that festival organisers, crew, artists and fans can all participate in what is become an increasingly important battle against climate change.

Who are we?

A Greener Festival Ltd. is a not-for-profit company committed to help music and arts events and festivals around the world adopt environmentally efficient practices through providing information, by providing education resources and by swapping ideas. The basic purpose of the site is to provide information about how environmentally efficient methods are currently employed at music and arts festivals and to provide a forum for discussion about how the impact of festivals on the environment can be limited at future events. We hope to do this by by providing information on the best ideas for greener festivals from around the world.

This site is split into sections looking at discrete areas where festivals organisers and festival goers can make a difference. We know that not every festival can adopt every idea - the original research for this site showed that some festivals have no environmental policies at all. But even tackling just one area - whether it’s having a coherent waste recycling plan or having policies to promote the use of public transport or to minimise land damage - will help. And that is also why the Message Board is vital - we need YOUR input to spread the word - if you've had a good idea or seen a good idea please do let us know and we can post these on our Message Board. There are also links to other websites which we hope are useful. Again if you send us useful links we can add these in. So please do interact so we can promote greener festivals everywhere.

Thank you,
Ben, Luke & Claire
The Greener Festival Team

A Greener Festival is proud to be supported by:

Key sponsor & A Greener Festival Award Scheme sponsor:

Robertson Taylor Insurance Brokers

Key sponsor:

DMS is the leading CD, DVD and vinyl manufacturing company with a proven track record in surpassing client expectations. www.discmanufacturingservices.com

Other associates:
The Big Issue IQ Magazine Association of Independent Festivals Glastonbury Festivals Music Law Updates Audience Magazine Live UK Yourope Julies Bicycle The International Live Music Conference

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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