Festival Toolkit: Event Management: Green Issues

In recent years concern about global issues such as global warming has led to discussion about the contribution that cultural tourism makes to this problem.

Festivals too are being asked to reflect on the impact that their events have upon our environment. Included in this are concerns over:

  • Litter
  • Physical damage to property and the landscape
  • Noise
  • Inconvenience to local residents
  • Recycling and waste disposal
  • Energy consumption for lighting and PA systems
  • The carbon emissions of artists and audience travelling to our events

In response to this agenda many local authorities are considering or have already implemented a policy of requiring festivals to have a statement of their ‘Environmentally Friendly Practices’ in which they show how they are working to reduce their environmental impact in a way that makes them more environmentally sustainable.

Read A Practical Guide to Greening Your Business (PDF format) by Wales Tourist Board for comprehensive information.

This is a complex issue and one for which there is a wide range of information and advice available from which glasses to use to how to calculate one’s personal carbon footprint. Several festivals are now leading the debate with extensive recycling and other ‘green’ initiatives which are recognised annually by the ‘Greener Festivals’ awards.

A full list of resources related to this topic is included in the Useful websites and Contacts page including suppliers of environmentally friendly resources for festivals.

Examples of Good Practice

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

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