The earth benefits from Glastonbury Festival? Read to find out more!
As we are in the mist of festival season, it seems fitting to share my research on environmental sustainability at festivals, specifically in the UK. I have split this post into four themes: travel, waste, energy, and procurement, which are seen to be the biggest hurdles from an event organisers point of view. There is also a mention to Glastonbury Festival who show their appreciation for the planet throughout their event management.
Travel
It’s no secret in the festival world that the biggest source (about 80%) of carbon emissions stems from customer, artist, and employee travel (Vision: 2025, 2024). Whilst this is not acceptable, at least we have identified the biggest issue which we can work towards mitigating! Some festivals have started this journey by encouraging festival goers to travel via public transport such as coaches and trains or transporting artists around the arena using electric vehicles (the debate regarding how sustainable electric vehicles really are will be saved for a future post!). However, these movements simply aren’t enough to significantly reduce carbon emissions, therefore event organisers should research and develop ways to offset these emissions. Festival goers travelling to these events from far and wide suggests a successful festival, however, the impact of this should be accounted for. For example, offsetting carbon emissions through planting trees in local areas to the festival site.
Waste
Annually, the UK festival industry produces approximately 25,800 tonnes of waste. Reading that, we immediately think this is a negative externality of events, however, it creates an opportunity to engage festival goers in environmentally friendly practices (known as nudging) where this same mindset can be transferred into everyday living.
Energy
Over the course of a weekend festival, a total of up to 30,000 megawatts of electricity is used. To put this into perspective, the average household uses 2,800 kilowatts annually. In order to reduce the negative impact of using this amount of energy, it is important to make sure the energy source is sustainable – meeting the needs of now without taking away from future generations. Some examples include using solar or wind energy to power stages or food vendors. Some festivals are seen to use HVO biofuel to power generators.
Procurement
Procurement, in this context, refers to anything bought by food vendors in order to produce food for the festival. Buying locally sourced products reduces the carbon footprint of each item sold, with thousands of items being sold per day, this adds up. Additionally, local products are often sold by small businesses, boosting the local economy and providing local jobs. However, many food vendors buy in bulk from large suppliers as it lowers the costs and therefore increases the profit margins, if you’ve been to a festival, you will know that the food prices are extortionate! Festival organisers need to establish an incentive for food vendors to shop locally for their supplies, perhaps through monetary gains, or provide the opportunity to shop locally by having a whole sale at the venue where locally sourced ingredients can be purchased.
Golden Glastonbury!
Glastonbury, the largest festival in the UK with an attendance of 200,000, provides the perfect breeding ground for unethical, non-environmentally friendly behaviour. But what if I told you Glastonbury actually benefits the planet? The organisers have shown their loyalty to looking after our planet and have carefully crafted a festival where the carbon footprint, as of 2022, reached -596.25 tonnes (Jackman, 2023). To compare, in 2019 Reading and Leeds Festival produced 663 tonnes of CO2. There is a huge list of conscious behaviours adopted by Glastonbury, I will share my favourites below:
- Temporary wind turbine powers food stalls
- On-site wholesale market
- Banning of single serve condiment sachets
- Compostable and re-usable plates and cutlery only
- On-site recycling
- Banning of disposable vape sale
- Food waste is turned into compost
- Compost toilets
- Pre-pitched tents
- FCS certified timber for arena set-up
Click here to find out more about what Glastonbury are doing to help save the planet!
What you can do as a festival goer
Make conscious food choices: some festivals, like Glastonbury, display the carbon footprint of each food item on vendors menus, use this information to choose a sensible and delicious option!
Use the bins provided: it sounds ridiculous to say, but evidence shows this is not occurring. Putting the correct items in general waste or recycling bins allows the organisers to dispose of it properly. In addition, if less litter is seen on the floors of the arena’s and campsites, others are more likely to follow suit and correctly dispose of their waste. A herd mentality!
Use the toilets provided: again, it sounds ridiculous, but this simple task is not done enough, leading to destruction of habitats and polluted water systems
Take a re-useable water bottle: I’m yet to discover a festival that doesn’t have free water refill stations, so taking your own bottle to fill up means you don’t buy a single-use bottle and saves you money!
Travel via public transport: this reduces carbon emissions with the added bonus of being faster and cheaper, especially when travelling long distances
Take your tent home: approximately 250,000 tents are left behind at festivals across the UK each year, with the mindset of ‘someone will clear it up’. Many campsite cleaners are volunteers, therefore cleaning up everyone else’s partying mess, which I’m sure cannot be pleasant. Not only this, but rather than taking the tent home to reuse again, like they’re designed for, it’s left for landfil as charities can only take a small amount. This is creating waste out of something that is designed to be reused over and over again!
Not My Monkey 