How to have a greener festival season
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Festival season is well under way and we couldn’t be happier. We’re there for the music, the outdoor life and the sheer fun of it all.
There’s only one problem - when you put tens of thousands of people in the same place for a few days, you’re effectively creating large, temporary towns with huge carbon footprints.
Thankfully, there are lots of ways you can reduce your impact without reducing your fun!
Choose wisely
As a festival goer, you don’t get to decide how stages are powered or how a festival tackles sustainability, but you can choose the ones you attend. So, the first step is to make sustainability a key piece of your decision making, alongside the acts and location.
A key bit of info is to find out what their plans are for energy. Festivals have long relied on loud, polluting diesel generators to keep sites and stages powered with electricity. Grid Faeries x Ecotricity is changing all that by powering festivals with green energy from the sun and the wind. They’ve powered music at Glastonbury, All Points East, LIDO in the past couple of years – and WOMAD’s main stage is getting the full Grid Faeries treatment from 23 – 26 July.
Our friends from Ecotalk will be at WOMAD too, sharing information about their green tariffs powered by our green energy. Make sure you say hello if you’re nearby!
Travel sustainably
Journeys to and from the festival site are a big contributor to a festival's emissions. Before you book your travel, check out the best sustainable options:
Train and shuttle – many festivals offer shuttles from the nearest train station, making the whole thing a doddle.
Coaches – lots of coach operators lay on direct coach travel to major festivals, although you’ll need to get to the pickup point. This is often the cheapest choice.
Cars – sometimes it’s the only option, so go electric if you can and make sure you’re carrying everyone you can fit in.
Charge your devices with green energy
Phones are a must have at today’s festivals with mobile tickets, digital timetables and hundreds of ‘What shall we see next?’ and ‘Why did I drink that cider?’ messages to deal with.
Keeping your phone charged is essential but with a little bit of forward planning, you don't need to hunt for fossil-fuel-powered charging points
Take a good-sized battery packed pre-charged with green energy and set your phone to Low Power Mode (with a dim screen) as soon as you leave home. Gaming and streaming videos drain power fastest, so try and reduce these activities to a minimum.
If you’re a regular festival goer or camper, it’s worth investing in a portable solar charger for your devices to gather clean, green energy of your own while you’re on site.
Take a pack of reusable essentials
A truly green festival means ditching single-use plastics. This is a win-win because taking quality gear makes for a far nicer experience.
The water bottle – a festival essential. Make it sturdy and insulated to keep your drinks cool. Festivals have free drinking water taps all over the site, so you can avoid buying plastic bottled water entirely.
Cutlery – plastic forks and knives should be history. Keep a set of bamboo cutlery on you so you can enjoy your festival food the right ways.
Your tent – skip the ‘single-use festival tents’ that people leave behind as landfill. Spend a little more and get yourself something that will actually keep the rain off and last you dozens of festivals over many years.
Think about what you eat
Choosing vegan and vegetarian options at the food stalls is one of the easiest, most delicious ways to cut your impact at a festival. Festivals are also fantastic places to sample new and exciting cuisine from around the world. Don’t stick to veggie burger and chips, try something new – your taste buds will thank you!
We’re proud to be the only energy company in the world certified as vegan by both the Vegan Society and Viva!, the vegan charity.
Let festivals know that you care
Ask festivals what they are doing to go green and let them know this is important to you.
Look out for A Greener Future's Greener Festival Certification and see how your favourite festival fares.
Help festivals by engaging with their green initiatives whether that’s their collective travel choices or their plant-based meal options.
Ready to start turning your Bills into Mills?
Switch to Ecotricity and we’ll use your bill money to build new sources of renewable energy and build a greener Britain.
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