The summer we took diesel out of the spotlight
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While the summer festival season is all about having fun, there’s an important question we need to ask– how can we make festivals greener without compromising the experience?
This summer, Grid Faeries x Ecotricity battery systems powered stages at Love Saves The Day, WOMAD and Reading Festival, showing that there’s a cleaner alternative to traditional noisy diesel generators.
How do the Grid Faeries batteries work?
If you’ve never seen battery power at a festival before, you might be wondering how a battery can keep a stage running.
The Grid Faeries system stores renewable electricity and can release energy when it’s needed. Trust us, these aren’t small batteries. A single Grid Faeries battery system could store enough energy to power an average UK home for around 425 days.
By using stored electricity instead of relying solely on diesel generators, festivals can reduce noise and emissions while still delivering the power needed for the show to go on. Diesel generators are often noisy, polluting and carbon intensive. Our battery power offers a quieter, cleaner way to keep festivals running.
As Ecotricity founder Dale Vince puts it:
“Festivals have relied on diesel generators for decades, but that’s starting to change. Festival by festival, we’re proving that there’s a better way to power live music — one that cuts carbon, reduces noise, and helps protect the future of live events.”
First up - Love Saves The Day
We kicked off the festival season powering the main stage at Love Saves The Day in May, in Bristol. Thousands of festival-goers enjoyed music from Eve, Sammy Virji and Rizzle Kicks, powered by our batteries.
It was fantastic to see a festival taking several steps to reduce its environmental impact too. They banned single-use plastics, used compostable toilets and encouraged attendees to leave the car at home and attend by their Love Bus.
WOMAD
Next up was WOMAD, held in Wiltshire from 24–26 July. We’ve been visiting WOMAD for many years. Our founder Dale Vince is a big fan of the festival and has spoken on stage there several times.
However, this year was a little different. For the first time, our Grid Faeries batteries powered the main stage with fantastic sets from Greentea Peng and many others.
WOMAD’s commitment to sustainability also made it a natural fit for us. The festival has restrictions on single-use plastics, uses composting toilets and runs localised recycling sorting points – all helping to reduce waste and the resources needed to run the event.
Reading Festival
Then came the big one: Reading Festival.
Reading is one of the UK's biggest music festivals, so seeing a festival of this scale embrace battery power was a particularly exciting moment for us. Our Grid Faeries batteries powered the brand-new Ballroom Stage, which played host to acts including Niko B and Florence Road.
For us, it’s a glimpse of what the future of festivals could look like. If batteries can power stages at an event the size of Reading, there’s a huge opportunity for more festivals to start moving away from fossil-fuelled generators.
Reading also embraced sustainability across the festival experience. It was encouraging to see environmental initiatives woven into an event of this scale, and we hope other festivals of a similar size take note.
A greener future for festivals
This summer showed us what’s possible when festivals start looking beyond diesel. Going green shouldn’t mean giving up the things you love. The festival experience doesn’t need to change. We just need to change how we power it.
The future of live music should be loud. The generators don’t need to be.
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