Green Festivals

More and more festivals are moving towards a greener outlook aiming to reduce the impact of the festival on the environment. This can range from carbon offsetting the festival, encouraging public transport use, and/or ensuring waste is minimised by providing excellent recycling facilities.

There is even the “greener festival awards” aimed to promote environmentally friendly music festivals. The Award is based on a seven part questionnaire which covers event management, travel and transport plans, CO2 emissions, fair trade, waste management and recycling, water management and noise pollution. Points are awarded for festivals which can show an active plan to promote public transport, reduce on-site waste, recycle and compost wherever possible, re-use water and use sustainable power. Festivals are expected to have a coherent environmental policy and AGreenerFestival.com has environmental auditors who visit as many festival sites as possible to assess how festivals implement their plans. Australia’s Byron Bay Blues Festival & The Falls Festival were included in the14 winners for 2008.

One festival we found that does a little bit more is the “thin Green Line music festival’. Not only are they reducing their carbon footprint but all the money raised from the concert goes to a cause that is trying to preserve the world’s natural habitats………….


Thin Green Line Music Festival
Feb 14th at Somers Beach, Mornington Peninsula.
The festival is raising money for the Thin Green Line organisation. This org supports rangers in the front line protection of national forests and nature conservation parks. These people put their lives at risk standing up to poachers, wild creatures and other challenges in an effort to protect nature. Sean Wilmore, a park ranger from Victoria, was inspired by the stories from rangers around the world when he attended the International Park Rangers Congress at Wilson's Promontory National Park in 2003. He decided the world needed to hear their stories so he spent most of 2004 filming the lives and stories of rangers on 6 continents and 19 countries and the resulting film “The Thin Green Line” premiered in July 2007. The organisation now raises money to support the rangers, community conservation projects, and the families of rangers killed in the line of duty.

The Festival green details:
•Carbon positive – they will be offsetting more than the carbon the festival produces
•A focus on biking and Public Transport to the festival, with a free shuttle bus provided from the train station
•Reduced carparking cost if you have 3 or more passengers in the car
•Organic food with a focus on locally grown and micro-brewery beer and local wine at the concert
•The price of one adult ticket supports the family of a ranger killed at work for a month
•One child’s ticket helps buy a solar cooker which will reduce the need for poaching wood in the forest by 80% in some areas, thus reducing conflicts and protecting the environment