Top Green Music Festivals in the UK
All over the world, festivals, both large and small, are growing conscious of their ecological footprint.
Here are some of the best in the UK
Barn on the Farm
Barn on the Farm, for the last 4 years running have led the fight on plastic waste by using Happy Cups, an innovative reusable, branded cup.
Barn on the Farm orgniser, Alice Matthews says “we have always been aware of the amount of waste that a large event can produce and have tried to limit this. It seemed a very logical choice to only use reusable cups on our bars and backstage. People love having an official cup for their drink and we often get people bringing along cups from previous years! They also cut down on the sales of water bottles because we have drinking water available across the site and people just fill up their reusable cups. They have eliminated what could have been a huge amount of plastic waste from our event.”
The award-winning Best Independent Festival 2014, due to be held from the 5th to the 8th July this year attracts over 2,500 visitors per day who drink over 10,000 pints, cocktails and soft drinks over the weekend.
Lakefest
Lakesfest grew out from when Croft Farm Waterpark hosted its music and cider festival on 9th April 2011.
It was attended by just over 1,500 people consuming 8,500 pints of cider. Bands including The Stages of Dan, The Roving Crows and The Wurzels starred. Classic West Country games like Welly Wanging and skittles were available to play with a prizes up for grabs. The feedback was so positive that planning went immediately into “Lakefest”.
Eden Festival
Eden began as an area of the Wickerman Festival in 2002, before becoming its own event in 2009. This first festival was held in the Forest of Ae between 4–6 September, and was headlined by The Levellers.
In 2010, the event moved to Raehills Meadows, near Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway, again in September. In 2011, the date was moved to June
“To stop rubbish going to landfill we adopted a recycle at source response and installed 4 segment bins around site for paper, plastic, metal and general waste(glass is not allowed on site). The bins are then taken in tonne sacks to the sorting area where they are sorted out into separate piles and recycled. We collect cans to be send to, Moffat Can, which in turn helps their small local enterprise. Other local family firm Hallidays assist us with the rest.
Traders are also only allowed on site with recycled paper cups, plates and bowls and wooden cutlery.
In 2014 we introduced an deposit scheme with cups, where by the bars only used re-usable cups. Punters would pay £2 extra on their first drink but then keep their cup and use their cup throughout the festival, exchanging it at the end for £2. This cuts down on a huge amount of wasted plastic cups, and keeps the site looking clean and tidy!”
