GreenBase is a feature and news section of JamBase that focuses on the intersection between music and the environment. In GreenBase pieces, you can keep track of what your favorite bands, festivals, and venues are doing to help the planet. You can read more green music news on the GreenBase Blog.
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The folks over at U.K.-based A Greener Festival have been very active over the last couple of years. Their work has included helping define just what a green festival is, urging festival organizers to green their events, and recognizing festivals that have made significant progress towards sustainability with awards. A similar set of awards is handed out by YOUROPE, a European festival organization. Since there aren't any green festival awards for areas outside of the U.K. and Europe as of yet, A Greener Festival is also dispensing international awards. Only two U.S. festivals, Bonnaroo (read our review here) and Rothbury (review here), received awards this year but both were ranked “outstanding."
The awards are given out to any festival that applies and agrees to be independently evaluated. A small fee paid by the festival covers transportation for independent volunteer auditors who poke their heads into every nook and cranny and fill out a lengthy evaluation, which is then reviewed by A Greener Festival before handing out awards.
Congratulations to the organizers of Bonnaroo and Rothbury for their successful greening efforts! The full press release is below:
Seven English festivals including The Big Chill, Bestival, Summer Sundae Weekender, Shambala, Reading, Leeds and End of the Road along with Scotland's Hydro Connect, Ireland's Electric Picnic, Portugal's Boom, Southbound in Australia and the Rothbury Festival in the U.S.A. have joined the illustrious list of winners for the 2008 Greener Festival Award. All of the award winners were praised by organizers www.agreenerfestival.com for their efforts to promote environmentally friendly music festivals.
The independent award is based on a seven part questionnaire which covers event management, travel and transport plans, CO2 and other greenhouse gas 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 the organizers have environmental auditors who visit as many festival sites as possible to assess how festivals implement their plans. In total twenty three U.K. festivals and eight international festivals have won the award. Six festivals gained the ultimate accolade of the “outstanding" award from the organizers including the Waveform and Shambala festivals in the U.K. and Bonnaroo in the U.S.A. Australia's Bluesfest was also highly commended.
A Greener Festival co-founder Claire O'Neill said “this year applications for our awards more than doubled and this is fantastic news. More and more festivals are making the effort go green and adopt environmentally friendly practices. Some festivals are still improving and going through a steep learning curve, others are old hands now who keep improving their green credentials year on year. The U.K. and international festival scene is now making a concerted effort to be leaders in changing behaviour to protect the environment."
The organizers also congratulated the eighteen festivals who had won the “Green 'n' Clean" award from Yourope, the European festivals organization. A Greener Festival's Luke Westbury added “We fully endorse and support Yourope's award and the progress they are making. Across both Europe and the U.K. we can see significant and positive change. Green 'n' Clean have some fantastic festivals taking part including Denmark's Roskilde, St. Gallen Open Air in Switzerland, Rheinkultur in Germany, Pinkpop in the Nederlands and Finland's Provinssirock. We salute them!"
The Full list of 2008 winners is below:
THE GREEN FESTIVAL AWARD
Bestival
Big Chill
Big Session Festival
Camden Green Fair (outstanding award)
The Cambridge Folk Festival
City Blues Festival (Leicester)
Download
End of the Road
The Glade Festival
The Glastonbury Festival
Hard Rock Calling
Hydro Connect
Latitude
Leeds Festival
Leicester City Blues Festival
Lounge on the Farm
02 Wireless Festival
Reading Festival
Shambala (outstanding award)
Summer Sundae Weekender
T-in-the-Park
Waveform (outstanding award)
Workhouse Festival
2000 Trees
GREENER FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL AWARD
The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (USA) (outstanding award)
Rothbury Festival (USA) (outstanding award)
Bluesfest - Eastcoast Blues & Roots Festival (Australia) (highly commended)
The Falls Festival (Australia)
West Coast Blues n Roots Festival (Australia)
Southbound (Australia)
Electric Picnic (Eire)
Boom Festival (Portugal) (outstanding award)
The Greener Festival Awards are supported by Robertson Taylor, international insurance brokers
GREEN N CLEAN AWARD from YOUROPE
Hultfred Festival Sweden
Lowlands The Nederlands
Rheinkultur Germany
Rock Werchter Belgium
Paleo Festival Nyon
Das Fest Germany
Pukkelpop Belgium
Roskilde Festival Denmark
Gurtenfestival Berne
Illosarirock Finland
Ruisrock Finland
Taubertal Festival Germany
Pinkpop The Nederlands
Provinssirock Finland
Les Recontres Transmusicales de Rennes France
T in the Park Scotland
Rip Curl Festival France
OpenAir St. Gallen Switzerland
