Transcript: Sustainable festivals card activity

Card 1:

Front of Card:

WATER

To reduce plastic waste, Sammie and Hayden plan to set up water refill stations around the festival grounds and encourage patrons to bring their own water bottles. They also want to set up a stand at the market selling reusable cups and water bottles in case some people need to buy one.

Back of Card:

Initiatives like BYOBottle are a great example of this. BYOBottle is a global campaign that encourages artists, venues, festivals, and fans to cut back on plastic waste in the music industry by bringing their own reusable water bottles to events. Artists are encouraged to include requests in their riders (a list of wants and needs) that concert venues provide water refill stations instead of plastic water bottles. Fans are encouraged to make their own commitment to bringing a reusable bottle to events, and to posting about it on social media so that the message can become more widespread. The 2022 Adelaide Festival is one of the events that have encouraged their artists and contributors to take part in this campaign.

Sources: 

BYOBottle (n.d.) About BYOBottle, BYOBottle website, accessed 9 February 2023. https://byobottle.org/about/

Adelaide Festival (2022) Sustainability, Adelaide Festival website, accessed 9 February 2023. https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/about/sustainability/

Card 2:

Front of Card:

WASTE

Festivals can produce a lot of waste, especially when they provide food and beverages for their attendees. While it’s important to make sure the festival produces as little waste as possible, it’s likely that there will still be some rubbish. Hayden and Sammie plan to manage this by providing bins for different types of waste. There will also be signage to show attendees the correct bins to use (for example, recycling paper and cardboard rubbish, and disposing of food waste in the compost). They will also recruit some volunteers to help sort through the waste and make sure everything is being disposed of correctly.

Back of Card:

Some music festivals, like Golden Plains, offer different bins that are clearly labelled and have corresponding colours to encourage their patrons to put the right waste in the correct bin. The staff at Golden Plains also collect and sort through the rubbish on-site to make sure it all goes where it’s supposed to.

Some festivals even go a step further to encourage recycling. In 2011, the organisers of the Field Day festival started a recycling deposit scheme. As part of the scheme, patrons paid a $1 deposit with every drink, which was refunded when they recycled their drink containers after use.

Sources: 

Golden Plains (2015) Take Your Footprint Into Your Own Hands, Golden Plains website, accessed 9 February 2023. http://2015.goldenplains.com.au/supernatural-amphitheatre/take-your-footprint-into-your-own-hands/

Field Day (2022) Sustainability, Field Day website, accessed 9 February 2023. https://fieldday.com.au/event-info/

Card 3:

Front of Card:

ENERGY

Festivals use a lot of power. To lessen the environmental impact of their power usage, Sammie and Hayden plan to install solar panels to help keep the lights on and the music playing.

Back of Card:

From 2015 to 2017, OFF.the.GRID was Australia’s first and only music festival that was entirely solar-powered. The festival used a five-metre-high solar-powered stage and a battery bank to power the event.

Now other festivals are using renewable energy too – like Meredith Music Festival, which uses solar-powered lighting systems throughout the campgrounds.

Sources: 

Gillespie, K. (06 October 2016) ‘Off the Grid is Australia’s Only Music Festival Powered By the Sun’, VICE, accessed 9 February 2023. https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/53kz78/this-solar-powered-music-festival-makes-the-most-of-australias-summer

Meredith Music Festival (n.d.) Green Practices, Meredith Music Festival website, accessed 9 February 2023. https://aunty.mmf.com.au/supernatural-amphitheatre/green-practices/

Card 4:

Front of Card:

TRANSPORTATION

The Salty Creek Community Festival is being held in a paddock on a local farm. It’s not easy to get to on foot so a lot of the attendees may be tempted to drive, which would create carbon emissions. Sammie and Hayden plan to reduce the number of vehicles by encouraging people to carpool and organising shuttle buses to pick up and drive people to the festival.

Back of Card:

Splendour in the Grass encourages its attendees to rideshare or use their bus network to reduce their carbon footprint. Patrons are rewarded for carpooling with a discount for the festival campsite.

Source: 

Splendour in the Grass (2022) Environment Initiatives, Splendour in the Grass website, accessed 9 February 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220714200311/https://splendourinthegrass.com/info/environment-initiatives/