Top 5 Tips to Help You be Sustainable this Festival Season!


With festival season now in full swing, I thought it would be helpful to offer some of my best Top Tips to help reduce waste and your festival carbon footprint! Music festivals not only harm the local environment, they also produce huge amounts of Carbon dioxide emissions. Whilst the problem heavily lies with the festival organisers themselves, these five straightforward suggestions will help you do your bit to minimize the amount of festival waste.

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1. Do NOT Throw Away Your Tent

Every year we see the disappointing images of thousands of abandon tents after music festivals. The Association of Independent Festivals estimate that 250,000 so called ‘single use’ tents are left at UK music festivals every year. Some of the reasons people leave tents include: the annoyance of taking them back if they are travelling home on public transport, the fact that they get trashed/ dirty over the festival period or just pure laziness. But this should not be a reoccurring problem. Many people believe that undamaged tents that are left behind are collected and given to charities however this is wishful thinking! The majority of these tents will end up in landfill. many of these tents are non-biodegradable and the concentration of plastic in these landfills release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere risking contamination to soil and groundwater.
However, we are heading in the right direction, Glastonbury Festival organisers claim that 99% of
festival goers’ tents were picked up and taken home after last year’s festival. To put this into perspective Glastonbury is a festival of 200, 000 people so this is extremely promising. By spreading awareness, this can continue.

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2. Reusable NOT Disposable

Reusable items are essential for keeping sustainable. The word ‘disposable’ means they are designed for one use and then they can be discarded; this often involves single use plastic – which do not biodegrade naturally. So, swap that disposable camera for a digital one, swap the disposable containers for reusable Tupperware and carry your things in a rucksack instead of a disposable plastic bag.

Simply by refilling your water bottle at water fountain points that will be located at all festivals, you will not only save money but also reduce the amount of single-used plastic that is getting thrown away, damaging our environment. Additionally, you could use reusable cutlery and plates – just make sure the group shares the washing up!

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3. Pick up Litter

It really is that simple. Every little helps a lot, so do your best to recycle as much as possible and pick up any rubbish. This saves the selfless volunteers a massive clean-up job at the end of the festival. Also, Bin your butts! Cigarette butts are one of the biggest contributors to the litter problem at festivals. It is essential that you dispose of them properly and responsibly using the allocated bins.

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4. Travel Eco-Consciously

Public transport is always a quick and easy method of getting there especially with the stress of parking permits and spaces often being limited. This is definitely the ideal method for a day festival with no belongings. However, the option of going by car sometimes is necessary when camping for just under a week. To be sustainable you should try to carpool, despite it maybe being a squeeze. Another option is a festival bus or shuttle bus that often go from major cities straight to the destination.

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5. Support Charity Shops

Image taken from Oxfam GB

Is it really worth it to buy an outfit for one day and then chucking
it out? When finding festival fashion, it is always a good idea
to look in charity shops. Not only are you supporting a good
cause, but it moves away from fast fashion, an industry that is
extremely harmful to our planet. Second hand clothes are often
cheaper and more durable than typical fast fashion. In the past
charities including Oxfam have partnered with big festivals,
such as Glastonbury, helping to keep them more sustainable.


Total euphoria! Headliner Tame Impala steals the show at London’s All Points East Festival


Tame Impala took to Victoria Park, August 25th, for an exclusive London show and exceeded all expectations! Australia’s Kevin Parker and 5-piece band performed on the main stage East and thrilled the crowd of fans who screamed the guitar riffs and synths back to him all night. The Tame Impala live experience was out-of-this-world, as psychedelic rock is paired with a mesmerising lightshow including a huge circular lighting rig shooting coloured lasers, almost resembling a UFO.

 

Personally, All Points East festival felt a lot less chaotic and rowdy than any other festival I have ever attended perhaps due to it being a day festival or because there was a range of ages. Although don’t get me wrong the festival itself had a great vibe, the music was outstanding and, in my experience, very friendly people. The perfect festival for someone that “doesn’t do festivals” with fairground rides, clean functioning toilets and short food and drink queues.

The music was a day of contrast, with a lot of softer sounding artists including Q, Omar Apollo and the standout for me Montell Fish starting the day. Chill RnB vocalist Montell Fish controlled the smallest ‘BMW play next stage’ with fans singing along to his beautiful vocals. This included new album tracks that recently blew up on TikTok, ‘Fall in Love with You’ and ‘Talk 2 Me’ with some fans standing on benches to get the best look. Meanwhile the North arena tent (where I spent most of the day) was full to the brim with ravers listening to various DJ sets including dreamy FKJ – until it was Tame Impala time!

Tame Impala’s electrifying set was 90 minutes of pure bliss! It began with a trippy satirical advertisement video of a pharmacist presenting a new (made-up) drug called ‘Rushium’ before fading into the first song ‘One more year’. The first few songs of the set were all handpicked from popular album ‘Slow Rush,’ and the crowd got dancing immediately. Kevin parker, seeming more charismatic than ever, hyped London’s crowd saying, “I thought this day would never come” followed by asking listeners to get “a little rowdy” to the rocky old fan-favourite ‘Elephant’.

Songs from a mixture of all albums played and by the midway point, the energy in Victoria Park was nothing but exhilarating with psychedelic visuals and multicoloured lasers that could be seen even from the back of the park. When the intro of ‘Let it Happen’ played, fans jumped higher than ever as the show turned multisensory as heaps of coloured confetti was released to create the ultimate live concert experience.

The setlist continued to impress right down to the final part. My personal favourite ‘Eventually’ did not disappoint; the crowd sang every word, note and drum with all hands in the air to catch the lasers from the UFO-like structure. For the last two songs “The less I know the better” and “New person, same old mistakes” I left the front of the crowd to get the full experience from further back. Copying the people around me I begged to get on my friends’ shoulders (sorry Dylan) to make the moment even more special – and special it was.The only thing I have left to say is that Tame impala is probably the best festival set I have ever witnessed with the perfect balance of music, visuals and vibes, and by the end I really did feel like a brand-new person!