Loco

Spring is in the air… well almost… and the time has come for me to make a really important decision. Which festival should I go to this summer?!

With so many great festivals out there, it’s hard to know where to start; do I go for Eastern European madness at EXIT, a sunsplash in italy, or naked Scandinavians at Roskilde? What a dilemma!

Whilst the people, the music and the sun-to-rain-ratio are all major factors affecting my decision, what I would really love most of all is to lose myself in the music, and happily dance away all day and night with the knowledge that the organisers were doing as much as possible to reduce the environmental impact of the festival.

So dearest Loco2 friends, here’s the low-down on my top Green Festivals 2009.

I think I might just have to go to all three!!

• WOOD, Oxfordshire UK

15th – 17th May 200

I would strongly recommend the second annual WOOD festival in the beautiful surroundings of Braziers Park, Oxfordshire.

They’re a funny bunch – so I’ve left the WOOD gang to persuade you to partake in all things woody themselves:

The organisers behind TRUCK festival, the UK’s coolest small-but-perfectly-formed summer festival, have created a new kind of music event, powered by bicycles, wood-burning stoves and the sun. The aim of the festival is to celebrate music and nature, so naturally it’s called… WOOD!

We should say ‘here’s the first purpose-designed green–eco-sustainable festival’ but we’d sound like ‘Dave’ Cameron – we prefer to keep things simple, natural and… woody. Things made of WOOD include the composting toilets, the showers heated by wood-burning stoves, the campfire, the guitars, the yurts (yes, you can hire one) and, of course, the solar-powered stage. The food will be cooked (by our friends from Oxford’s famous Vaults & Garden Café) in a wood-fired oven, and we’re making all the performers do a song by our patron saint Woody Guthrie.

As well as a strong and diverse line-up of (mainly) acoustic acts on 2 stages, there will be opportunities for everyone (from children to grandparents!) to participate, with workshops covering singing, woodcraft, making wallets from orange juice cartons, and everything inbetween.

Artists already confirmed include:
SPIERS & BODEN, MEIC STEVENS, PO’ GIRL, JIM MORAY, DANNY THE CHAMP, STORNOWAY, JONQUIL, CO-PILGRIM with plenty more still to be announced.

For more info and tickets visit the WOOD website.

• ROSKILDE, Denmark

2nd – 5th July 2009

Roskilde Festival is on a par with Glastonbury as one of Europe’s biggest festivals, but adds a very naked Danish twist to festivities. This may also be the only festival in Europe where you can dance in the shadow of a giant wind turbine and camp in a carbon neutral camping area. Excellent.

Winner of the Green World Award in 2008, the Green’n’Clean award in 2007 and a Microsoft Excellence Award in 2008 for an electronic system for collection of festival garbage Roskilde has always had a strong environmental focus. And they’ve most definitely cranked it up for Roskilde 2009 with a campaign called Green Footsteps.

Green Footsteps focuses on how Roskilde Festival can shoulder their part of the responsibility for solving the potential climate catastrophe. Part of the Green Footsteps campaign is the creation of a Climate Community at Roskilde ’09.The Climate Community is a centrally located camping quarter primarily running on CO2-neutral energy. The energy will be generated thanks to the festival-goers’ efforts, e.g. through pedalling on energy-producing bicycles and ditto dance floors – as well as from renewable energy sources. To reserve yourself a camping spot in this area you must leave 3 Green Footsteps – low carbon travel to Roskilde ’09 will leave you 1. The second can be left by supporting windmills in Malawi when you buy your ticket and the third is left down to your imagination!

As well as a climate caravan tour, a sustainable stage, and a humanitarian refund collection for Bangladesh, Roskilde will be leaving their own Green Footsteps to reduce the greenhouse gas-emitting activities.

• We a doing a CO2 account so that all emission from Roskilde Festival can be calculated.
• In the energy section, we are looking into the possibility of buying windmill power and getting generators running on vegetable oil or solar energy instead of diesel.
• We are working on having more “in-season”, locally produced food as it is more climate-friendly. Furthermore, production of meat is climate-damaging, so we are also looking at increased promotion of vegetarian food (however, the meat eaters need not to worry – it is always a matter of choice).
• We are also working on recycling as much garbage as possible, so that we can reduce incineration and the following CO2 emission.

For travel to Roskilde see our low carbon travel itinerary here.

• ELECTRIC PICNIC, Ireland

4th – 6th September 2009

Electric Picnic is the best festival in Ireland to be sure. Easily rivalling the slightly larger Oxegen, it is imaginatively structured and has a strong personality. We can’t think of a better way to end the summer.

Winner of the ‘Green Festival Award’ 2008, the Electric Picnic has always had a strong environmental focus but this year the gloves are off to tackle the festival’s impact on Climate Change.

A new area, the Global Green, is being launched at this year’s festival which will be the place to relax and reflect on critical issues. The Global Green will feature Cultivate’s Re-Think Tank, Amnesty’s tea and bingo tent, sustainable fashion with Re-dress the Science Gallery and more, Trocaire’s flower garden, Friends of the Earth, green crafts, EmissionZero, Stop Climate Chaos, Change and others will be creatively communicating a positive message and help get you active.

Aiding Electric picnic to ‘Eco-Librium’ are environmental consultants EmissionZero who will measure, reduce and offset the carbon emitted as a result of the picnic. Over the course of the festival, the eco-consultants will be analysing all sources of CO2 in order to reduce emissions and maximise energy efficiency. EmissionZero aim to reduce the Picnic’s Carbon Footprint by 25% over the next five years.

For travel to the Electric Picnic see our low carbon travel itinerary here.

Photos: Stig Nygaard, Teep & Rach, Matthew Johnston

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7 responses to “Camping on greener grass”

1. JOC says:
   February 20th, 2009 at 9:54 am

   Look what I just found a cool wood buring camp stove

   http://www.occuk.co.uk/outdoor

2. kathy mcgowan says:
   February 22nd, 2009 at 4:41 pm

   i couldn’t be bothered to look and see how much the ‘fantastic wood burning camp stove’ was – surely people still have a bit of imagination and initiative left – do you really have to BUY everything?? i really feel like shouting -get a life!! and think for your self!!

3. kathy mcgowan says:
   February 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm

   on a nicer note, your site is great and maybe i could add another link that you dont have wwwgreenandaway.org – brilliant idea for sustainable conferencing.
   i want to expand my idea of mini-festivals in my lovely field – its all sustainable with great food and compost toilets etc – we’re having our first one this year with about 40 people.
   how can i fit this in with your information? i suppose its an adventure – i’m not so interested in having a campsite here now (its a bit too random) but focused activity for a week everynow and again is a much better way to use this space.
   what do you suggest?
   kathy

4. John Cossham says:
   May 13th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

   I’ll be at the Big Green Gathering, a short bus ride away from Weston Super Mare railway station. It is one of the greenest festivals, as there are no fossil fuel generators, just wind, sun and people.
   I’m involved in collecting all the catering waste which is composted and turned into turf!
   It is a celebration of all things green and sustainable, there are workshops on most aspects of sustainability and alternative lifestyles.
   July 29th to August 2nd.
   http://www.big-green-gathering.com/
   John ‘Compost’ Cossham

5. Black Sea says:
   June 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

   very interesting thanks

6. Tony says:
   June 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

   Great stuff, I wish people at any festival,but especially Glasto, would think why they are there and take their junk back with them, that would be a start.

7. Camping Ideas says:
   September 4th, 2009 at 8:16 am

   Thank you for an interesting post detailing on various interesting camping sites. I want to be a part of Green festivals