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Green was the theme for music festivals in 2008 with more events than ever introducing solar powered stages, organic food and biodegradable beer cups; and in 2009 some of the world's biggest music festivals will be continuing with their environmental efforts and aiming to raise the green bar even further.
Here’s the Jamble guide to 2009’s best green festivals.
Roskilde Festival
2-5 July, Roskilde, Denmark
Lineup highlights: Nine Inch Nails, The Mars Volta
This year the Roskilde Festival will be pushing their eco-friendly efforts further with the 'green footsteps' campaign. Campaign initiatives will include a sustainable stage with low-energy lighting and generators run on vegetable oil and solar power, and a CO2 neutral camping area - with power provided by 'energy collecting' dance floors and campers pedaling bikes. A pre-festival tour will also take the festival's green message to cities across Denmark throughout the summer. Together with the recycling and organic policies of previous years, the 2009 Roskilde festival promises to be the greenest ever.
Rock Werchter
2-5 July 2009, Werchter, Belgium
Lineup highlights: Franz Ferdinand, Metallica
Rock Werchter's ecological footprint was calculated for the first time in 2008, and with a few additional green initiatives this year, the festival will be aiming to reduce its footprint size in 2009. Eco-friendly features include Ecover soaps in all the toliet areas, a green zone with stands from green themed businesses, and a scheme that offers drinks vouchers for campers who collect and recycle empty plastic bottles and cups. As in previous years the price of the festival ticket also includes public transport to the festivals grounds.
SASQUATCH festival
23 - 25 May, Washington, USA
Lineup highlights: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Silversun Pickups
The Sasquatch music festival began as a one day event in 2006 and has now evolved into a full three day festival. As well as gaining a reputation as one of the most scenic US festivals due to its location in a Pacific northwest gorge, the festival has also introduced recycling schemes and energy efficient lighting, signage is made from recycled vinyl and its calculated emissions are offset in order to be a carbon neutral event.
Evolve Festival
17-19 July, Nova Scotia, Canada
Lineup highlights: Battles, DJ Mark Farina
Evolve, which describes itself as a music and awareness festival, has been held in the Novia Scotia highlands since 2000. This year the festival is aiming to achieve zero waste, and will provide dozens of recycling stations throughout the grounds. One tree will be planted for every ticket sold, and campers will also be able to visit the Awareness Village and take part in workshops such as thatch-roof construction or home made solar heater construction.
Glastonbury FESTIVAL
24 June - 28 June, Glastonbury, UK
Lineup highlights: Bruce Springsteen, Blur
The UK's most famous festival will be running a 'love the farm, leave no trace' campaign in 2009, in an effort to protect the farmland the event is held on. Initiatives include handing out one million biodegradable tent pegs for campers, providing cotton bags for festival programs rather than plastic sleeves; increasing the number of generators that are run on bio-diesel, and requiring all festival food stalls to use wooden and biodegradable cutlery and plates.
