Mysteryland

Mysteryland: Significant energy savings in first year as a weekend festival

Mysteryland is the longest running electronic music festival in the world; 2016 sees the 23^th edition of the event. The festival has a capacity of 60,000 visitors per day. Mysteryland was founded by ID&T who have an international portfolio of world-renowned events including Sensation, Amsterdam Open Air, Welcome to the Future, and Amsterdam Music Festival. Up until 2014, Mysteryland was a one-day event, but in 2015 ID&T had the opportunity to expand the festival to a full weekender with camping.

As well as changing Mysteryland’s format, ID&T challenged itself in increasing the length and scope of the festival while reducing its environmental impact and maintaining its profitability through energy savings and efficiency. They set out to run the new campsite on 100% biodiesel, and decreased both diesel and power equipment use across the entire site.

ID&T takes the sustainability of its shows seriously: they have been awarded the highest rating for sustainability by A Greener Festival for their Welcome to the Future Festival and have been using the Julie’s Bicycle IG creative green tools to measure and record their impacts for the last three years across their portfolio. ID&T also works with the Amsterdam Dance Event to organize ADE Green: an international conference focused on sustainability and social change.

ID&T‘s commitment to creating greener events meant that they wanted to improve sustainability further for Mysteryland’s new weekend format, so they worked with ZAP Concepts, a sustainable events consultancy, to create and roll out a ‘Smart Power Plan’ to achieve their goals for energy efficiency and budget.

ZAP concepts worked closely with ID&T management, crew, and suppliers to create the Power Plan. The preparation phase was vital, it involved dividing the site into ‘Power Zones’ and calculating the power that would be needed in each zone by meticulously collecting exact energy requirement data from artists, production teams, and concessions located there — this included timings so that that the maximum power could be achieved at any given moment.

Mysteryland is a complicated site with many areas spread out as small islands, which meant it wasn’t straightforward when ensuring that each area had sufficient power. Using the power inventory from the preparation phase, ZAP Concepts planned the most efficient generator configuration for each zone and created a detailed plan for each generator’s run time with a start/stop time allocated for each generator per day for onsite crew to follow. During the construction phase of the plan, the crew were briefed on start/stop times and generators were thoroughly tested to ensure reliability.

During the show, it was proved to be vital to have a technical crew onsite to ensure that the generators were running efficiently and to problem-solve any issues. Fuel deliveries were also checked to verify that Mysteryland was receiving the amount agreed — as fuel quantities can often be less or more which skews measurements of fuel consumption. As part of the ‘Load Out’ phase of the Power Plan, steps were taken to ensure that all generators were turned off promptly after the show, as it is common for crew to forget to do this in their rush to finish the shift.

The Power Plan was a success in achieving ID&T’s aims: From 2014 to 2015 they reduced diesel consumption by 30% per visitor day (pvd) — from 0.56 liters to 0.38 liters, and total diesel use was reduced by 25%. Power needed for the festival was reduced by an impressive 40% from 2014 to 2015, from 0.15kWh (pvd) in 2014 to 0.08 kWh in 2015. The campsite was entirely powered on biodiesel and biodiesel use was increased by 15% across the entire site.

For the 2016 Mysteryland festival, ID&T aims to further increase efficiencies, reduce energy and diesel use, and increase biodiesel use. For the 2015 festival, both ID&T and ZAP Concepts agreed that using FAME biodiesel across the site was too risky in terms of reliability. They had experienced technical issues with FAME biodiesel and there were doubts about the sustainability of the provenance of some sources. They are now searching for biodiesel from reliable sources and are committed to checking the provenance with Greenpeace to ensure it is the best sustainable alternative for fossil fuel.

Latitude, Leeds & Reading

Festival Republic: Energy Management at Reading, Leeds and Latitude Festivals.

Festival Republic is a leading UK music events producer with a portfolio of 19 music festivals across Europe, including Download, Latitude, V Festival, Reading, Leeds and Electric Picnic Festivals. More than half a million people attend the festivals they own and co-produce each year.

Festival Republic are committed to understanding and reducing the environmental impact of their festivals but this case study focuses on the challenges and successes of their commitment to reducing CO2 emissions from energy use at Leeds, Reading and Latitude.

Their sustainability policy includes using waste vegetable oil biodiesel to power the festivals’ generators. Between 2010 and 2011 they increased the amount of biodiesel used at Leeds from 18.5% to 24.5%, and at Reading from 12.5% to 18.2% in 2012. This commitment continues despite there being limited biodiesel supply in parts of the country, unpredictable price fluctuations, and a higher cost for sustainable biodiesel in comparison to regular diesel. They now aim for biofuel to make up 15% of the total fuel burned on site, in line with the Julies Bicycle benchmark, and are investigating into fuel efficiency measures to reduce the amount of fuel they use in the first instance.

Festival Republic requires their energy contractor to monitor generators and provide data on the actual fuel consumption after the festival. Based on the data collected, Festival Republic is working to reduce the size and/or number of generators to better match their energy needs and be more efficient about their fuel use. In 2015 Leeds and Latitude Festival were able to reduce the overall size of the generators compared to 2014 and this was achieved even though there was an increase in the festivals infrastructure. 2016 is the fourth year of data they have collected and are working closely with their power suppliers to see if this can be used to make further energy efficiency savings.

In 2015 Festival Republic explored alternative and new energy technologies such as hybrid generators and solar power. They also hired solar powered batteries that can be linked to generators to reduce the generator run-time. After a trial at Latitude, one of the power contractors has invested in a number of these batteries tailored to their technical needs to add to their own fleet, showing that Festival Republic’s dedication is indirectly supporting fuel efficiency in the broader events industry. Combining the two different technologies has been challenging, requiring training for the engineers in the field and dedication from the teams. The initiative is not yet financially viable, but Festival Republic continues to invest to support this kind of knowledge exchange between solar power and generator companies.

Festival Republic works with their contractors to reduce energy demand through specifying more energy efficient technologies; for example, in 2012, Colour Sound Experiment, one of their lighting and visuals rental companies, invested in 1.5 km of LED festoon lighting in response to demand from Reading Festival. The Festival Republic technical production teams work with their audio, video, and sound companies to improve communication around power specs and energy requirements to encourage broader industry conversation about ‘what’s actually needed’ at festivals.

At Latitude in 2015, the audience was engaged around the topic of energy and sustainability through a partnership with De Montfort University’s ‘Face your Elephant’ project. The audience were also physically acquainted with energy awareness through cycle-powered phone charging stations to promote renewable energy in a creative way.

Since 2009, Leeds and Reading festivals have reduced their total carbon emissions significantly, by more than 20% per audience day. In 2015, Latitude and Leeds were awarded a Creative Industry Green rating of four stars and Reading has achieved three stars since 2013. 2016 was the first year in which Download and V Festival were assessed and at the time of writing this case study the results are awaited.

Bestival

Reducing fossil fuel dependency through efficiencies and biodiesel use

Bestival is one of the last major UK festivals of the summer calendar, attracting over 50,000 audience members to the Isle of Wight in recent years for this creative indie and dance music festival.

From the outset of the festival in 2004, organisers Rob and Josie de Bank were committed to being environmentally responsible and endeavouring to annually increase the use of renewables and WVO generators for energy throughout the festival site.

Since 2013, Bestival has made great progress in reducing fossil fuel dependency and they work closely with their energy suppliers to service their somewhat awkward shaped site with maximum efficiency.

The length of the festival site makes the power supply contract a complex issue and as it is considered, “too big for a single contractor,” they use different suppliers for the arena, the showspace and the campsite.

In 2013 and 2014, Midas Productions UK provided power the campsites and at the Tomorrow’s World zone — an area where the Bestival wanted to focus on promoting a ‘fun, sustainable, inspirational future’. Midas were able to monitor and measure power use over the first year and make changes to improve energy efficiency performance in the following year.

Due to the power efficiencies measures taken and the reduction in diesel generators used on campsites, from 2013 to 2014 overall red diesel use was reduced and biodiesel use significantly increased. In 2013, red diesel measured in at 108,000 litres, which dropped to 97,500 litres in 2014. Biodiesel use increased from 16,500 litres in 2013, to 21,239 litres in 2014.

Bestival have found that the biggest users of fuel are the production sets for the stages and that in order to create the greatest efficiencies in powering them they need to have accurate specifications in order to plan the best generator configurations and timings. This requires committing suppliers to accurate requirements, although their experience is that suppliers are not always keen to “tighten up on spec,” due to the fear of power failure to the stage at times of peak power requirement, possibly because while connection sizes are easier to pin down actual loading is harder to ascertain.

Bestival are learning from such experiences and continue to work closely with their suppliers to measure and record power and diesel use as a key tool in creating future reductions. There focus is on efficient site design and they engage with their audience in green initiatives wherever possible.

Thanks to Bestival and Midas UK for the information in this case study.

Boom Festival

An Innovative Off-grid Festival

Boom is a biannual electronic and world music festival based in Portugal, with an audience capacity of 33,333. Boom Festival began in 1997 as a psychedelic trance music festival, but has now diversified to include a range of DJs, live music and visual arts performances.

Boom is powered by a mix of off-grid photovoltaic panels, diesel generators and a 100kW waste vegetable oil (WVO) generator. Boom has won the Greener Festival Excellence Award four times (2008, 2010, 2012 & 2014), and in 2010 won the YOUROPE Green & Clean Festival of the Year; which led to Boom becoming a participant in the United Nations Music & Environment Initiative.

As well as using renewable and energy efficient technology, Boom Festival is committed to the energy management practices of conducting energy audits and power demand assessments, before and during the festival, and continually auditing and reviewing generator sizes. Boom has a sustainability director who oversees an off-grid project manager and several electrical managers. Efficiencies in energy planning and generation meant they used 40% less energy in 2014 compared to the 2012 edition of the festival. In the 2016 edition, they have almost doubled the lighted areas (using predominantly LEDs), but thanks to efficiency measures their lighting energy consumption will stay the same as 2014.

In 2008 Boom collected and re-used 45,000 litres of WVO, which was used to feed their generator as well as three of their fleet vehicles. Their pioneering Your Oil Is Music project — through which waste oil is collected from local towns — ensures a local supply of renewable energy as well as engagement with the local community.

Boom festival uses 40 kWh of solar energy, which is produced onsite, and is in the process of transitioning from diesel to even more off-grid photovoltaic energy. Their largest photovoltaic array comprises 18 panels, all following the tilt of the sun, and producing 13kw per hour per day. ‘Boom Off-Grid’ is a project that was developed in 2012, in partnership with the local organisation BioEspaço, to increase Boom’s energy efficiency: it includes integrating technologies such as solar irrigation systems, LED lighting and inverters.

The area in which Boom takes place, known as Boomland, is home to around 12 long-term residents and the onsite renewable technology is a permanent feature in the community. The residents spend the 23 months between festivals living entirely on renewables, and creating an energy surplus for the next festival.

100% of all water used at Boom is biologically treated and reused onsite for agricultural irrigation. In 2016, Boom’s permanent onsite gardens will use 25% recycled water and composted organic materials. The festival is commissioning 350 dry-toilet units that are fitted with bio-filters meaning they produce no waste.

The whole of Boomland is under a Holistic Management plan that integrates the presence of the public as a technical positive impact in the local soil biota. Besides the people, domestic animals such as sheep and cattle are used to increase soil fertility and forest regeneration. In 2015, 600 new trees were planted in Boomland and many thousands more in partnership with Ecocentro Ipec in Brazil.

Thanks to Boom Festival for providing the information for this case study.

Midas Productions

Waste Vegetable Oil is the Golden Touch for Bestival

Founded at the turn of the millennium, Midas Productions has been the power broker for biodiesel, running its generators exclusively on locally sourced waste vegetable oil.

Bestival is a prime example of the company’s capacity to turn a large-scale event on to WVO. Organisers Rob and Josie de Bank have been pushing a green agenda since the festival started in 2004 and Midas moved beyond the campsites to the Tomorrow’s World arena last summer, its second year at the festival, where the focus, aptly, is on a ‘fun, sustainable, inspirational future’.

Crucially, Midas’ continued investment in kit means it can accommodate its ever-busier contract diary, servicing events either side of Bestival and still hitting the tight deadline on the Isle of Wight, by way of example. “We are scrupulous in our priorities as a business, always putting money into generators, mains and distro, so we can continue to deliver in terms of time and quality,” Midas Director, Dave Noble, said.

Bestival Site Manager, Christina Von Bonin, is quick to praise the Midas touch. “It has dispelled the rumours that ‘bio-diesel doesn’t work’ or ‘the generators clog up’ and while the fuel is a bit more expensive than red diesel, we would certainly like to increase the amount we use, in small steps year-on-year,” she said. “It’s easy to work with Midas too, because it’s team is flexible, easy to get on with and straight talking.”

The complexity of the Bestival site means the contract is split between two suppliers, with Midas currently responsible for some 30per cent of the site. But the balance of power is shifting.

Secret Garden Party

The Secret to Saving Money

Secret Garden Party has been running since 2004, but in recent years has been increasing efforts to find alternatives to diesel generators for running this 30,000 capacity independent music and arts festival in Huntingdon.

They’re one of the big names signed up to Energy Revolution, the industry-wide collaboration to tackle climate change through the audience’s contributions to renewable energy, supported by Powerful Thinking. As well as this initiative to reduce festival emissions, they are mixing up the energy supply on site to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In SGP’s recent 10^th year, Firefly installed part of the festival’s power infrastructure, providing cleaner and greener alternative energy in the form of hybrid, solar and some biodiesel generators.

This consisted, specifically, of:

Cygnus Hybrid Power Generators (5 x 24kVA; 6 x 8kVA; 12 X 1.2kVA – with tower light)
30 x 540W solar fold arrays to form a 16kWp solar system.

These solar arrays powered 12 of Firefly’s Cygnus Tower Lights and fed into a number of the Hybrid Power Generators, storing the power to be used after nighfall.

8 Pyxis Power Packs, 12 Km of LED festoon lighting and over 100 LED floods
15 Biodiesel Generators (3 x 165kVA; 2 x 100kVA; 2 x 60kVA and 8 x 20kVA)

The energy from the this kit provided power for the production village including the site office and event control, crew catering facilities and bar, all campsite power including campsite caterers and security, all campsite lighting, lighting across the whole site and a large proportion of the entertainment fields.

A total of 3,826 hours of diesel generator run time was saved by having hybrid systems – a total of around 50% of total run time. This use of hybrid technology reduced diesel dependency by 10,285 litres. On top of that, this new diverse system saved Secret Garden Party £7,713, and reduced overall carbon emissions for the festival by a staggering 24 tonnes.

Hybrid Power in Hyde Park

Firefly Solar Generators Ltd provided technical production services for Hyde Park’s ‘British Summer Time Festival’, on behalf of the promoter AEG Live. The promoter is aiming to source 15% of the events energy from renewable sources by 2017.

The event attracted around 65,000 visitors with acts such as the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi. Firefly Solar Generators Ltd was asked to provide a completely solar powered setup for the Bandstand stage area, featuring Incognito and Dione Broomfield. The Firefly Cygnus 12kva Generator with a 4kwp solar array of panels provided power for 10 days of programming during the course of the event. Both the lighting and sound were powered from solar generated power – making great use of the sun and soaring temperatures! A full technical production service was delivered from Firefly Solar Generators Ltd, using a D&B Q Series PA system with Digico mixing desk, lights from Miltec, ETC and Easily LED.

By using a combination of biofuel generator and solar storage, they were able to provide continuous and reliable supply, whilst offering carbon and fuel savings.

Firefly also supplied Pictor tower lights to light up key external areas including the meeting point and other important public access and ingress routes. These were also solar powered.

Cygnus HPG benefits to the contractor;

Replaced a 20kVA diesel generator, saving 780 litres of diesel
Saved: 1.81 tonnes of CO2 Emissions
Saved: approx. £819 in diesel fuel (£1.05 per litre)

Pictor solar tower light benefit to customer;

Replaced six diesel powered tower lights saving 312 litres of diesel
Saved: 0.72 tonnes of CO2 Emissions
Saved: £327 in diesel fuel (£1.05 per litre)

Provided a silent lighting source in sensitive areas and a very visual representation of the clients commitment to renewable energy supplies

The Showman’s Show

The Showman’s Show: Audit leads to 50% reduction in diesel use.

The Showman’s Show is the only outdoor event services exhibition in the UK. It has a wide variety of exhibitors and offers them power supplies for their stands (ranging from 13 amp to 125 amp 3 phase). The organisers have to be prepared for all kinds of power demands, at any point during the event and at any location on the showground and, until 2011, they hired large sets of diesel generators to ensure these demands could be met.

In 2012, in support of the Powerful Thinking campaign, the organisers of the Showman’s Show decided to review the energy supply and consumption of the event and look at the possibility of alternative power supplies to diesel generators.

The first step was to simply monitor the power usage. At the 2012 event, the Show’s electrical contractor monitored the use of all the generator sets throughout the build up to the show and during the event itself. They found that the event was overestimating the size of the generators they would need and could afford to reduce the size of the sets while still meeting demand from the events services areas and exhibitors.

A key observation was the energy consumption of the crew catering facility: the catering area is active for two and half weeks over the build, through the show and during the break down. In the past, the catering tent was supplied with its own designated generator to power the cooking facilities, lighting and run heaters (bearing in mind the event is held in October). Using a more dynamic approach to supplying energy, the catering tent was moved onto the small mains supply — available from the main show ground — during the event build and break down when demand on this supply was low. Over the two days of the event itself, when there was more demand on the mains supply from the camping area and welfare units, the catering tent was moved onto a combined set that was already powering the main exhibition hall. When the event was over and the caravans and welfare units had gone, the catering tent was moved back onto the mains supply.

This simple review of generator sizes and proactive approach to the power supply for the crew catering tent resulted in hiring one less generator and significantly helping to reduce diesel consumption — by over 50%.

In 2015 the Showman’s Show began working with the Electrical Contractor that also supports the venue on the site where the Show is held. They were able to improve the existing electrical infrastructure, reducing energy demand onsite meaning that the crew catering facility, campsite and site office could run from a mains power supply all through the build, the event itself and the break down, rather than switching to generators during the event as done in 2014. They also installed a further permanent floodlight which meant one less lighting tower needed to be shipped in and run.

The other action they took was to simply switch off generators if they weren’t being used: previously generators have been left on during the show build to allow exhibitors to work late at night or early in the morning. The contractors simply noted when work had stopped and then turned generators off so as they were not running through the night unnecessarily. This probably made the biggest impact helping to save over 200 litres of fuel from the year before.

These small measures producing such positive results have encouraged the organisers to regularly review the supply and to look for ways to further reduce their energy consumption.

Thanks to the Showman’s Show for providing the information for this case study.

Reading and Leeds Festival’s

Using waste vegetable biodiesel at major events works!

In the summer of 2011, both Reading and Leeds festivals endeavoured to procure biodiesel for fuelling some of their generators. Both were employing energy contractors, whom they have previously worked with, to supply a target percentage of biodiesel in some generators at the festivals. These contractors were contractually bound to provide data on the actual fuel consumption after both Reading and Leeds. However, Leeds’ contractor had more experience with providing biodiesel and had an established supply network.

Leeds managed to procure 18.52% of their energy from biodiesel in 2010, and managed to up this supply to 24.53% by 2011. This brought Leeds very close to meeting its 25.95% biodiesel target for 2011.

In 2010, Reading managed 12.51% biodiesel. This proportion then dropped to just 8.53% in 2011, despite the target being raised that year to 20.85% of the overall energy supply. Then in 2012 they brought this figure up to 18.24%, much closer to their initial target.

A variety of factors influenced the two different contractors in their ability to supply to required amount of biodiesel to each festival. This included a limited biodiesel supply in certain parts of the country, as well as a lack of suppliers. Biodiesel is also subject to price fluctuations. Complexities and important points to note in such a process include: how prepared contractors are in terms of equipment and sourcing to deliver on specific targets such as alternative energy supplies, how accurate power demand estimates are compared to actual demand, communication and feedback between the festival and the contractor.

Despite some teething problems with supplies, commitment to Waste Vegetable Oil biodiesel to subsidise the energy supply at such well known, large capacity festival is commendable, and will hopefully continue to grow. Early reports following the summer’s breakdown confirm that Reading and Leeds Festivals both managed to meet biodiesel substitution targets for the 2013 festivals. Reading’s fuel consumption included 21,600 litres of biodiesel and Leeds worked with 14,400 litres of biodiesel in the summer of 2013. The use of some solar energy at the festivals almost came to fruition in 2013, but in the end this was not deemed financially viable and wholly suitable. It can hopefully be pursued next year.

One of the main energy efficiency improvements of 2013 is that 50 of Reading and Leeds festivals’ generators on site were being monitored. Energy readings are being collated to establish just how much energy was used onsite. The figure for peak loads can be compared with the generator original power specs. This will give an indication of whether or not the generator was oversized for its purpose. Having the right capacity generator saves fuel and reduces the chance of damaging or reducing the device’s lifespan. This is one of the main ways to increase energy efficiency at festivals, making it an extremely important factor to consider.