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Greenbelt Festival

Greenbelt Festival Aim for 100% Sustainable Power

Greenbelt is a weekend festival of ‘arts, faith and justice’ that has been running since 1974. In 2017 they had 11,000 people onsite for the 4-day event. Greenbelt has strong commitment to creating an environmentally sustainable festival by making their site more power efficient and looking for renewable sources of power.

After moving site to Boughton House, Northamptonshire, in 2013 they went from a festival site that was partially powered from the grid to one that required 100% onsite power. Initially they used diesel generators festival to power the site but they are now, “working towards a future when the festival is powered entirely from sustainable sources,” says Event Director Mary Corfield.

Helping the Greenbelt team on this journey is production company Judgeday and power supplier Gofer Ltd, who began working with the Greenbelt team in 2016 to help them achieve their sustainability goals around power. At the 2016 event they saved 2,000 litres of fuel and for 2017 they carefully planned their power needs saving a further 16% on fuel usage.

They achieved this through careful planning, understanding that, “data is knowledge,” they worked with their traders, suppliers, concessions and artists to get a clear picture of their expected power needs across the site. This knowledge allowed Gofer to model their event power use and create ‘power zones’, enabling them to reduce the size of generators, and in some cases clustering them together so that smaller generators could be used at times of low demand. They also continued to use LED festoon lighting and switched to LED floodlights to reduce power demand.

During the 2017 festival Greenbelt had two dedicated team members who monitored power use across the site to record power peaks and lows at different times of day and in different locations. This data gave them a practical understanding of energy demand throughout the festival and has allowed them to put energy efficiency plans in place for the next season with real confidence.

For the 2018 festival they are switching two whole areas from diesel to solar powered and two further areas will be powered with hybrid generators. They will replace half of their diesel tower lights with solar and the other half will be swapped for LED flood lights.

To reduce both transport costs and waste they rent an area on the site all year round to store staging, décor and furnishings. They have a policy of recycling and repurposing materials used in previous years and they have switched to generic (rather than year/theme specific) signage, which means they can be used year on year.

To further minimise waste Greenbelt has a re-usable cup scheme in their beer tents; their caterers use 100% compostable packaging work and food waste is collected and redistributed to local food bank charities. Greenbelt won a Greener Festival Awards in 2014, 2016 and 2017 for their environmental initiatives and they are part of the Vision: 2025 community of UK festivals who are working to reduce their environmental impacts. They also work with charity, Energy Revolution, to tackle the CO2 emissions associated with their audience travel by investing in projects that create renewable energy.

They have been recognised in the industry for their commitment to social inclusion and were awarded the Act of Independence award at AIF congress in 2017 for showcasing Muslim art and culture and platforming of Palestinian artists and activists. They hold the Gold Level on the Charter of Best Practice by ‘Attitude is Everything’ for their commitment to improving access for deaf and disabled festivalgoers.

The Greenbelt team believe passionately in the ability of individuals to come together and impact their communities and environment in a positive way; they plan to continue monitoring their environmental performance, innovating to find sustainable solutions, and sharing their experiences with the festival industry.

Croissant Neuf Summer Party

Running a main stage with less power than a domestic hairdyer

Croissant Neuf Summer Party uses solar power instead of diesel generators on site to power the stages and lights. They have never used anything but solar and wind generators. This saves over 1.5 tonnes of CO2 for the festival. The LED lighting system in the Big Top uses less power than an average household TV. The P.A. system in the big top uses less power than a hair dryer but still has a sound output equivalent to a 10KW P.A.

All the caterers and market traders on site use renewable energy. The bar uses hand pumps and all their lighting is low energy LEDs, powered by dedicated solar panels. The commission of an Environmental Audit of activities in 2010 showed that festival goers at Croissant Neuf Summer Party generated on average less than 50% of the CO2 they would otherwise generated if they’d stayed at home and had a normal weekend.

Croissant Neuf is powered 100% by renewable energy due to a conscious decision to buy solar panels and wind turbines instead of diesel generators when the organisers, being keen environmentalists, endeavoured to expand their festival and cafe that originated in 1986.

The original Croissant Neuf consequently gave birth to the Green Roadshow- a travelling environmental education centre with the circus big top at its focal point. All electrical appliances were run entirely on power solar and wind power, including the big top lights and PA and even the hairdryers and laptops in the living vans. This dedication ensured continued pursuit and commitment to renewable technology, conservation, battery powered transport, sustainable living and woodland management. Whilst touring as The Green Roadshow, Croissant Neuf continued to appear as a renewably powered venue at Glastonbury and at other festivals such as the Big Green Gathering.

A massive solar generating unit capable of creating enough power to drive a 10kilowatt P.A system was installed at the turn of the millennium, as music became the main focus of Croissant Neuf. This masterpiece of modern technological engineering was titled The Solar System. Within a few years Croissant Neuf had created the first fully functioning solar rig of its kind that could deliver perfect sound for anything from solo artists through to a 40 person gospel choir. Each year Croissant Neuf Summer Party attempts to improve its sustainability.

We Love Green

Winner of the Green Operations Europe 2012 Award 100% renewable

We Love Green won the ‘Green Oscar’ of the European Festival industry in 2012. They designed a sustainable festival at the outset, and their attention to detail is exceptional. Amongst other achievements, they managed the event on 100% renewable sources., including stages, site services, catering and interactive art.

Firefly supplied the power, providing their Youpower playground and software for the children’s area, featuring 6 bikes with PedGens, a WhirlyGen roundabout, Teedlegen see-saw and LumberGens (the latest addition to their Kinectrics range of products). Their software shows just how much energy is being generated by these playground toys in real time. This is an excellent way of showcasing innovative green products while providing a fun interactive way of educating about the possibilities of clean tech.

They also provide the power for the lighting of the main stage. This is powered by a 45kVA solar rig consisting of 9 Cygnus solar generators and 14Fold Array portable solar PV panel arrays. This allowed for substantial carbon savings for the festival and provided silent, reliable power over the three day event.

Shambala festival 2015

Shambala Festival

Success in renewable energy

Over the last five years, Shambala has consistently reduced their fuel dependency by transitioning to renewables and improving on efficiency. In 2013, Shambala was powered by 93% WVO bio-diesel, 1% solar and 6% red diesel – 100% of which was consumed by tower lights. The ambition to be 100% renewable was achieved in 2014 by using biofuel and solar hybrid systems across the site. Onsite biodiesel consumption was reduced by 20% from 2013 to 2014 by using hybrid systems, and there was a 380% kWh increase of renewable energy, which included stages run completely on solar and pedal power.

To assist in reducing the over-specification of generators, Shambala works with their power supplier to gather the power requirements of all end-users. It is also built into their contract that fuel savings are expected year-on-year, with a fixed fee on biofuel costs to create an incentive for the contractor to reduce usage wherever possible. In addition Shambala stipulate detailed energy monitoring throughout the event, a generator-by-generator post event report, and recommendations for future efficiency gains.

In 2015, the set-up included 22 bio-diesel generators, the full range of Firefly’s Cygnus Hybrid Power, 35 portable solar fold-arrays and 10 power packs. All of the site lighting was LED, 12km of festoon lighting and 105 LED Floods; the tower lights were all HPG.

Shambala Festival has reduced its energy-related GHG emissions per audience day by 39.5% between 2013 and 2014, and has reduced its overall onsite carbon footprint by 81% over 5 years. In 2015, energy (including bottled gas for traders) accounted for 19.6% of the onsite carbon footprint and only 8.53% of the overall footprint when including travel.

An analysis of the costs of energy at the festival over seven years shows that budget per person per day for energy has not increased in real terms, representing a saving if inflation and fuel costs rises are accounted for. Whilst the costs of certain items of equipment hire have been higher comparable to traditional diesel generators in some years, the reduction in total equipment requirements and generator sizes — due to efficiency savings — and in fuel use has outweighed these resulting in cost savings overall.

Thanks to Shambala for the information for this case study.