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.

Glastonbury Festival

Comprehensive Energy Monitoring Project with Agrekko and UWE

Glastonbury Festival has been running since 1970, it has a capacity of 187,000 and runs annually for 5 days in June. As a large festival Glastonbury needs a lot of power, but the sustainability team at the festival set out to identify the environmental impacts of burning large volumes of diesel to generate this power and find ways of reducing them.

Since 2014, Glastonbury Festival, under the direction of Sustainable Energy Project Manager Rob Scully, have been has been carrying out a comprehensive energy-monitoring project in partnership with power contractor Aggreko and researchers at the University of the West of England (UWE). At each edition of the festival they monitor the output of generators onsite and analyse the data to see how efficiently the generators were being used in order to help specify correct sized generators for future festivals and to investigate energy saving and fuel saving options.

For the monitoring project a project office was set up right in the heart of the festival, in the power compound behind the Pyramid Stage. From this base, 126 generators on site were monitored wirelessly using the Aggreko Remote Monitoring system (ARM). A small team of engineering students and research staff also went out into the site to study particular areas in more depth. There were over 5 million items of data recorded in the monitoring allowing them to plot the ‘real time’ output for each machine.

The findings showed that a large proportion of the generators monitored were significantly oversized for their purpose. The most efficient range to run a generator is in a range of 40-80% of the capacity of the machine, at this ‘load’ the relationship between how much power you generate and how much fuel you burn is fairly linear. When the load on a generator reaches about 30% of the machine size the amount of diesel being burnt per kW of power produced starts to go up. A generator running below 10% of capacity is very inefficient and can effectively be wasting 60% or more of the diesel per kWh of energy used.

In order to ensure efficient peak loads on generators at Glastonbury Festival Aggreko uses ‘power stations’ to create power zones in some areas of the site – these stations are a grouped set of generators that are turned on as power demand goes up and then are turned off at times of low demand.

To further increase efficiency Glastonbury also trialled using battery hybrid units onsite, which store energy in onboard battery banks to be used during periods of low demand. The hybrid switches off the main generator automatically when demand drops and silently takes up the load, it can then restart the generator when the batteries are depleted or when demand outstrips capacity. It can also act as a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), stepping in to ensure continuity of base load if the generator stops unexpectedly.

The main challenge with using hybrid units was identifying areas with a suitable load profile, i.e. places with reasonable periods of low demand when the generator could be switched off and battery power could be used. Areas where these conditions were met included build & break operations and vehicle gates. Before the installation of the hybrid battery units the generators in these areas were running inefficiently, they were on 24 hours per day to maintain continuity of power but were producing very low energy (kWh) per hour of runtime — only 1-4 kWh per hour. After installing the hybrid units the generators were switched off automatically drastically reducing runtime to just 2-4 hours per day in order to produce the same amount of energy. This energy was then distributed from the hybrid unit’s battery storage over the course of the day leading to a much higher kWh per hour of generator runtime — up to 130 kWh per hour.

For areas of the site where the power demands are very low Glastonbury have also had success in powering them completely with renewable energy. In the Green Fields coordinators camp they have used a 1.5 kW solar unit with 22 kWh of battery storage to run the area without problems. Previously, the camp was connected by a long cable to share a diesel generator in another field, and had experienced power outages when that machine stopped. So we can see that when correctly matched with the demand, renewables can actually be more reliable than a conventional diesel generator setup.

Into the Great Wide Open

Into the Great Wide Open (ITGWO) is a Dutch Festival with an audience of 7,000, which takes place on the Island of Vlieland on the northwest coast of the Netherlands. In 2016, they switched from diesel to 2^nd generation biofuels (fuel derived solely from recycled organic waste matter, distributed and sold by the company GoodFuels) to power the generators used at the festival, reducing the amount of CO2 produced in the onsite energy production of the festival by 85%.

The organisers of ITGWO are committed not only to making their festival sustainable, but to exploring how festivals can be used as a catalyst for bigger societal changes. In order to do this they set up a foundation, in 2013, called Lab Vlieland through which they pioneer and develop sustainability projects in the temporary world of their and other festivals, then find ways to implement their successes on a wider basis; first as a permanent part of island life in Vlieland, then to the mainland with the ultimate goal of speeding up global transition to a sustainable society.

Their switch from diesel to biofuel was taken as an intermediary step on their journey to sustainability. Biofuel use has many implications, which must be considered, and they realise that it is not a perfect solution. Ideally they would like to establish a grid connection and power the festival via the mains on a green energy tariff. However, for now this is not a viable option; festivals have very high peaks of energy demand necessitating large connections — these are expensive to install and run partly due to the nature of Dutch energy law, which means Energy Providers have inflexible charging structures that do not account for temporary connections with fluctuating demand.

Provenance is also an issue that means biofuel is not a long-term solution; despite the integrity of their sourcing — using fuel which comes only from organic waste streams — Lab Vlieland is aware that the total organic waste matter volume is not high enough to meet future demands for the biofuel it is used to produce. Biofuel is also more expensive and there are additional costs for transport. Despite these drawbacks and considerations the use of biofuels is a great step forward in terms of reducing fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions from the event.

Lab Vlieland’s first hurdle in implementing their switch was to find a biofuel source that is reliable and ethical and that their generator supplier, F&L, was willing to use in their machines. ITGWO/Lab Vlieland have a good relationship with F&L, who they have worked with since 2009 over 8 editions of the festival. F&L are a small progressive firm, meaning lines of communication are short and creative solutions are relatively easy to implement and they agreed to trial the switch provided the biofuels quality was high enough. In the end a biofuel (B100) from ‘Good Fuels’ was chosen for it’s quality, reliability and ethical means of production.

The use of biofuels in diesel generators is not completely straightforward, normally generators are hired partially full from the previous event and are returned in the same way, so the event only pays for the diesel they have used, and organisers don’t have to worry about predicting fuel use accurately — they can take extra fuel and return the excess, only paying for what they use. When using biofuel the generators needed to be completely drained of fossil diesel before they could be filled to ensure pure biofuel use (mixing is technically not a problem, except that you are still burning a mix of fossil and non-fossil fuels) – and they needed to be returned empty.

This not only involved extra logistics but also meant that Lab Vlieland had to accurately predict how much biofuel the festival would need, as any left over would have to be stored or would be wasted. They partially solved this problem by agreeing to sell any remainder to another festival looking to move to biofuel but in the end they were so accurate in their estimates that this measure wasn’t necessary.

The next issue that they came up against was transportation: Land infrastructure is entirely fossil fuel orientated; diesel can be acquired from the nearest pump to the festival site and transported in the containers that it is then stored in for the duration of the festival. The biofuel had to be transported from much further away and then transferred into separate storage containers incurring extra costs and planning.

The saving of 85% of CO2 emissions from fuel use in onsite energy production in 2016 compared to 2015 would have been higher but in 2015 ITGWO used significantly less diesel than average due to bad weather and resulting stage closure. They also used 500 litres of fossil diesel onsite because the rental agency would not agree to use biofuel in their onsite vehicles (forklifts etc.).

ITGWO used 8,000 litres of biofuel in 2016, at 40 cents more per litre than diesel, plus €800 for transport logistics resulting in a €4,000 spend compared to diesel— a cost which will hopefully be mitigated in the future as more festivals follow suit and infrastructures, generator suppliers and biofuel providers adapt to suit the growing market.

For ITGWO the environmental benefits outweighed the financial implications of the switch but they continue to search for more efficient means to power their festival including ongoing negotiations with the government regarding reforms to Dutch energy laws to make it cost effective for temporary events to run from the grid.

Cambridge Folk Festival

Relationship with Energy Supplier is Key to Reduction

Cambridge Folk Festival has been running since 1965, it takes place in July and has a capacity of 14,000. The Festival is committed to reducing the environmental impact of the event and have found that a strong relationship with their energy supplier, Pearce Hire, is key to reduction.

Cambridge Folk Festival have worked with Pearce Hire for over 30 years and they have come to understand the Festival’s environmental and ethical values. They work closely with the festival’s Sustainability Coordinator and the Production Manager, to continually improve on energy efficiency, introduce new innovations and to meet the criteria for the A Greener Festival accreditations, which the festival holds.

As Pearce Hire provide both power and lighting, they can invest in more efficient lighting, knowing that their investment will be subsidized by the resulting reduction in generator size and fuel costs. They are also uniquely placed to identify where and when to turn on/off generators and therefore save fuel.

Over the years they have introduced a number of innovations in lighting: adding photocells sensors, manufactured in-house, to switch site lighting on and off at dawn and dusk as required, resulting in huge savings in energy use and cost. They also swapped power-hungry tungsten floodlights for LED and festoon lighting site-wide, and supplied LED fixtures for stage lighting — next year they are looking to invest in some new LED profile moving head fixtures.

Generators used onsite are all Euro Stage Three compliant — one of the most energy efficient, low emission generators you can get and they are arranged in an efficient system of many smaller generators rather than two big sets. The festival is also partially run off mains electricity, supplied through a green tariff, which saves 12-15,000 litres of diesel per event and makes a massive saving on the carbon footprint. Meter readings are taken every three hours during the festival so that the carbon footprint can be accurately calculated and the festival’s major impacts can be identified and improvements made where necessary.

The Festival encourages all staff and vendors to ‘switch off ’ when possible; punters are asked to reuse plastic cups to reduce litter and waste; backstage, water coolers are used instead of plastic bottles. The Festival commission wildlife investigations of the site and go to great lengths to protect local waterways, land and the biodiversity of the area from negative impacts of the event.

Over the last five years Cambridge Folk Festival have reduced their diesel usage by a third. These achievements are a testament to what can be achieved when supplier and festival teams bring mutual commitment and prioritise reducing their environmental impact.

www.cambridgelivetrust.co.uk
www.pearcehire.co.uk

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.

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.

The Nationwide Caterers Association

Online Trader Tool Provides Energy Requirements

NCASS (The Nationwide Caterers Association) have launched Connect, a new online hub for administration and due diligence documentation. This will be of great assistance to both Food Safety Authorities checking food suppliers at festivals, as well as festival organisers and event planners predicting how much energy they’ll need to supply for traders.

Connect is a trader database, which contains important documentation and certificates such as training and hygiene certificates. It operates like an online passport into any events, as event organisers can simply vet trader applications through Connect rather than requesting documentation. What is even more revolutionarily, is the inclusion of an energy calculator, so mobile caterers and festival food suppliers can list the kilowatt needs of their appliances and gas requirements.

This will greatly improve festival organisers’ ability to estimate the energy required for their event, and subsequently better predict the capacity of the generators required to supply specific clusters of caterers. This will lead to huge savings, both in terms of money and energy – Powerful Thinking’s 2013 guide, “The Power Behind Festivals”, found that overprovision of generator capacity, and, subsequently, generators being run at low loads is common at festivals, and a big source of energy inefficiency.

Traders can join Connect for free, as can events and festival organisers and enforcement officers. It will be possible to see which traders and are signed up for what festivals. This will also improve efficiency for the Food Standards Agency and enforcement officers who will be able to check in advance which food suppliers they have already checked at earlier festivals.

NCASS will also partake in another sustainability initiative this summer. They’ll be linking up with FareShare and A Greener Festival to work on saving up to 60 tonnnes of food that is otherwise wasted at festivals. Eighth Plate, a food waste distribution project, will collect, redistribute and look at cooking food into meals. This food will be given to charities and food banks to provide free meals for those in need.

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

Sunrise Festival – Another World

Experimenting with smart grids and new solutions

The festival is powered by 100% renewable energy, but is still seeking to increase energy efficiency and reduce dependency on biofuels. They aim to phase out use of biofuels in the shortest possible timeframe, using instead what they hope will be the UK’s first integrated power system for festivals. They believe in reducing dependency on liquid fuels and encouraging the development of an alternative fuel economy. In 2012, Sunrise Festival used a mix of Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO), solar power, wind power and pedal power. As technology gets better and larger amounts of energy can be produced from sources such as solar and wind the festival plans to make use of them even more. This alternative energy provision is assured by preferentially booking traders and production crew who run their equipment off solar, wind or pedal power. Sunrise Festival also continues to raise money for environmental projects and invest in renewable energy technologies.

For the 2013 festival they planned to bring together high-spec battery technology with more traditional waste vegetable oil generators and a combination of solar and wind power, to create a site-wide power system that is energy efficient and low impact. This is the type of innovative power provision at festivals that shows their true commitment to sustainability and the creation of “Another World”.

As well as improving this system, they carry out thorough monitoring of the power systems onsite to recognize where power may be being wasted. This monitoring also ensures the information needed to improve further in the future was being gathered. Revelations about overspeccing of equipment and inefficiency from individual venues, traders and other users from the 2012 power surveys gave a focus for improvements for the 2013 event.