Tag Archives: Festival Republic

Vision:2025 Festivals win Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Awards

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Congratulations to Shambala Festival and Festival Republic for their recognition in Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Green Awards last month.

Festival Republic won Best Creative Group and Shambala scooped a double win, receiving both the Best Festival and Outstanding Achievement Awards. Inspiring stuff!

The awards were presented at Somerset House on the Tuesday 25th April by Caroline Lucas, Co-Leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion.

The Creative Green Award is the only pan arts award recognising the contribution of the creative industries to climate change, and celebrates over 50 arts organisations undertaking Creative Green certification in 2016/17.

Running since 2009, Creative Green is a certification enabling venues, museums & galleries, festivals and offices to assess their environmental commitment, understanding and improvement.  With over 250 Creative Green certificates awarded this is the only scheme designed specifically for the cultural sector.

Full details on the Julie’s Bicycle news pages.

Powerful Thinking Guide Launched at GEI9

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Powerful Thinking launched their latest guide to Smart Energy for Festivals and Outdoor Events at the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI9) hosted by A Greener Festival at the ILMC on 7th March.

Chair of Powerful Thinking, Chris Johnson, presented event professionals and delegates at GEI9 with the new Powerful Thinking Guide, an up-to-date knowledge and practical resources to help them manage temporary energy smartly, reducing environmental impacts and fuel bills at events.

Since the first edition of the guide in 2012 a significant shift towards more efficient energy management has taken place in the events industry. Events are typically able to save between 10% and 50% of their fuel consumption and the guide uses case studies of recent events to illustrate how and where this has been achieved to inspire and guide event organisers in achieving similar results. The guide is created from a collection of modular resources, factsheets, case studies and templates, which are also available as standalone resources online.

The guide was co-written by members of the Powerful Thinking steering group with leading European energy consultants, advisers and festival organisers under the direction of lead author Chris Johnson, Chair of Powerful Thinking and Operations Director of Shambala Festival. Key contributors include: Chiara Badiali (Julie’s Bicycle), Paul Schurink (ZAP Concepts), Sid Rogerson (Entersys), Tim Benson (ZAP Concepts UK), Sjoerd Schouten (Watt-Now), Shaun Pearce (Production Services Association) and Liz Warwick (Lansdowne Warwick).

The Powerful Thinking Guide can be downloaded as a PDF from the Powerful Thinking Website: http://www.powerful-thinking.org.uk/resources/powerful-thinking-guide-2017/ ­­­

Standalone resources can be found here: Factsheets and Case studies.

40 festivals meet to shape the future of Festival Vision 2025

40 Vision: 2025 Festivals met to shape the future

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40 Festivals and organisations met on the 26th January to shape the future of the Festival Vision: 2025.

Hosted by Chris Johnson (Shambala Festival/Powerful Thinking) and Julie’s Bicycle founder and CEO Alison Tickell, the day included presentations from Richard Gilles, former Sustainability Director at M&S and Director of Festival On The Wall, ZAP Concepts event sustainability consultants Rob Scully and Paul Schurink, Programme Manager Laura Pando from Julie’s Bicycle and Victoria Chapman, Sustainability Coordinator at Festival Republic.

Topics included cup deposit systems, changing the supply chain, energy efficiency and water management. Workshops on managing and monitoring energy effectively and understanding travel and waste data gave delegates the chance to share experiences, get advice, and gain practical knowledge to help with meeting the shared vision for a sustainable future for the UK festival industry.

Outcomes from the day include a call for clearly defined standards and reporting on waste across the events industry; the development of affordable energy monitoring equipment accessible by all Festival Vision:2025 events, and exploration of a purchasing consortium.

Find out more about Festival Vision: 2025 and join the 56 festivals who have already pledged to work together for a more sustainable festival industry  at www.festivalvision2025.net

Shaping the future of Festival Vision: 2025 at The Festival Suppliers Awards

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Powerful Thinking and Julie’s Bicycle will hold the first Festival Vision:2025 Meeting at The Festival Suppliers Awards on January 26th 2017 at The Hurlingham Club, London.

The Meeting will bring together 30 plus Vision Festivals, events that have pledged to work together for a more sustainable festival industry, to shape the future of the 10-year Vision, and take part in professional skills workshops for their onward journey to more sustainable events.

The day will include workshops on reducing fuel use and energy costs, waste management, sustainable travel, and accurate measuring and recording of impact data by Julie’s Bicycle, ZAP Concepts, and the sustainability teams from Shambala Festival, Festival Republic and Cambridge Folk Festival.

Alison Tickell, CEO of Julie’s Bicycle, will host a discussion on the future of the Vision as well as giving attendees a broader perspective of the opportunity in the arts and cultural sector for climate leadership.

Guest speakers will include Richard Gilles, former Sustainability Director for The Kingfisher Group and Marks & Spencer, and CEO of Festival On The Wall, who brings insight into influencing the supply chain change in a client facing business.

There will also be space to network and share experiences as well as explore opportunities for collaboration and influencing the supply chain through collective purchasing.

The event is free for Vision:2025 Festivals who will also receive a free place to The Festival Suppliers Awards (normally £280), who are generously hosting the event, including the drinks reception, evening dinner and awards ceremony, where Powerful Thinking Steering group member Victoria Chapman, Sustainability Coordinator for Festival Republic, will present the Green Supplier Award on behalf of Powerful Thinking.

There are still a few places available for the event. All UK Music Festivals are welcome to reserve a ticket providing they have taken the Festival Vision: 2025 pledge to aim for a more sustainable event. For more details contact bethan@powerful-thinking.org.uk.

Take the Festival Vision: 2025 Pledge.  
More details on The Festival Suppliers Awards.

#shapeFV2025   #FSAwards17   #FestivalVision2025

Festival Vision News Update

Festival Vision: 2025 unites UK festivals for a sustainable future.

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Over 40 UK music festivals have pledged to work together to create a more environmentally sustainable festival industry by signing Festival Vision: 2025 — the vision and roadmap for a sustainable future presented by industry think-do tank Powerful Thinking in its seminal environmental report, The Show Must Go On.

Festivals both large and small, with genres from rock music to words, are united around the vision. Bestival, Hay Festival, Shambala and Secret Garden Party have all taken the pledge, and Festival Republic have signed up their entire portfolio of 11 UK festivals including: Latitude, V Festival, Reading, Leeds and BBC Proms in the Park.

The Vision: 2025 Festivals aim to halve festival emissions and reach 50% recycling rates by 2025. They have also pledged to reduce travel-related emissions and improve the sustainability of food sourcing. Integral to the pledge is the intention to measure, record and share key environmental impacts from festival operations using credible methods, such as the Julie’s Bicycle free Creative Green IG tools or by working with the A Greener Festival Awards, in order to track progress.

A full list of the participating Festivals and details of the pledge can be found on the Festival Vision: 2025 webpage along with key resources from The Show Must Go On report to help festival organisers make successful changes toward sustainable practices.

Festival Vision: 2025 Webpage: www.festivalvision2025.net

Follow Powerful Thinking on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates and to ask questions and share information. Join the conversation with #FestivalVision2025  #PowerfulThinking

“As festival organisers we know how to create unforgettable experiences and how to inspire people. We know how to get things done in challenging circumstances and we are accomplished at communicating with audiences.

Festival organisers working with their many and diverse partners…can provide leadership for what is perhaps the most important conversation of our time…[and] make a vital and significant contribution to a future that we want our children to inherit.”

The Show Must Go On report.

Powerful Thinkers: Sustaining Creativity in the Events Industry Seminar

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Chair of Powerful Thinking, Chris Johnson, will be hosting a panel at The Event Production Show, discussing ‘Sustaining Creativity in the Events Industry’; speakers include Alison Tickell, CEO & Founder of Julie’s Bicycle, Emma Hudson of Access All Areas, Melvin Benn from Festival Republic and Nick Green from Arts Council England. Join the seminar from 2–3pm on 3 March in Olympia, London.

In the promised sequel to the EPS 2014 panel (People, Planet, Profit), these leading figures in the UK creative industries will discuss combining successful business with responsible approaches, and how creativity can be harnessed to enhance the audience experience and communicate about the future.

With COP21 still fresh in the world’s mind, the recently published Show Must Go On report provides the most comprehensive review of the industry’s environmental impacts to date, and launches Festival Vision: 2025, a manifesto for change. The panel discusses the report, the vision, and reflects on how creative approaches can unlock potential for change and help the bottom line.

For more details about EPS 2016 and to book click HERE.