A Greener Festival announce 2011 Australian Award winners

By benchallis on 18 May 2011

It can’t have escaped you that the weather has been terrible in Australia in the last twelve months - so congratulations to all of the Australian A GREENER FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS 2011 for their brilliant efforts in reducing their environmental impact and spreading the green message.

it has been the fourth A Greener Festival awards season in Australia and seven festivals have ‘made the grade’ and have been awarded the coveted Greener Festival Award. Amie Green, the Awards co-ordinator in Australia said this: “Our many and varied festivals have put in immense hard work, often excelling in creating initiatives which are slowly becoming the standard for festivals which have care about the environment, such as on-site composting and pro-active land protection. These standards often have long-term benefits, particularly to events who own their own permanent sites. Standards are generally rising with some exciting trends becoming apparent such as patrons reacting positively to voluntarily offsetting the carbon produced from their travel when purchasing tickets as well as the use of sustainably sourced bio-diesel becoming commonplace as an energy source”.

Amie explains that it is becoming obvious that festivals serve as a two-way conduit between music lovers and festival organisers, which can result in well thought out environmental initiatives from organisers based on valuable feedback from festival goers. Festivals can also play an important role in promoting environmentally sound principles both on-site and when fans are back in the comfort of their own home.

Amie was keen to thank her small crew of volunteer environmental auditors who assess festivals for the Award and whose work encourages measurements such as greenhouse gas emissions and recycling statistics to be recorded onsite. This helps festivals with year on year improvements as well as allowing A Greener Festival to aggregate and analyse the data and compare it with festivals from around the world, eventually setting environmental benchmarks for the events industry – and seeing how Australia measures up to its competitors around the globe. With Australian businesses becoming aware of the likelihood of a more carbon-based economy, these festivals are benefiting from early indicators of where they will sit in the market.

In a global recession we are proud of every festival who took part in the 2010/2011 Awards scheme. Its not unusual to see a backslide when money becomes tight or locations are changed. Amie says: “Every single festival that gains this award has made a massive effort to green their event, and having worked for many years in the event industry I can say wholeheartedly that anything implemented over and above council or local regulatory requirements takes real determination and passion. Every award winner has shown themselves to be a leader in their field."

And the worthy winners are:
Falls Festival – Outstanding
Peats Ridge Festival – Outstanding
Woodford Folk Festival - Outstanding
Bluesfest – Commended
Splendour in the Grass – Commended
Island Vibe – Highly Commended
WomAdelaide – Commended