Going green: how to festival with a conscience

Dane Cobain investigates car-sharing with FestivalBudi.com

When you live in a big city, surrounded by bright lights, industrial smoke and (admittedly useless) public transport, there’s often no need to drive. Then the summer rolls round and you realise that getting to Worthy Farm is going to take more than a bus and a brisk walk. That’s where Festival Budi comes in, offering a cheap and easy alternative to a long drive alone or a series of busy commuter trains with too many changes and too much luggage. 

The free service promises to “[match] people with similar journeys so they can travel better together – saving money, cutting their carbon footprint, having fun and making the world a better place.” As part of ‘liftshare’, the largest car-share network in the UK, Festival Budi helps travellers to group together, whether they’re drivers looking to share petrol costs or passengers with a ticket but no transport.

Recommended by Glastonbury, one of the greenest of festivals, the car-share scheme is a great way to make new friends before you even think about pitching a tent. Users are encouraged to upload a friendly photograph and to tell prospective companions a bit about themselves. You can even search by gender and smoker status, so shy asthmatics and outgoing chain-smokers don’t have to spend the long drive arguing.

The company works as a go-between to match real people with similar needs, suggesting that drivers and passengers share the cost of petrol. One user, Olly C, said: “Car-sharing was brilliant because it reduced our travel costs drastically, and everybody actually got there more cheaply than we would have done with the public buses the festival puts on. And as a result of sharing with four complete strangers, I also managed to make four great friends who I still keep in contact with today.”

To put this in to perspective, a return coach ticket from London to Glastonbury with National Express will set you back £45. If you car-share with just one other person and split the petrol bill, you’ll save £17 and have someone to enthuse (or rage) with about Coldplay, U2 and Beyonce. Leaving London and sharing with one other person, you could save £13 travelling to Download, £7 en route to Global Gathering and £9 on your way to Latitude, and with a full car the financial and environmental benefits are even greater.

And the green-thinking website isn’t just for UK festivals. With matches suggested for events in Australia, Germany, Ireland and the USA, the scheme is a useful alternative to public transport, whether you’re going to Isle of Wight or Beach Break Live, Glastonbury or Latitude. With overwhelming positive reviews, the only worry is whether after a weekend of heavy drinking and loud music, your driver will be sober enough to make the journey.

Click here to visit the FestivalBudi website.

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