First Greener Festival Awards for 2012 announced

A Greener Festival have announced the first Greener Festival Awards for 2012, with twenty one European, American and United Kingdom Festivals winning the coveted badge alongside eight events in Australia. A final list of Awards with more winners will be made in early November before the UK Festival Awards, where one British event will receive the Greener Festival Award.

Winners in the ‘Outstanding’ category included The Croissant Neuf Summer Party, The Sunrise Celebration and Shambala Festival.

The full list of winners so far are:

• The Open’er Festival (Czech Republic, Commended)
• The Radio 1 Hackney Weekend (UK, Improving))
• Larmer Tree Garden Festival (UK, Improving)
• Planet Madrid (Spain, Improving)
• Universo Parallelo (Brazil, Commended)
• Manchester Christmas Markets (UK, Commended)
• Deici Giorni Suonati (Italy, Commended)
• Bonnaroo (USA, Highly Commended)
• Primavera Sound (Spain, Highly Commended)
• Día de la Música (Highly Commended, Spain)
• Shambala (Outstanding, UK)
• Cambridge Folk Festival (Highly Commended, UK)
• Ilosaarirock (Outstanding, Finland)
• We Love Green (Outstanding, France)
• Welcome To The Future (Highly Commended, Netherlands)
• Malmöfestivalen (Highly Commended, Sweden)
• SOS 4:8 (Highly Commended, Spain)
• Boom (Outstanding, Portugal)
• Oya Festival (Outstanding, Norway)
• Sunrise Celebration (Outstanding, UK)
• Croissant Neuf Summer Party (Outstanding, UK)

The overall winner of the UK’s Greener Festival Award will be made at the UK Festival Awards on December 3rd at the London Roundhouse.

Right: Shambala Festival, proud recipients of the Greener Festival Award at last year’s UK Festival Awards.

A Greener Festival’s Co Founder Ben Challis said “It has been a challenging year for festivals – in the UK the number of events applying dropped off slightly, with a number of high profile cancellations including previous Greener Festival Award winners such as Sonisphere and the Big Chill. Other events were seriously affected by the terrible British summer, meaning they felt unable to apply, and poor ticket sales affected other events.”

The Greener Festival Awards are sponsored by Robertson Taylor Insurance Brokers. CEO John Silcock said: “With over 700 music festivals in the UK it is estimated to contribute in excess of £1 billion to the UK economy alone. In order to maintain an industry of this size it is important that organisers learn to adopt more environmentally efficient methods to help limit the impact of festivals at future events and beyond. As the leading insurance broker to the music industry, Robertson Taylor are proud to support AGF Awards as well as promoting The Greener Festival Insurance Discount which we offer to qualifying Festival Organisers and Promoters”.

AGF have also announced the final ten nominations for new special awards for Green Inspiration nominated by their team of volunteer green auditors. The nominations are for green innovations at festivals and events around Europe which inspired the AGF team:

•  Shambala Festival for its Surplus Supper Club food recycling project
• Africa Express for their UK tour, on board their own train
• Planeta Madrid (Spain) for their on-site bicycle eco-tours
• We Love Green in Paris (France) for their ‘immaculate’ and site wide compost toilets
• Boom Festival (Portugal) for their on-site STAR waste water recycling scheme
• Sunrise Celebration for their ‘thought provoking’ multi stream recycling stations
• Dieci Giorni Sounati (Italy) for their inspired holistic green planning
• Food and farming alliance Sustain’s Good Food Guide for Festivals
• Eco Action Partnership for the ‘Love Your Tent’ Campaign to reduce campsite waste
• Open’er (Czech Republic) for their on-site bio-digesters