The sustainability initiative, Festival Vision: 2025, launched the second edition of its pioneering Show Must Go On Report at the UK Festival Awards on December 5th.

The document outlines the environmental impact of the festival industry and acts as a definitive guide for live events wishing to limit their carbon footprint. Following a highly successful crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, the 2019 iteration of the Report brings its contents up-to-date with current information and best practice.

See below for the launch video.

The report states that: “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.

"It is well within our reach to turn our industry into an exemplar of environmental responsibility. We can make a vital and significant contribution to a future that we want our children to inherit.

"Festival organisers working with their many and diverse partners, from concessions to the supply chain, contractors, charities and brands, can provide leadership for what is perhaps the most important conversation of our time.”

The UK Festival Awards has announced that it will present this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Festivals Award to Professor Fiona Measham.

Throughout her 30-year academic career, Fiona’s work has been shaped by her passion for music and dance culture. Never one to be trapped in the ivory towers of academia, her academic work has always been action-oriented, reflecting her lifelong commitment to equality and social justice causes. Amongst her achievements, she has served on the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, David Nutt’s Drugs Science Committee, as well as the Lib Dems’ expert panel on cannabis regulation, and also acted as the key expert witness in the fight to keep Fabric nightclub open.

Her research interest into how the interface of dance music culture and criminal justice impacted on the health and wellbeing of young people ultimately led to her establishing the harm reduction service, The Loop. This was the first organisation to offer drug safety testing services in the UK – at the Secret Garden Party and Kendal Calling festivals in 2016, then spreading to many more over the next four summers. Evidence gathered by The Loop has demonstrated reduced drug-related harm after the service has been implemented, and substantial quantities of adulterated or mis-sold drugs have been identified and destroyed.