Here's what music festivals are doing to help the planet

For motivation to care for the environment you only have to look to the recent music festival season. Falls Festival in Lorne was forced to cancel after only one day due to extreme weather conditions over New Year’s Eve. Rainbow Serpent was postponed and most likely will not be returning to its regular site in Lexton. A Day on the Green in Rutherglen was cancelled due to hazardous smoke.

Related to the issue of how festivals can adapt to a warming planet is the one of whether they can be sustainable. In 2015, photos emerged of trashed fields following Glastonbury Festival in the UK: plastic bottles, garbage bags and discarded camping equipment littered the famous green grounds of Worthy Farm, illustrating the sheer mass of rubbish created by the event.

For the last 27 years, thousands of people have descended on the pristine Erskine Falls just outside Lorne for the Falls Festival. And keeping that area pristine has always been front and centre for festival organisers, says general manager Elise Huntley. “It started in Lorne and the way in which waste was sorted,” she says, “and then it became about reducing waste.”

Huntley says that Falls is “conscious of the impact we have on the environment,” and that they “believe we can play a part in helping to affect positive change through sustainability initiatives.” Those initiatives span the food that punters eat to the buildings they party under. A lot of the structures used at the Lorne (and Marion Bay) are made from recycled products, while food and market vendors have to stick to green guidelines, with food waste going to compost or local farmers. Single-use plastics have been further reduced at this year’s festivals, with the implementation of a reusable cup system (reusable water bottles were already in use).

And then there’s the issue of human waste. Shit happens, and when it does you use (on average) five litres of water to flush it away. Multiply that by 15,000 punters going to the loo around seven times a day and your event turns pretty thirsty. Enter the compostable toilet. Falls was one of the first major festivals in Australia to install these water- and chemical-free green latrines in 2003, after being told about them (ironically) being used at Glastonbury.

Falls Festival

Just over 100 kilometres north, Golden Plains and Meredith music festivals are likewise proving that it’s possible to throw an Earth-friendly festival. Single-use water bottles have been completely eliminated from the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre (there are water refilling stations instead) as have non-compostable plates and utensils. There are 184 permanent composting toilets on site as well as 32 showers that harvest and repurpose all water run off. The festivals even power many of the campground lights using solar power.

But a major challenge for both festivals still remains: getting guests on board with going green. Meredith collects around 60 tonnes of rubbish created by festivalgoers, while over at Falls getting people to alter their habits is a major obstacle. “Any sustainability initiatives require a commitment from us, the event and then for our patrons to accept and embrace the change,” says Huntley.

At Glastonbury, some guests still buy cheap, poorly made camping equipment and then ditch it. Most camping festivals, however, encourage guests to invest in good quality tents that will last year after year. Huntley says she’s seen a reduction in waste left at the sites in previous years (guests now also have the option of hiring a tent at Falls), while Meredith and Golden Plains, too, have noted a reduction in ratty couches being left behind (which would have to be sent to landfill).

Part of it comes down to education. Falls partners with Green Music Australia to send teams of people out into the festival to get campers on board through conversation. “Most people do want to do the right thing,” says Huntley. “You've got to try and make it as easy as possible for them to be able to do the right thing.”