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Your essential (and sustainable) guide to prepping for a festival

With festivals like All Together Now and Electric Picnic nearing, many will be thinking about how to balance sustainability and fun. Here, Sarah Finnan lists some of the ways to enjoy festival season as sustainably as possible. If you've ever spent three days camping in a field with strangers, you'll know the aftermath of festival season: mangled gazebos, plastic cups, empty food wrappers, and shredded ponchos strewn across the grass. Even perfectly useful items, still in relatively good condition, sometimes get the chop, simply because patrons are too tired (and lazy) to try and repack everything they brought with them. There's a strange cognitive dissonance at play: we'll fork out €8 for a biodegradable glitter set, then abandon a two-man tent without a second thought. The truth is, convenience often wins out. It's easy to preach sustainability in theory, far harder to uphold it when you're ankle-deep in mud, stiff, hungover and bone tired… but that's no excuse to leave your rubbish for someone else to deal with. Sustainable steps Festivals generate tonnes of waste every summer, but a large portion of it is avoidable. According to Pat Kane, Chief Sustainability Officer at Pragmatica and founder of reuzi, it's "totally possible to have the time of your life while still being mindful of your impact". "It's about small, intentional choices, being aware of what you're bringing in (and taking out), and choosing better-made camping gear or preloved fashion," she tells me. Single-use items, fast fashion, waste management and transport emissions are among the biggest sustainability challenges come festival season. If we want to keep enjoying these events with a clear conscience, we need to rethink how we prepare for them – and how we leave them behind. So, what can we do? Always prioritise reusables (collapsible cups, cutlery, a lunchbox/tub that can double as a plate), for one. Pat also recommends biodegradable wipes or a small towel, both of which are better than baby wipes (which don't break down), and a solar-powered charger. Nicola Connolly from sustainable skincare brand Nunaïa agrees. "I think if you adopt a sustainability mindset ahead of a festival, this will automatically impact the products you bring and ultimately mean you are taking a more holistic and sustainable approach." Pack smart She also advises packing a bin bag and taking all your rubbish with you. "I find this helps me be more mindful of what I bring in and the amount of waste I create," she explains. On the topic of beauty, she endorses decanting favourites into smaller containers and opting for items that serve myriad purposes. "Choose multi-tasking products that do more than one thing. For example, the Nunaïa Superfood Cleansing Balm also hydrates your skin and can work as a highlighter too." When it comes to camping gear, look for recycled materials (e.g. recycled polyester, nylon) and shop with durability in mind – buy once and well, and you'll get years of use out of it. Borrowing from friends and shopping secondhand are also great alternatives. Not only is this better for the environment, but it will ultimately save you money, too. Vango and Quechua (by Decathlon) are two brands doing it better, as per Pat, "They have decent quality entry-level tents and gear. Snugpak and Alpkit make more durable outdoor gear with sustainability goals in place. For sleeping bags, look for ones with RDS-certified down (responsibly sourced) or recycled fill." Avoid ultra-cheap pop-up tents as these don't often survive more than one use. Positive initiatives The good news is that there is a growing awareness of the environmental impact that such big events can have, and as audiences become more eco-conscious, festivals will likely feel increasing pressure to meet clear sustainability benchmarks. Take All Together Now, an independent music and arts festival held annually at Curraghmore Estate in Co Waterford, Ireland. This year, sustainability initiatives include hybrid power for site offices, Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fuel (a renewable and sustainable diesel fuel alternative made from vegetable oils, animal fats, or other waste materials), and an on-site vintage clothes shop. The festival also promotes a "no single-use" policy, particularly regarding plastic bottles. Native Events, Ireland's leading sustainable event production company, is collaborating with All Together Now again his year to integrate circular systems, renewable technologies, and ecological thinking. Ditch the car While the industry is making progress, event curator Azeez Saeed says that there is still work to be done, particularly as there isn't a representative body pushing for specific environmental regulations. "The greatest carbon footprint at an event or large gathering comes from audience travel," he tells me. "When we go to a camping festival, we feel the need to bring loads of stuff, which leads to lots of car journeys. "In Ireland, we're very fond of saying that the public transport system is terrible, and we're forced to drive everywhere. However, this is slowly changing, and really when we're planning our journey we should start by thinking about other ways of travelling." Over the past few years, All Together Now has started offering bus and coach transport options to help alleviate this issue. Green festivals In terms of what festival organisers can do, Azeez says the biggest environmental impact comes from last-minute additions and changes to a pre-existing plan. "As an event organiser, you can reduce your generator and diesel needs if you plan your power requirements, zone by zone. You can reduce your transport needs if you're mindful of how many warehouse or shopping runs you need to do, and stick to them. "You can reduce food waste by carefully planning how many people you need to feed. And you can drastically reduce your carbon footprint and the impact on nature and biodiversity if you make the switch to a vegan and vegetarian menu." "The best way to stop greenwashing is to provide transparency to show how you're really eco-conscious or climate-positive," continues Azeez. If he could redesign the Irish festival system from scratch, he would start with an outreach and upskilling programme. "There are degree-level university courses for event management out there, but these are very centred around tourism and hospitality, and don't really prepare the cohort for the realities of working at large-scale, outdoor events. So, specific festival training, with environmental sustainability integrated from the very beginning, would be brilliant." Future planning Native Events has already provided loads of training programmes and webinars on this subject, and they're working towards offering a comprehensive, accredited programme later this year. Establishing a national body would be step two, along with a sustainable suppliers database with a shared hub for all the assets, resources and materials needed. Earlier this year, Native Events organised Realise, a summit centred on climate action for the cultural and creative industries. The key takeaway? There's already a lot being done to tackle the climate crisis, but most of that work is being done in silos. "Further collaboration is needed," says Azeez. "Alone, the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, but together we can give each other hope and different perspectives, which can then translate into motivation, inspiration and most importantly, action!" "It's not far-fetched to imagine a future where festivals are rated or even certified based on their environmental efforts," echoes Pat. "Whether you're attending or organising, there's a real opportunity to celebrate and make a difference… all without losing the fun and flair that festivals are known for".