Sustainable Summer Festivals: Music, Art, and Eco-consciousness

Date of the event: 27/08/2023 – 04/09/2023

Location: Fly, Nevada, USA

Headliners: TBA

The festival relies on 10 principles, among which are radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, reliance on own resources, self-expression, community and cooperation, civic responsibility, participation, immediacy, and respect for the environment. The last year, however, saw a higher proportion of litter left around, which might be due to fatigue and high heat. The largest share of emissions is caused by the transportation itself when people are coming to the venue. Exactly, it is 91% of the emissions produced by airplanes, RVs, cars, and trucks responsible for the transportation of the infrastructure needed to build a city in the desert. The goal of the festival is to have a zero carbon footprint by 2030. However, this seems less likely for now, despite the fact that electric trucks could finally be available. So far there are some more sustainable summer festivals available to choose from.

Date of the event: 20/07/2023 – 27/07/2023

Location: Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal

Headliners: Ace Ventura, Animato, Anesthetic, Astral Projection, Astrix, Atmos, Burn in Noise, Daksinamurti, Dick Trevor, DJ Thatha, E-Clip, Eat Static, Headroom, Hilight Tribe, Hypnoacoustics, Imagine Mars

The festival was founded by several friends who wanted to bring the atmosphere of Goa parties to Portugal. They started organizing the first parties in the woods in the early 1990s. August 1997 was the first time when the official festival was executed. The festival town offers 100% composting toilets, 86% of the food is vegan/vegetarian, waste is separated, 87% of building materials are from local suppliers, and transportation is provided by the Boom bus. The festival has been awarded several times by the AGF over the past years. It is no different in 2023 when it was nominated in 4 categories from which it won the AGF Water and Sanitation Award.

Pohoda Festival

Date of the event: 6/7/2023 – 8/7/2023

Place: Trenčín Airport, Slovakia

Headliners: Mulatu Astatke, Genesis Owusu, Vintage Trouble, Shame, and Caroline Polachek

The first year was held in 1997 when only 8 musical performers played together and only 2000 people visited it. The festival has already managed to receive an award in the Ecological solutions category for 2017. Among its main strengths are the use of a mobile solar power plant and solar lighting, composting dishes, 17 collection points and assisted sorting of waste, and vacuum toilets. Also, the involvement of local suppliers, or openness for everyone without VIP zones, festival buses, bicycles as well as trains. Accordingly, the existence of the direct platform itself – a tent at the festival aimed at solving and discussing environmental problems, ranks this festival among one of the most important sustainable summer festivals in central Europe.

Øya Festival

Date of proceedings: 8/8/2023 – 12/8/2023

Location: Tøyenparken, Oslo, Norway

Headliners: Tv Girl, FKA twigs, Devo, Sigrid, Caroline Polachek, Håkan Hellström, Shygirl, Dry Cleaning, Jockstrap, Makaya Mccraven

Although Øya did not win any prize from the AGF in 2023, it was nominated in 6 categories out of 9. Since its beginnings in 2002, the festival has set itself the task of becoming the greenest world festival. As a result, it is always looking for new sustainable solutions for waste, water, and energy, as well as things of ordinary consumption, from toilet paper to power grids. The festival represents a space that is used to present and test new technologies. It has been using renewable energy since 2009. More than 90% of the food offered is organic, 40% of the 100,000 portions are meat-free, only compostable dishes are available, and up to 60% of waste is reused. 98% of people come to the festival on foot, by bicycle, or by public transport.

Roskilde Festival

Date of the event: 24/06/2023 – 1/07/2023

Location: Roskilde, Denmark

Headliners: Rosalia, Kendrick Lamar, Christine and The Queens, Lizzo, Blur, Ithaca, Rina Sawayama, Jockstrap, Angelique Kidjo

The organizers are trying to deal with the negative aspects of the consumer lifestyle, which also have an impact on this festival. For that reason, they built The Circular Lab. With the help of the circular economy, they are reducing waste through design solutions, reusing products, and materials, and taking care of better water recycling solutions. Their waste management plan is also available to the public in pdf format. By 2024, they would like to reduce the amount of produced waste by 30% compared to 2019.

Shambala Festival

Date of the event: 24/08/2023 – 27/08/2023

Location: Northamptonshire, UK

Headliners: Black Tiger Sex Machine, Chase & Status, Excision, Gigantic NGHTMRE, Goldie, GriZ, Hieroglyphics, John Summit, Justin Martin, Liquid Stranger, Maya Jane Coles, Mr. Carmack, Mira Masa (DJ Set)

Similarly, like Øya, Shambala was nominated in 6 AGF categories in 2023. In the past, it has received several awards not only from AGF. Among them was the Innovation Award in 2018 from the UK Festival Awards. The organizers managed to reduce the carbon footprint to 90%, the festival uses 100% renewable energy suppliers, and plastics are eliminated (except for cables). Also, the festival reduced the consumption of meat and fish with the aim of working towards 100% plant-based food in the future. In the same fashion, they finance and plant a forest in Africa. They established a charity Ekolibrium. Ekolibrium has its own Green Travel Guide for Festivals and Events, which offers a lot of new information, case studies, and trends in green transport.

Fuji Rock Festival

Date of the event: 28/07/2023 – 30/07/2023

Location: Naeba, Japan

Headliners: Foo Fighters, Lizzo, The Strokes, Lewis Capaldi, Alannis Morissette, Weezer

This festival takes place annually in the Naeba ski resort. In 1997 it was for the first time opened to the public and was held at the base of volcanic Mt.Fuji. This immediate proximity to nature made the festival a suitable candidate for the implementation of various environmental measures. In particular the reduction of CO2 emissions, waste recycling, or the establishment of the NGO Village, where festival participants can learn about current non-profit environmental initiatives or world peace.

Meadows in the Mountains

Date of the event: 06/06/2024 – 06/09/2024

Location: Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria

Headliners: TBA

The festival is not yet one of the biggest sustainable summer festivals, so it is a good choice for those who do not like large crowds. In addition to 4 stages with music production, it is also possible to take part in yoga or wellness. The festival clearly demonstrates its activism. It is based on the premise that everything moves in cycles and waste does not exist. Thus it uses compostable toilets, and rainwater, recycles grey water, and hot water is produced by compost heater. In like fashion, there are biogas, solar energy, and shower shelters built using only natural materials such as mud or straw.

DGTL Festival Amsterdam

Date of the event: 29/03/2024 – 31/03/2024

Location: The Netherlands

Headliners: TBA

Winner in two categories of AGF 2023: AGF circular festival award and AGF greener transport. The festival’s environmental message is based on 5 pillars of sustainability: resources, energy, mobility, food, and sanitation. In 2017 the organizers introduced cashless card payments, which led to the demise of the old token system. The old system made festival participants exchange their money for plastic substitutes in the form of said tokens. The absence of plastic cups, only vegan dishes, the reduction of airplane emissions by focusing on as many local artists as possible, or the use of sustainable aviation fuel, became the new normal.

Envision Festival

Date of proceedings: 04/03/2024 – 11/03/2024

Location: Costa Rica

Headliners: TBA

Located on one of the coasts of Costa Rica near the rainforest, the festival offers visitors, in addition to music on 7 stages, yoga and movement exercises, immersion workshops, sacred places, and ceremonies. Simultaneously wellness & spa procedures are available. The festival’s Eco-approach is present in its Donate a Tree initiative. It gives people an opportunity to help Costa Rica by planting new trees that play an important and vital role in the fight against climate change. In 2020 they also founded the non-profit organization Somos El Cambio. It covers all environmental activities of the festival.

Green Gathering

Date of the event: 03/08/2023 – 06/08/2023

Location: Chepstow, Wales, UK

Headliner: Solar Love Society, The High Breed, Seize the Day, Satin Beige, Dragonslfy, Komposa

An off-grid non-profit festival that has Green ethos embedded into the core. It has its own charity as well as a production company Optimistic Trout Productions CIC.

An “off the grid” non-profit festival that has green values rooted at its core. It is financially supported by its own charity and produced by Optimistic Trout Productions CIC. As one of the best sustainable summer festivals, Green Gathering has already received many awards for its environmental activities. It won also a prize from AGF for the year 2023 in two categories. All the funds that the festival brings are reinvested into educational and environmental projects. The organizers aim to inspire the participants of the festival to change their perspectives, habits, and lifestyles permanently.

In other words solar energy, the absence of any generators (diesel, gasoline, gas, bio-fuel), LED lighting, transportation to and during the festival by foot, bicycle, public transport, charging and limiting the number of cars, 100% meat and fish-free food, all of this is commonplace.