GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 39

The festival ideal - people gathered together in a fi eld, playing and listening to music, sleeping under
canvas and letting time slip slowly past - sounds like a perfect green getaway. Unfortunately, the
sheer size of many modern festivals often results in traffi c congestion in small villages, piles of plastic
packaging discarded by revellers, and large electricity demands from lighting rigs and sound systems.
Take Glastonbury, the granddaddy of the festival scene. Though recognized for its commitment to
environmental causes - it has long supported Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid, encourages recycling
and even hands out biodegradable tent pegs - the impact of well over 100,000 people descending on
a small corner of Somerset is undeniable. There are, however, dozens of festivals that have revived the
original Glastonbury ethos, creating smaller, greener events. They champion lift-shares, reusable and
biodegradable packaging, and even the occasional solar-powered sound system.
A useful website on green festivals in Great Britain and Ireland is W www.agreenerfestival.
com, which has advice on how participants (mainly organizers and stallholders) can lower
their impact at festivals. In 2008, it awarded three UK Festivals (Waveform, Shambala and
Camden Green Fair) and two US festivals (Bonnaroo and Rothbury) with its “outstanding”
mark. A further 24 UK festivals and eight international festivals were given its Greener
Festival Award.

Cambridge Folk Festival Big Session Festival

Aware that folk music afi cionados tend to be keen
on real ale, the organizers of the Cambridge Folk
Festival have come up with an innovative way
of avoiding mountains of plastic pint glasses.
Visitors to this annual four-day event have to pay
an initial deposit for a cup that they keep and
reuse throughout the festival, plus everyone is
given a bag for their recyclable rubbish on entry
(and plastic bags are banned). The event itself
mixes big names such as Joan Armatrading and
Martha Wainwright with lesser-known bands who
demonstrate the many ways folk continues to
reinvent itself around the world.
Need to know The festival takes place in Cambridge
around the end of July and the start of August. For
further info, including directions and a map, see
W www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk.

Normally you'd expect “complete wasters” to be
lying on the ground passed out in the middle of the
day. But at Big Session, the Complete Wasters are
likely to be the busiest people on site, since they're
an organization responsible for sorting, recycling
and composting as much rubbish as possible. This
get-stuck-in ethos is central to the festival - for
example, there's a session tent where anyone can
bring along an instrument and join in. (The thirty
different microbrewery ales on offer may help to give
you the courage to participate.) Using its proximity
to Leicester to promote the use of public transport
and liftshares, Big Session also encourages people
to take something green home with them after the
weekend - offering a free energy-saving lightbulb to
anyone who promises to use it.
Need to know Big Session takes place in June
each year at De Montfort Hall, a 15min walk from
Leicester's train station. For further info see W www.
bigsessionfestival.com.