Organisers promise green days for Picnickers

ORGANISERS of Electric Picnic are promising this year’s boutique festival will not only be bigger, but greener, with a host of initiatives to reduce environmental damage.

Concert-goers might not know it but efforts are being made to cut back on energy use and carbon emissions, to reduce waste and inform music lovers about “green” initiatives.

“One of the objectives of the festival is to try and increase the awareness [of the environment] as punters come through with signs, wrist bands and T-shirts about the carbon footprint, about climate change,” said Davie Philip from Cultivate, a group co-ordinating green initiatives for the festival.

Battling climate change is now the responsibility of festival-goers as well as environmentalists, he added.

“There is a responsibility on a music festival to communicate as coherently as possible in a way that works at a festival that we are facing a crisis,” he said.

“Bin your empties” teams will patrol campsites and the main music arenas. And while a lot of rubbish might still end up on the ground, efforts are being made to prevent a carpet of plastic discarded drink cups forming over fields. Instead, like last year, consumers pay a deposit of €3 for plastic eco-cups.

It is hoped that measures being introduced by promoters POD Concerts and Aiken Promotions could make the Laois event one of the most “low carbon” festivals in the world.

It is estimated that up to 65% of pollution to the environment at festivals is caused by emissions from vehicles going to and from events.

Attendees are being encouraged to pool car lifts down to the Stradbally Hall site.

In addition to compost toilets, traders are being pushed to use minimal packaging and reusable materials.

Also for the first year at the festival, phones can be charged at the Nokia “Recharge Pod”, a facility run by solar and wind power. It will charge up to 56 mobile phones per hour.

Recycle stations will also be present for paper, glass and aluminum.

And while punters and artists can make efforts on the ground to prevent damage to the environment, “greening” experts will be on hand in the Global Green area to talk about reducing your own carbon footprint.

Cultivate say recycling will be trebled at this year’s festival.

But after the three days of partying this year, cleaning up the after the festival is still a daunting task.

“It takes a couple of weeks, everything must be taken down and an army of volunteers go through the campsites and arena picking up everything from the visible trash to cigarette butts. It’s quite a task,” added Mr Philip.