SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS
For many people, long weekends spent listening to live music and camping hold some of their dearest memories. Every year, festivals around the world come in all shapes and sizes to welcome people to join a community for a day, a weekend, a week or more.
British summer music festivals have long been centres of culture, drawing thousands to city parks and rural fields for days of entertainment. Festivals bring with them considerable environmental challenges, however – surging energy demand, food miles, abandoned waste, carbon-heavy fan travel and more.
AEG Europe – a global events business that owns and operates renowned venues and festivals – is putting sustainability at the heart of LIDO Festival, a brand new multi-day music event in London’ s Victoria Park.
“ We’ re tasked with building a small town in a park in summer with festivals,” says Sam Booth, Director of Sustainability at AEG Europe.“ Sustainability means rethinking everything – from how we power stages to what food we serve and how our fans arrive.”
Festivals, by their very nature, compress the impact of thousands of people into days, creating unique sustainability challenges.“ There are so many sustainability challenges at festivals,” Sam says.“ Everything from the power, through to the waste, the water, to the food and drink, and how people get to you. Anything you can think of, there is a challenge associated with it.” sustainabilitymag. com 107