Hadra and Grassroots spread green messages

Claire has reported back on two of the Festivals she has visited this year. Both Hadra and Grassroots are new entrants into our Greener Festival Awards and here Claire describes some of the initiatives at the Festivals.Grassroots is a wonderful one day festival set in Val de Mare, Jersey. After a journey to the event by train, ferry and shuttle we were instantly struck by the lack of any rubbish on the floor. Grassroots commitment to reducing waste and keeping their site clean, as well as responsibly disposing of what is wasted is excellent. They had a reward scheme which was particularly utilized by the children where a full bucket of recyclable plastic bottles and cans could be exchanged for drinks tokens. They had only one local catering company and required them to use compostable packaging for any food containers. The initiative I was most impressed by is something I’ve been championing over the past year since hearing a similar scheme at Bonnarroo festival in Tennessee. There was no bottled water sold on site. There were refillable bottles sold for £1 and water filling stations around the site. This was facilitated by Jersey Water, and every pound collected went to charity Water Aid. This is hugely commendable on the part of the organizers who have foregone income from water sales for the sake of the environment and care for our finite resources. Organisers Allez-Oop are also informing the council of where Jersey infrastructure could be improved to assist with responsible waste management, for example provisions for industrial composting.The Fourth edition of Hadra Trance Festival took place in Lans-de-Vercour, French Alps this summer. Usually used as a ski resort, power was taken from the mains supply, whilst a number of traders brought solar power with them. Personal generators were banned at the event. The festival implemented a successful re-usable cup deposit scheme using "Ecocup" at the bars, and provided free re-usable butt bins in conjunction with sponsor "Green Addict". Shuttles were povided from Grenoble train / coach station and free shuttles from Lans-de-Vercour to the festival site, and car share was promoted using covoiturage.fr, VFD, Jaspir and transiere.fr. Many bins for seperation of waste were provided by AREMACS and the Community of the Councils of Massifs of Vercours. Whilst the festival separated compost waste at present the location does not have the facility for food composting, only green composting (trees / plants etc). The site is a location of nature and beauty, and the message to protect this was widely communicated to the audience on website, flyers, posters, tickets, programmes and stalls.Posted by Claire on the 8th August 2010