AGF INSIDER: TRENDS AND BEST PRACTICES IN SUSTAINABILITY WITH Pip Rush Jansen
Welcome to AGF Insider, our exciting new series where we bring you monthly interviews with industry experts.
Each month we catch up with an industry leader in the sustainability world to find the current trends and best practices
This month we catch up with Pip Rush Jansen, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Arcadia Spectacular
What are the best practices that you are seeing give the best results?
The new wave of battery technology charged by wind and solar is the biggest game-changer for us.
Thanks to the support of Grid Faeries, a collaboration between Dale Vince and
Claire O’Neill, we were able to use one when we launched our new Dragonfly installation at Glastonbury this summer and the results were extraordinary.
We operate a really hefty setup – sound, lights, a 50,000 person strong arena and it powered everything seamlessly. Any residual worries in the wider industry about the reliability of batteries for large scale productions have now been blown out of the water, and we’d love to see far wider adoption.
Having built an installation that celebrates the natural world, knowing it was powered by natural energy gave real depth and meaning to it. Plus we’ve been sculpting with recycled materials since we started, and running our flames on recycled biofuel since 2015 so this felt like the cycle had been completed.
Photography: @shotaway
What trends are you seeing this year?
We've seen other events using the same battery tech, and that definitely feels like a pivot point in the industry. Beyond that, we’re just sensing a deeper awareness of best practice across the board which is really encouraging.
What are the obstacles?
Cost is always a barrier but it feels like the tech is about to hit a point where mass adoption lowers prices and accessibility snowballs.
What’s the next big thing in sustainability in events?
We really hope more people start building with recycled materials. So few stages have really adopted this as they want to change the aesthetics every few years but I think we've proved this isn’t necessary. The Spider in its 15th year seems to be more iconic and more in demand than ever – testament to what’s possible.
Photography: @shotaway
What would be the biggest game changer from your perspective?
The establishment of permanent festival sites housing permanent stages within them. Apart from cutting down massively on waste and temporary infrastructure, it would also make way for grid power from renewable sources and that would be the North Star.
