Educational Content

5 Tips for a Successful, Sustainable Event

June 18, 2025
Betsy Levine
Educational Content
5 Tips for a Successful, Sustainable Event

Make sure your festival’s impact is on its audience, not on the earth.

Over the past few decades, sustainability has joined the forefront of conversations when it comes to planning a festival. Music festivals heavily contribute to the serious issue surrounding greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to global warming. But there are various ways that you can decrease a festival's negative impact on the environment. To continue to put on festivals, we need a healthy planet, so do your part in protecting it!

1. Educate and empower fans before the festival

Send out resources on festival sustainability and your commitment to the planet. Be sure to set the tone for your eco-friendly event. Encourage using public transportation, carpooling, or walking to and from your festival. Place recycling and compost bins around the festival as opposed to garbage cans. Leave fans with a future sustainability plan and ways they can contribute outside of your event.

For example, since 2019, all attendees of Glastonbury, the UK’s largest music festival, have been required to sign the Glastonbury Green Pledge as part of the festival’s terms and conditions. This pledge encourages attendees to "Love the Farm, Leave no Trace." Additionally, improving waste literacy and general knowledge about how to effectively reduce waste can help festivals reduce waste, lower costs, and minimize environmental impact. Misunderstanding terms like bioplastics and compostable plastics can lead to poor waste choices.

2. Ban single-use plastics

Banning single-use plastics at festivals can drive significant environmental change. Instead of selling single-use water bottles, encourage fans to bring or buy reusable water bottles. Always check your local venues policies before going to the show. If possible, use only compostable food packaging and utensils. By redirecting funds toward eco-friendly alternatives, festivals help create a market for sustainable materials.

For more information, here are more articles we found useful:

Festivals Plastic Predicament – Dr. Ashlee Jahnke

Promoting Plastic-Free Festivals: Real-World Examples and Tips for Reducing Waste

3. Partner with environmental orgs

Partnering with environmental organizations can significantly reduce the environmental impact of festivals. For example, REVERB is a nonprofit that collaborates with festivals, venues, and artists to make their events climate-positive by offsetting carbon footprints and supporting projects that eliminate carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Through such partnerships, festivals can implement changes like using paper straws, encouraging reusable water bottles, and supporting initiatives like AFG's Green Disco, which sold $20 eco-bands to fund tree planting and other environmental causes. These partnerships help create more sustainable events while promoting environmental responsibility.

4. Reduce Food Waste

Organizers of festivals and events can dramatically reduce food waste—and boost sustainability—by adopting proven strategies like waste audits, composting, donation partnerships, reusable dishware, and smart menu planning. For example, using apps like OLIO or Too Good To Go to divert leftovers and encouraging attendees to take home food, can result in less wasted surplus. Insights from the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment show that tracking portions and eliminating waste prone items—like bread that often goes uneaten/stale in the heat—can make a big impact. Events can improve their sustainability simply by educating guests, clearly labeling compost and recycling bins, and partnering with local charities and waste contractors to ensure surplus is either reused or properly composted.

5. Create long-term goals

Creating long-term sustainability goals is crucial for reducing a festival's environmental impact. Set clear targets, such as becoming carbon neutral or positive within a specific number of years. Commit to donating a percentage of proceeds to environmental organizations and implement strategies for offsetting carbon emissions, like funding renewable energy projects or supporting reforestation efforts. These long-term goals help ensure that festivals not only reduce their immediate impact but also contribute to lasting environmental change.

It is everyone's responsibility to work towards a more sustainable future in all aspects of our lives, and the festival industry has been a leader in the cause over the past few decades. Each choice towards a greener event makes a positive impact on the planet. Check out these sites for more information on how to make changes to make yours even more environmentally friendly!

The Environmental Revolution Comes to Music Festivals – Melissa Locker

Can Flashy Music Festivals Go Green?

AGF Festival Sustainability Report 2024: Shaping Green Futures!

How Music Festivals And Live Events Are Embracing Sustainability – Jamie Hailstone

Music festivals need sustainability now more than ever – Sustainable Review

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