Music festivals were saving the planet before COVID-19

Even before the devastating bushfires and a global pandemic wiped out the live scene, 20 local musicians and 10 of the country’s top music festivals were saving the planet, literally.

An initiative by Green Music Australia, which launched in December last year, asked festivalgoers and artists to think about the enormous piles of waste left behind at festival campsites each year.

TMN can reveal that over 4,000 music lovers signed the Party With The Planet pledge to do better, resulting in the roughly 103,775kg of CO2 emissions being avoided.

Over 120,000 people also viewed the campaign video featuring Allara, Angie McMahon, Cub Sport, Hilltop Hoods, Holy Holy, Lime Cordiale, Matt Corby, Missy Higgins, Montaigne and The Veronicas.

Berish Bilander, co-CEO of Green Music Australia, said he was overwhelmed by the result.

“This summer we reached out to all musicians and music lovers asking them to keep their campsite clean and take everything home, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the result," he said.

"It just goes to show that every little thing we do can make a big difference.

“We know this has been a really tough year for our industry, from bushfires to floods and now the coronavirus outbreak, but we have to band together ... so we can all make it out the other side.”

ALSO READ: Is this the end of Australia’s summer music season as we know it? [op-ed]

Green Music Australia co-CEO, Berish Bilander.

Festival partners include Beyond the Valley, Falls, Island Vibe, Lost Paradise, Party in the Paddock, Pitch, Rainbow Serpent, Splendour, Strawberry Fields and Unify Gathering.

A number of sustainability consultants helped make it happen, including Be-Alternative, Bettercup, Cloud Catcher and Mullum Cares.

Everyone who took the pledge this summer went into a draw to win a double pass to all 10 participating festivals and the winner has just been announced as Tiahla from NSW.

Greem Music Australia confirmed with TMN that, due to the current postponement of this year’s upcoming festivals, the passes will be honoured once the events are up and running again.

As another part of the initiative, a campsite rental program, was successfully piloted at this summer’s Strawberry Fields and Falls Festival with partners Clunes Outdoors.

Over 130 tents and marquees were hired out with an average return rate of 98 per cent.

An additional 128 abandoned items were salvaged from the campgrounds, saving the equivalent of 1,120,000 plastic straws from landfill.

Green Music Australia has also just announced their involvement in a new four-year research scheme being led by the Queensland University of Technology.

The project will help combat festival waste in partnership Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival, Byron Shire Council and Byron Parklands, with assistance by the NSW Government.

The project aims to reduce the huge amount of waste produced by music festival campsites by exploring alternative ways for event-based camping.