Creating a Sustainability Mindset for Music Festival Workers.

Most music festival entities publish sustainability policies, but these can be worthless if everyone working for the event is not committed to fulfilling these policies. What steps can festival organisers take to ensure that their staff, volunteers and suppliers show a demonstrable commitment to any stated sustainability policies.

Attitudes can be one of the most difficult attributes to change in individuals and this can create a challenge for anyone who has been working with music festivals for a number of years. Music festivals have traditionally been criticised for problematic waste management and a high carbon footprint and organisers are under pressure to make step changes to improve this. A festival's public policy on sustainability is only as good as the implementation of these policies made by the people working for the organisation.

Education and Training. 
All full-time permanent staff and any temporary volunteers should go through a formal structured education and training programme on sustainability. Any programme should link directly to the festival’s own sustainability objectives and include examples of the impact on the environment of old practices. Key areas to focus on for training are practicable steps that need to be taken to reduce waste through improved waste management and carbon emission reductions. This could include initiatives like getting festival-goers to take their tents and rubbish home, providing on-site recycling facilities and encouraging them to use lower impact transportation to and from the festival.

Implementing Organiser’s Sustainability Policies.
Any policies announced by festival organisers should be realistic, achievable and measurable. Festival workers who embrace these policies will support the event’s initiatives and help implement best practices to achieve them. This may include changing how the event operations and infrastructure are managed with a move to cleaner fuels for on-site power generation, the creation of recycling and composting stations, reusable water bottles and sustainable food options.

Collaboration.
In addition to those working directly for the festival entity it is essential that suppliers, vendors and sponsors fully support sustainability policies. A well informed and trained festival workforce can help to ensure that all external third parties embrace these policies. For those managing suppliers and vendors there is a greater responsibility to ensure that they use best practice when considering packaging, waste disposal reduction and the use of energy-efficient equipment and transport to reduce carbon footprint.

Feedback and Measurement. 
Having a robust sustainability training programme for festival workers can only work if there is regular feedback. These sessions can take place during the planning phases and post event to review how initiatives have been implemented and measure the performance of individuals. Anonymous staff surveys on their attitudes to sustainability can help identify what has been successful and areas that still need attention. Review sessions can also be an opportunity to reward those who have demonstrated initiative and a commitment to sustainability.

Creating a positive mindset regarding sustainability amongst all festival workers can contribute towards the organisers overall aims and objectives. This helps to create a sustainability culture for the event that can be felt by festival-goers, artists and any media covering the event.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Matheus Bertelli via Pexels

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