The Gamification of Music Festival Sustainability Initiatives.

Most music festival entities place a high priority on meeting their sustainability objectives, but not all festival-goers are fully engaged with this. Can the use of gamification turn passive messages into real action by rewarding more participation in sustainability initiatives? How can organisers use gamification to create festival-goer sustainability participation at events.

Festival organisers invest time and effort in creating awareness campaigns that urge festival-goers to recycle, conserve water, reduce waste and use public transport. Using rewards and competitions can incentivise festival-goers to make environmentally responsible behaviour more engaging. There are operational challenges in implementing sustainability gamification but also commercial opportunities with sponsors and partners. What do organisers need to consider when converting their passive sustainability communications into measurable action using gamification.

Why Sustainability Needs Gamification.
Festival-goers attend music festivals for the experience with a focus on the music, atmosphere and meeting like-minded people. Activities like recycling, returning reusable cups, conserving water and disposing of camping equipment responsibly is not a priority for them. By making sustainability linked activities convenient engaging and rewarding it can help to shift behaviour. Gamification of sustainability initiatives with challenges linked to points, rewards and competitions can make sustainable behaviour part of the festival experience. Awareness does not always lead to participation and interactive environmental challenges that are a good fit with the overall festival experience helps to give them a reason to act. If gamification activities are shared on social media, it can encourage wider participation in activities with increased repeated sustainable habits. The introduction of gamification for sustainability makes the activities more attractive to potential sponsor investment by giving them credible participation options. Activities that result in improved sustainability linked behaviour through gamification provides organisers with a more measurable outcome which can be reported on their sustainability achievements post event.

Common Gamification Objectives.
Typically, organisers are looking to make waste management more efficient by encouraging correct separation of different waste categories and to ensure that reusable cups and food containers are actually returned for reuse. Increased use of public transport options to get to and from a festival site rather than using personal vehicles, which is one of the primary contributors to an event’s carbon footprint. Getting festival-goers to learn and appreciate the festival's environmental targets and achievements including participation in the principle of leave no trace, particularly on campsites, for example.

Operational Challenges and Opportunities.
Participation in waste management initiatives can be subject to abuse as festival-goers can be tempted to rely on volume rather than sorting waste correctly to gain rewards, this requires an element of supervision and verification by organisers. Gamification initiatives often rely on digital interaction through mobile devices so this can exclude anyone without a smart phone or connectivity. Successful initiatives can sometimes impact on crowd control challenges requiring extra staff to manage congestion safely. Organisers must ensure that any gamification initiatives are fully supported with an adequate operational infrastructure, particularly having sufficient recycle bins for expected volumes, efficient water refill stations and reuse systems that actually work. Well run gamification initiatives provide a great platform for sponsor activity where audience engagement can be increased through participation and data collected can be shared for future marketing activities.

Example Initiatives.
Music festivals around the world are successfully using a variety of gamification initiatives to encourage more festival-goer sustainability action. A points-based reward scheme is always a popular and simple way to improve waste management where festival-goers earn points for returning reusable RFID enabled cups and sorting waste correctly. Points earned can be used to unlock merchandise or food vouchers for example. Clean campsite zone competitions can be linked to pitches that are the cleanest on inspection with rewards and recognition for winners. Rewards and competition entries can be issue to those who complete more sustainable travel, either through car sharing schemes or use of public transport, rewards can be weighted to those who make lower carbon impact journeys. Bringing refillable water containers onto a festival-sire is encouraged by organisers and festival-goers could earn points every time they use a refill station, for example.

Measurements and Reporting.
In most cases gamification requires the use of an app download onto a mobile device where points are awarded through QR code scanning at the participation location, for example. This enables the collection of critical data on the volume of participation in any scheme by festival-goers. Organisers need to establish that the gamification initiatives they used actually changed behaviour and contributed to reducing the environmental impact of the event. Key metrics measured can include volume of waste correctly sorted, reusable cup return rates, overall waste generated per festival-goers and the number using lower emission transport options. In addition to the results organisers should also establish the total cost of running gamification initiatives linked to sustainability. Once a benchmark has been established it can be used year on year to check if there is evidence of ongoing improvements that are contributing to the festival's sustainability achievements.

For festival organisers planning their next event 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, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

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