Sustainable festival
15. December 2021
The people behind AiaSound Festival are in full swing planning the three-day music festival in August next year. They are planning a festival full of cool music experiences and togetherness between people and are working to ensure that the festival at Tiøren near Copenhagen is as sustainable as possible. Their goal is to collaborate with their suppliers to make it the most sustainable festival in the Nordic region.
– This is the future, and we must make all the right choices from the beginning so that sound, light, food, waste management, and so on are sustainable throughout. Therefore, it is a requirement for all partners that they also contribute, says Jonas Nybro, spokesman for AiaSound Festival.
For example, there won’t be any plastic used to serve food and CO2 emissions will be covered for all trips the event requires, including the travel of the bands performing at the festival. AiaSound Festival will not have a camping area in 2022 either, but instead will recommend that guests use the possibilities for accommodation in the city of Copenhagen. That alone removes 27% of the environmental impact. At the same time there are no parking spaces for cars. People are asked to arrive on foot, by bike, or by metro, which is easily possible close to Copenhagen.
A green mindset
The goal is to think sustainability in so well that it does not affect the experience of the festival. AiaSound Festival collaborates with Sustainable Bottom Line 2.0 in the City of Copenhagen and the company GH Sustainability. They generate a report that shows all the numbers on festival sustainability. The report from the 2021 festival will be published soon. It was called ØreSound but has been renamed to better reach an international audience.
The report makes each guest’s environmental impact fully transparent and shows where the environmental load comes from. This makes clear what can be changed to reduce the impact as much as possible. It can be anything from making sure the plastic used for shot tubes is melted down and recycled, to planting trees or donating part of the ticket fee to sustainable causes, as Venue Manager and AiaSound Festival do jointly.
The green message
Jonas Nybro hopes that the demand for partners to contribute to sustainability will spread the idea. It has been well received.
– Everyone is willing and thinks it’s cool. It supports our idea of green rings, says Jonas Nybro, and says that there will also be a green start-up hub at the festival. Entrepreneurs are invited to present their sustainable products and may receive attention and in some cases funding. There will also be a scholarship for an entrepreneur who will then have a better opportunity to do something good with his green project.
AiaSound Festival does not want to force anything on the festival participants.
– We maintain the same quality and the guests do not miss anything, says Jonas Nybro. For example, there will be a wide range of food, focusing on quality, so people can make the choice that is right for them. All the while the festival organisers make sure that the overall climate impact is minimal.
It’s not just about the environment. Sustainability is also about social responsibility. Here, there are partners who help people who have difficulty in the labour market, so that they can also play a role at the festival.
Venue Manager’s Business Director, Peter Richardt, thinks it’s very inspiring the way AiaSound Festival has thought sustainability into all the many aspects involved in running a festival. He believes this will inspire many others in the industry, and Venue Manager is delighted to be able to contribute to the cause.
