Go Green at Reading and Leeds
With the recent heatwaves in the UK, and extreme weather worldwide, you must be living under a rock if you haven’t realised by now that this has something to do with climate change. It is real folks, and we’re afraid to say, our past actions are the cause. BUT our future actions can help to alter the outcome. Will you join our call for action?
This article will show how you can get involved in what we are doing at Reading / Leeds to make this year even more sustainable, all while having an amazing time and playing your part in creating a positive future.
Reducing Our Footprint Together
Packing Before You Leave
We have created this awesome tent buying guide to help you buy a tent that will see you through many festivals to come. They are not single use items, each tent contains the equivalent plastic to two hundred and fifty plastic pint cups: Luckily our cups are paper, but that is worth thinking about.
Free water refill points are provided across the campsites and arena, perfect for cooling down on hot summer days.
What can you do?
Bring a reusable bottle or buy a branded one onsite, use our tent buying guide, and take your tent home.
Travel
We have provided so many low-emission options for you to get to Leeds Festival, to try and reduce the 80% of the event’s overall emissions that are contributed by travel to and from site [Reference].
What can you do?
Choose one of the options below!
Coach
Big Green Coach are our carbon-neutral travel partner, book HERE to travel with the official travel provider for Leeds Festival.
Train
The nearest train station is Leeds Train Station. A shuttle bus operates between Leeds Train Station to Leeds Festival from Sovereign Square Park, Wednesday 25th – Monday 30th August. Taking you 30 minutes arrive in style as close to the festival as you can get.
Car Sharing
Driving to the festival or looking for a lift? Find awesome people to share your ride with at festival with GoCarShare HERE to travel green AND save money.
For those who do travel by car, we donate £1 to Trees for Cities to fund local tree planting projects.
Power
We have committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, and as most of our onsite emissions come from how we power this festival, this year we are making a big change.
We are powering the entire the event with biofuel this year, which means a 75 – 90% reduction in emissions compared to the fuel that usually powers events.
We are also looking into how to make the festival fully electric in future, read more HERE.
What can you do?
Use the onsite phone charging facilities in the knowledge that it is being powered by a significantly lower-emission fuel!
If you have any used batteries for torches etc, please take them home with you
Food
Emissions from our food system contribute up to a 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In a new sustainability initiative, the clever people at London School of Economics have calculated the carbon footprint of the food sold at the festival. We have then given each menu item a simple three-level carbon footprint rating so you can see the impact of the food options.
What can you do?
Pick your chosen meal having seen the information, and make a positive choice!
Plastic
Single use plastic sucks! That is why we have put the following in place to reduce it at Leeds:
– All our cups are paper, and we have had a deposit return scheme in place since 2007
– We have Pepsi Max bars that avoid plastic bottles completely, serving your drink straight into a paper cup.
– All our soft drinks and bottled water are made from at least 50% recycled plastic.
– Plastic cutlery and straws have been banned since 2009, and only compostable food containers are allowed.
– Bulk condiment bottles must be used instead of single-use sachets.
What can you do?
Bring a reusable water bottle and follow our three bin system for Recyclable items (cans, plastic, cardboard), Compostable items (paper plates, wooden cutlery, food scraps), and anything else can go into bins for Not Recyclable items. Please use the bins provided for you, littering is not cool.
Be Rewarded For Being Green at the Festival
Eco Camp
This year we are collaborating with Music Declares Emergency to give you Reading / Leeds Festival’s first ever Eco Camp – Camp with a conscience and stay in our brand-new campsite!
The #NoLeedsOnADeadPlanet Campsite is for like-minded people who want to make a difference: If you live life with the planet in mind, and want to stay in a clean, green field for a festival you’ll remember, then this is the campsite for you.
What can you do?
Answer our call: Book into the campsite HERE and Create Your Future. There would be #NoLeedsOnADeadPlanet.
You must have already purchased a ticket to Leeds to stay here.
Recycling Rewards
We want to reward you for helping us to improve our recycling rate!
What can you do?
Pick up a recycling bag and fill it with your empty cans and bottles. Bring it back to the recycling points and you could win a pair of tickets to next year, festival merch, or a £100 Co-op voucher!
Cup and Bottle Deposit Return Scheme
We have put a 10p refundable deposit on every cup and bottle we sell in the arena, and the Co-op have a reverse vending machine at their store in the campsite.
What can you do?
Collect ten cups or bottles, and take them to our Return Points in the arena for some cold hard cash (The minimum deposit return is £1). Returning bottles to the Co-op reverse vending machine gives you the chance to win one of a selection of prizes each time!
Get Informed
We work with several charities who want to spread the word about the climate, the planet, what is happening now, and what you can do to save it.
What can you do?
Seek out, and listen to, the organisations below!
Music Declares Emergency
Music Declares Emergency is a group of artists, music industry professionals and organisations that stand together to declare a climate and ecological emergency andbelieve in the power of music to promote the cultural change needed to create a better future
They will be at the festival this year and we can’t wait to tell you more about their plans **COMING SOON**
Youth Climate Justice Activists
This year we will be joined again by the incredibly passionate Youth Climate Justice Activists, made up of some of the main youth climate justice groups in the country, who have joined together to come and speak to you about the climate crisis. They will be talking about their campaigns, their experiences and what you can do to get involved.
Get Involved
Each year we organise a Green Team to engage with public and staff on environmental initiatives at the Festival.
We are working with Everything is Possible to help us make Leeds a green machine! If you want to help us save the planet one festival at a time, there are still places so sign up with our Green Team directly HERE.
For more info on our green actions – see our Festival Charter HERE and our Sustainability Report HERE.