GreenBase: Roo, Roth Receive Green Awards

The awards are given out to any festival that applies and agrees to be independently evaluated. A small fee paid by the festival covers transportation for independent volunteer auditors who poke their heads into every nook and cranny and fill out a lengthy evaluation, which is then reviewed by A Greener Festival before handing out awards.

Congratulations to the organizers of Bonnaroo and Rothbury for their successful greening efforts! The full press release is below:

Seven English festivals including The Big Chill, Bestival, Summer Sundae Weekender, Shambala, Reading, Leeds and End of the Road along with Scotland's Hydro Connect, Ireland's Electric Picnic, Portugal's Boom, Southbound in Australia and the Rothbury Festival in the U.S.A. have joined the illustrious list of winners for the 2008 Greener Festival Award. All of the award winners were praised by organizers www.agreenerfestival.com for their efforts to promote environmentally friendly music festivals.

The independent award is based on a seven part questionnaire which covers event management, travel and transport plans, CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, fair trade, waste management and recycling, water management and noise pollution. Points are awarded for festivals which can show an active plan to promote public transport, reduce on-site waste, recycle and compost wherever possible, re-use water and use sustainable power. Festivals are expected to have a coherent environmental policy and the organizers have environmental auditors who visit as many festival sites as possible to assess how festivals implement their plans. In total twenty three U.K. festivals and eight international festivals have won the award. Six festivals gained the ultimate accolade of the "outstanding" award from the organizers including the Waveform and Shambala festivals in the U.K. and Bonnaroo in the U.S.A. Australia's Bluesfest was also highly commended.

A Greener Festival co-founder Claire O'Neill said "this year applications for our awards more than doubled and this is fantastic news. More and more festivals are making the effort go green and adopt environmentally friendly practices. Some festivals are still improving and going through a steep learning curve, others are old hands now who keep improving their green credentials year on year. The U.K. and international festival scene is now making a concerted effort to be leaders in changing behaviour to protect the environment."

The organizers also congratulated the eighteen festivals who had won the "Green 'n' Clean" award from Yourope, the European festivals organization. A Greener Festival's Luke Westbury added "We fully endorse and support Yourope's award and the progress they are making. Across both Europe and the U.K. we can see significant and positive change. Green 'n' Clean have some fantastic festivals taking part including Denmark's Roskilde, St. Gallen Open Air in Switzerland, Rheinkultur in Germany, Pinkpop in the Nederlands and Finland's Provinssirock. We salute them!"