The festive season of 2022 has kicked in, and so has all the fun, laughter and frolic – be it the recently concluded Ganesh Chaturthi across Maharashtra, Durga Puja in Kolkata, or Dussehra across India and Diwali, which is just around the corner.
Festivals represent culture, and sustainability is the need of the hour and part of popular culture, “It is high time sustainability is integrated into the core design of our festivals. Religion acts as the essence in engaging masses, and festivals are important milestones to drive home the message and action of sustainability.” So far, idols are prepared using synthetic paint to achieve glaze and glitter on the idol. Still, the artists are encouraged and motivated to use plant-based colours to ensure less impact on the environment. The idol artist community feels pleased with the change and being a part of the sustainable movement as they feel this is their way of giving back to the planet.
Contributing their part, artists now prepare Maa Dugga’s wig With jute instead of nylon (which is highly unsustainable). Changing times come in changing ways, especially in the post-pandemic world. Artists who prepare the Idols are now ditching traditional materials to prepare the idols (like gypsum plaster). They have replaced the same with mud, fruit peels, leaves, husk, rice, and more sustainable materials that do not adversely impact the environment.
Besides incorporating sustainability as their core theme, many significant festivals include greener initiatives. Music festivals and their organizers and fans are building resilience into events, including circular-economy strategies throughout the supply chain and the performing space, from planning to execution. To ensure a more sustainable supply chain, organizers review how events are managed for the environmental, social, and financial impacts to reach net-zero emissions and waste. In addition to encouraging festivalgoers to clean up their trash before leaving, festival organizers can tackle many other aspects of sustainability to lower their carbon footprint.
Strategic efforts at sustainability not only need to ensure the festival grounds are maintained well enough for years to come but should aim to cut down on the food, materials, and carbon footprint from what is, in essence, the biggest, most exciting festival in the world. In addition, venues and artists are hosting specifically designated spaces for promoting educational activities, as well as more resources for promoting sustainability efforts, as well as other ways that people can help beyond a music festivals grounds. As the festivals emphasize environmental issues, more venues and festivals are on board. Many artists and venue operators are already leading the charge to try and mitigate adverse environmental impacts associated with music festivals and other live music events.
With a lot of the efforts in the future focused on Zero Waste Music Festivals and even more of an emphasis on Sustainable Concerts, this gives people a form of entertainment they have loved for years without compromising their ecological values.
Positive voices within the sustainability events community see a world where music festivals can become shining examples for others to emulate. Only when entertainment and music festivals are seen as extensions of our being will questions about waste management and sustainability be addressed without a single-size-fits-all solution. Having to essentially build mini-cities for the inflow of people looking to dance, drink, eat, shop, and leave behind waste, festivals around the world began viewing their events as opportunities not just to give music fans a memorable weekend but also to provide innovative ways of solving the problems of waste and pollution. The same includes attending festivals that are walking the walk when it comes to being the best sustainable festivals.
Festivals that opt for an eco-friendly path, implementing green practices all over their experience, are creating truly great experiences for fans to return to year after year – turning environmental sustainability into financial sustainability. Artists and promoters looking for additional ways to aid in their efforts towards sustainability could partner with organizations such as REVERB, which helps to create tours and festivals with environmental awareness, all the while connecting with fans. Some festivals are leading the way in eco-friendly efforts, and this movement is not going unnoticed. For instance, last year, the Mad HattersaA affair festival became a new sustainability festival. Held in September in Polegate, East Sussex, the festival is designed to inspire visitors to make the world a better place.
Sustainability is both misleading and self-explanatory. It is misleading since the media often limits sustainability to environmental factors; it is self-explanatory, as it can continue for a relatively extended period. Prolonging our health, clean and healthy environments, quality food and water, good governance, and proper social order is paramount for a planet to be sustainable and livable. Suppose we regard festivals as the basis of our civilization that encompasses aspects of transportation, energy, education, innovation, food/water and waste, to name a few. In that case, there is no better test case to prove what is possible. Festivals can plant seeds of awareness and, hopefully, one day will blossom into the sustainable world we all aspire to live in.
References
· https://www.politico.eu/article/sex-drugs-sustainability-music-festival-green-environment/
· https://www.aworldtotravel.com/sustainable-music-festival-guide/
· https://drinkflowater.com/blog/sustainable-concerts-music-festivals-take-steps-to-go-green/
· https://wysidio.com/event-strive-sustainability/
· https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/environmental-music-festivals-1227689/