Press Releases
Music Fans Want Green Events
Music industry campaign group Agreenerfestival.com has published the results of a new survey conducted by Buckinghamshire New University through the Centre for Crowd Safety Management and Security. The survey asked music fans what they thought about green issues at live music events. The survey of 1407 festival goers across Europe clearly shows that music fans and festival goers are waking up to green issues. The survey, which took in 500 UK fans, nearly 600 fans in Finland and 330 fans in Germany and the Netherlands, is unveiled two years after Agreenerfestival’s first survey in 2006
INITIAL FINDINGS
In The UK 80% considered noise at festivals had an environmental impact, 82% thought waste had a negative impact, 56% thought festivals had a negative carbon footprint, 60% were worried about water, 53% were concerned with land damage and a whopping 84% thought travel and transport had a negative environmental impact. Awareness of the the link between CO2 and climate change was up 26% in two years.
48% of music fans in the UK say they would pay more for greener events and 36% say they consider a festival’s environmental policy before deciding to buy a ticket. Only 14% of European fans think about a festival’s environmental impact when buying tickets and just 38% would pay more for a ticket to promote green policies.
However, whilst 74% of UK fans said that they would travel on public transport if it was included in the price of a ticket but 80% of European fans would do this.
Agreenerfestival co-founder Ben Challis said
“In the last two years we have seen a significant rise in audience awareness of green issues, in particular the audience’s own carbon footprint. Travel to and from festivals is something we all have to tackle now, looking at better public transport solutions as well as car sharing and other innovative solutions.”
Buckinghamshire New University’s Head of Programmes Teresa Moore says
“In the past few years festivals like Glastonbury, Download and the Isle of Wight Festival have worked hard to promote public transport and it now seems that the audience has digested this message and agrees – fans want to use public transport but the UK’s public transport infrastructure remains a concern”
Moore added “the rise in awareness of climate change is clear from the big rise in awareness of the impact of CO2 emissions – 56% of festival goers now consider CO2 a negative impact from festivals. It is encouraging that the willingness to adopt public transport shows a shift in thinking towards practical action by the audience”
Moore also explained that the survey was carried out by a small group of Buckinghamshire New University’s students and staff. A large proportion of the surveys were completed online both in the UK and in Europe. This meant that the data collection process minimised the project’s carbon footprint and any potential waste.
The research also shows that 65% of UK music fans would still go to an event where their favourite band was playing even if the event was not environmentally friendly – this rises to 88% in Europe.
39% of fans say that food stalls at festivals should encourage re-usable crockery and cutlery instead of disposables (although 36% disagreed) and 52% would be happy to pay a refundable £2 charge on beer cups - although 30% disagreed. Those supporting these activities are actually down in numbers from the survey in 2006 when more fans were ready to adopt recyclable utensils, cutlery and cups. European fans are very similar – 38% saying stalls should use re-useable crockery and cutlery although only 36% supported deposits on cups – but 41% were resistant to deposits in Europe.
Challis adds “some of those surveyed in both the UK and Europe seem resistant to the environmental impact of festivals. In fact some disagreed with the fact there were any negative impacts at all. In the UK 34% do not think CO2 emissions are a problem and 13% would not recycle. Another 36% would not want recyclable crockery and cutlery (even if free!) and 30% would not pay a refundable deposit of £2 for beer cups. This is a shame because festivals in the UK and Europe have shown the effectiveness of cup deposits – the Latitude Festival massively reduced onsite waste by producing a souvenir beer mug” .
Since its creation in 2000 the Centre in conjunction with staff and students from the music management programmes have conducted significant research initiatives in the area of crowd safety management at many of the major music festivals both here in the UK as well as in Europe. During this time we have developed considerable expertise in the field of consumer based research on issues of concern to the industry. “
Contact Teresa Moore Teresa.Moore@bucks.ac.uk
01494 522141
The Research was Commission by
A Greener Festival Ltd
8 Henley Prior
Collier Street
London N1 9JU
Contact Ben Challis benchallis@aol.com
0207 713 6579
A Greener Festival was set up in 2006 to champion the sustainable events and environmentally friendly music and arts festivals. The organisation “is not for profit” and it’s main activity is to facilitate the exchange of best practice through the website www.agreenerfestival.com. The Organisation also promote the annual awards scheme (The Greener Festival Awards) for green festivals in association with the UK Festival Awards. The first winners of the award in 2007 included The Glastonbury Festival, Lattitude, The Big Chill and the Sunrise Celebration. The Organisation also supports and endorses a discount insurance scheme for green events from international insurance broker Robertson Taylor. Other activities include the new cartoon character ECOGIRL (tm) who is used to promote environmentally friendly practices , the Great Big Green Ideas competition (with the Big Issue) and a new educational DVD for universities, schools and colleges promoting green awareness and green solutions at live events. In 2008 AGF are launching training days for staff employed in the live music sector to provide best green practices at events. AGreenerFestival actively supports Julies Bicycle, the UK’s cross music initiative on climate change and YOUROPE's Green n Clean initiative for European festivals.
CREDITS
The Research was conducted by Buckinghamshire New University, through the Centre for Crowd Management and Security Studies supervised by Teresa Moore, Research Manager for the Centre and also Head of Programmes assisted by Jarno Stegeman, Lecturer. The research was managed by the following undergraduate students from The Music and Entertainment Management programmes Heli Marjanen, Malte Ernsteing, Tamsin Vella and Adam Sharples and with Robert Moore (Oxford University). Sarah Hughes managed the data inputting.
