The festival sustainability campaign, Festival Vision 2025, has topped 100 members with the From the Fields portfolio joining the festivals pledging to reduce their carbon footprint by 50% by 2025.
With the Association of Independent Festival (AIF) community gathered in Sheffield for the 2019 AIF Congress to discuss issues ranging from mental health to festival economics, Chris Johnson, Vision 2025 founder, participated in the panel ‘Garden of Eden: A Vision for A Sustainable Industry’, he stated: “It is time critical that we act now. It’s great to see more members of the festival community engaging to reduce their carbon impact, getting onboard Vision 2025 and seizing the moment to play their part in helping tackle the climate emergency.”
From the Field portfolio of six festivals included Kendal Calling, Bluedot and Inner City Electronic, which joins other Vision 2025 members; including Festival Republic’s Download, BBC Proms in the Park, Wireless, Leeds and Reading, along with AIF members such as Shambala, Hay Festival, Manchester Pride and Kew The Music.
Ben Robinson, director at From The Fields, commented: “We have initiated many successful sustainable initiatives across our festivals in recent years and we recognise the spirit of collaboration to share and promote knowledge and best practice embodied by Vision 2025.”
The Vision 2025 campaign, run by Industry think-tank Powerful Thinking, recently hosted its third, and most successful, annual conference at the Showman’s Show, attracting over 150 event professionals. The growth in attendees and members reflects the growing number of festivals proactively sharing and exploring best practice around implementing sustainable measures.
Vision 2025 is currently writing the second edition Show Must Go on Report, set to be published in Jan 2020. This will become an invaluable free to access event sustainability tool alongside an online knowledge hub for outdoor event professionals looking to reduce their carbon impact.
