Melvin Benn’s foreword to Jam Packed, Julie’s Bicycle’s latest research into Audience Travel to Festivals.

Over the last decade the festival sector has grown enormously: in 2008 over a million festival goers gathered to share music and company. In the same decade the consequences of fossil fuel based economies have become horribly clear – nothing short of the widespread destruction of ecosystems, and dramatic climate events on an unimaginable scale.

The latest science suggests that the current trajectory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will trigger a temperature rise above 6 degrees – the worst case scenario suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Many festivals have made real efforts to reduce environmental degradation. Recycling waste, Waste Vegetable Oil biodiesel, locally sourced food supplies, responsible water use, composting, and occasionally on-site renewable energy have been part of festival planning for some time now. In their beautiful locations greenfield festivals can, and some do, strongly communicate the ethics of sustainability.

But we need to do much more, starting with the reduction of GHG emissions. This comes down to two areas: travel and transportation to the event and the energy supply to the site.

The biggest problem, by far, is audience travel: it produces 68% (approximately 57,000 tonnes (t) of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (CO2e)) of the festival sector’s total emissions and 24% of all music audience travel emissions.

Jam Packed is the first cross industry response to this issue. We’ve started by examining audience attitudes and behaviour in relation to festival travel. This is only one piece of the picture, but an important one; over the next year we hope to extend our research to concerts and touring. We have a big opportunity to make a difference and I invite other event organisers from across the cultural and sports sectors to work with us on this problem.
 
If we are to bring our emissions down to manageable levels and adapt to existing climate impacts every last one of us must focus on this issue, understand what we can do, and get on with doing it.
 
Melvin Benn
CEO Festival Republic