A Greener Festival Messages
UK FESTIVAL AWARDS AND CONFERENCE DETAILS ANNOUNCED
August 28th, 2010
The third annual UK Festival Conference has been launched with new media partners. Tickets for the Conference and the Awards on now sale for Thursday, November 18th 2010 at the British Music Experience, O2 Complex, London. The third annual Festival Awards UK Conference launches today with the addition of Brand Republic as a media partner. Set to take place on Thursday 18th November 2010 at the British Music Experience, part of London’s The O2, it has fast become the leading event for the Britain’s festival business, bringing the industry together to discuss the most pressing topics facing the sector.
Following the huge success of last year’s Conference, Festival Awards Ltd, the organisation behind the Conference & Awards 2010 has expanded the number of panel discussions and recruited a further two of the UK’s leading media outlets as partners to this year’s event. Renowned international live music industry magazine Audience and the UK’s leading advertising, marketing, media and PR portal Brand Republic will join last year’s partners, Music Week, LiveUK, TPi Magazine and IQ to host conference sessions.
As the UK continues to struggle with difficult economic conditions, Conference media partners will bring their individual expertise and market experience to produce discussions on the key issues in the festival industry – providing delegates with access to the most up-to-date thinking and developments. A topline overview of the six Conference Sessions is as follows, with further details including industry expert panellists to be announced in due course:
‘Making your festival profitable’ - in association with Music Week Running a festival is a fun – but risky – business, especially with so much competition in the market and difficult economic conditions. From policing expenses and infrastructure to all the little “extras” that give events their uniqueness, what options are there for cutting costs without compromising quality, and what non-traditional revenue streams can be accessed? This panel of experts will show you how.
‘Best Practice for Leveraging Branded Activity at Music Festivals without selling out’ - in association with Brand Republic. More information about the Brand Republic session will be announced shortly.
‘Non-ticketed events should be banned…discuss’ - in association with TPI. The Love Parade disaster was a tragic example of the dangers presented by non-ticketed music events, but there is also evidence that, if managed properly with the correct crowd control measures, these events can operate safely. Key figures in crowd management will debate the viability of banning non-ticketed events and discuss the pivotal relationship between crowd control measures and the enjoyment of the festival-goer.
‘The Crime Busters’ - in association with LIVE UK. Although festivals have exemplary crime rates, compared with communities of the same size, large crowds of young people enjoying themselves are still seen as easy prey for organised crime gangs. In a follow-up to last year’s panel, LIVE UK will be reviewing the effects of this season’s anti-crime initiatives, discussing new ideas and looking at the threats festival organisers still need to be aware of..
‘Battle of the Bands’ - in association with Audience. While tens of thousands of aspiring wannabes worldwide are constantly locked in battles for prizes and profile, there’s a maelstrom of conflicts taking place at the top of the business, as festivals fight for the best artists and agents struggle to secure prime positions and fees. Acts mean audiences; with fans even prepared to move between countries to see their favourite artists. This panel examines this relatively new dynamic.
‘Dispatches from the Field’ - in association with IQ. Part of the joy of festivals is their unpredictability. From hurricanes and heatwaves, to riots and revelry, we all have a festival tale or two, but this panel of industry experts have them in abundance. IQ Magazine will be welcoming an allstar cast to the stage to swap festival tales from the frontline, as they share some of their highs, lows and most unusual moments from the field.
James Drury, the newly appointed Managing Director of Festival Awards Ltd said: “Last year’s events were a real success, with over 1,000 people at the Awards, and 500 at the Conference. We are building on those achievements to make 2010 even better. The number of conference panels has been increased to six in order to provide more opportunities for debate of the key issues in the industry, while the Awards ceremony will again see the highlights from the last 12 months picked out by thousands of festival-goers and our judging panels of journalists and industry experts. The British festival industry is regarded the world over as a model of best practice thanks to its professionalism, and the market’s vibrancy and popularity. After a day of thought-provoking conference sessions, the UK Festival Awards will be a celebration worthy of another year of great achievement.”
Tickets for the Festival Awards UK Conference & Awards 2010 have now gone on sale via the exclusive ticketing platform HMV Tickets and are available in the following price structures. Delegates wishing to attend the Conference and/or Award events can combine ticket packages to suit their needs:
Platinum Ticket £145
- • Table seat for Festival Awards show with some complimentary drinks at Indigo2 (12 seats per table; option to buy full table available)
- • Three-course gourmet meal with wine
- • Entry to UKFA after-show party
- • Delegate Bag
Conference only £60
- • Full conference delegate pass to all sessions at British Music Experience, The O2, London
- • Copy of the UK Festival Report
- • Drinks reception
- • Delegate Bag
Awards only £30
- • Mezzanine access to the Awards show at IndigO2, London
- • Entry to after-show party
More information on the Festival Awards UK Conference & Awards 2010 can be found at www.festivalawards.com
and www.festivalconference.com, while tickets can be purchased directly from HMV Tickets by visiting
6.0: How Heap and Pebble took on the World and won
August 19th, 2010
First flight of the Phoenix fails
August 5th, 2010The Green Phoenix Festival has been CANCELLED. Organisers took the decision due to insufficient advance ticket sales, and said they had no option but to cancel the festival, in order to be able to refund public tickets and deposits from traders.
Festival director Jim Lepingwell said: “We recognize that purchasers may have been waiting to buy tickets on the gates, but we could not professionally take the risk to allow suppliers and traders to set up and artists to travel to us without guaranteeing them an audience. Over the past few months we have taken every step possible to ensure that the festival could go ahead. We are devastated to be cancelling the festival, however we felt it was responsible to do it at this stage so we can completely refund the tickets and deposits. Had we started the set up of the festival as planned for Monday, we would have incurred considerable costs. As it is, all the ticket money and deposits are safeguarded and we are able to completely refund ticket-holders and traders. We want to thank everyone who has supported us this year and the team who have worked very hard to put together the amazing event we had planned.”
Organisers hope to find a way to make some of the music and events happen as smaller events and will let people know as soon as these are confirmed. Please see www.greenphoenixfestival.org.uk
Green up your travel!
July 22nd, 2010
Holiday Extras have just published a 30 page guide highlighting how travellers can help make overseas travel more sustainable.
With contributions from the Travel Foundation, the Guide features expert advice on everything from choosing a destination and the greenest airlines to carbon offsetting schemes and practical tips on making your journey to the airport and hotel stay more environmentally sound. On top of that users of the online guide are also encouraged to contribute their own top tips and comments on green travel. It’s not all about chaining yourselves to trees and being a war paint covered eco-warrior, its the little everyday decisions that can save our planet.”
See more at http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/green-travel.html
Green Phoenix gets UN badge
July 21st, 2010
Green Phoenix Festival have announced that they are the first UK Festival to gain UN Blue Laurels badge as it is recognised as a United Nations University Regional Centre for Expertise for Education on Sustainable Development (RCE).
The Green Phoenix Festival taking place at Gibside National Trust Estate between 19-22 August and hosts a wide ranging debate and discussion programme run by Dr Caspar Hewett of The Great Debate (http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk). Just confirmed are Clive Lord, founder member of Green Party, and Tony Allan, Stockholm Water Prize Laureate as high profile speakers taking part in The Great Debate programme (http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/GrPhoenx10.html), Niel Bowerman co-founder of Climatico and the Climate Change Project; Medical Journalists’ Association prizewinner, Rita Carter; Suzy Dean, lecturer and journalist on multi-culturalism, freedom and democracy and Daniel Ben-Ami author of Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Progress. Debates at the Festival include: What is sustainable culture?; Energising Innovation; Food and Water Security; Limits to Freedom; Limits to Growth in 21 Century; The Borders of Imagination; The Legacy of Multiculturalism and Are We Masters of our own Destiny?
Music includes legendary reggae act The Wailers, as well as wonderful world, folk including Martha Tilston, Eily Portman, dub group Zion Train and festival acts Seize the Day, The Baghdaddies, Maybe Myrtle Tyrtle and Diddly Squat, as well as theatre, cabaret and a family friendly area. Four, three and two day and Sunday tickets available, however the Festival has a new lower capacity of 4,000 people so tickets are very limited. To buy tickets and for the full line up see www.greenphoenixfestival.org.uk
Recycle – the Essential Guide
July 20th, 2010
Black Dog have published a new edition of Recycle – The Essential Guide – with new and updated information on the topic that has progressed massively in the last five years.
Recycle is an accessible and comprehensive resource and is fully illustrated with an introduction by Observer columnist Lucy Siegle. Recycle provides clear information about materials and the process of recycling with a comprehensive international directory of organisations and authorities involve in the recycling process as well as a consumer directory for eco-design and a glossary of recycling terms.
The book contains sections on glass, paper, metal, plastic, domestic and compost and international case studies including Eire’s plastic bag tax and Germany’s Green Dot programme.
Priced at £19.95, you can get a 40% off the price as a discount simply by emailing jess@blackdogonline.com with a delivery address and quoting “A Greener Festival Offer’ as the subject of your email – Jess can then arrange your order.
Recycle – The Essential Guide is the indispensable handbook to recycling today. With vibrant visuals and a clear, accessible layout, the book is an invaluable resource that tackles everything from the urgency of resource depletion on a global scale to what the individual reader can do to reduce waste in their own home
Greanpeace ask us all to SHOUT
July 2nd, 2010
Here is a link to Greepeace’s new video, shot in and around Glastonbury 2010, asking us all to shout out against rainforest destruction. Greenpeace asked their very own Recycled Orchestra to adapt the old Tears for Fears classic Shout” to reflect this years theme, using only instruments made from recycled waste and a little help from fellow artists Florence and the Machine, The Foals, Flaming Lips and a whole bunch of festival goers.
Bestival goes EnvironMENTAL
June 23rd, 2010
Bestival has signed up to the 10:10 campaign and has commited to reduce the festival’s carbon emissions this year by 10%. Bestival were one of the worthy recipients of the ‘Outstanding’ Greener Festival Award in 2009, one of only 13 festivals worldwide to achieve this top level award. Not content to rest on their Laurels, this year Bestival are pulling out all the stops to make Bestival an even greener and more environmentally friendly event than it already is. As part of the green masterplan they have signed up to the 10:10 campaign making a firm commitment to reduce their carbon footprint by 10% starting in 2010. 10:10 is an ambitious project to unite every sector of society behind one simple idea: cutting our emissions by 10% in 2010. We think it’s a fantastic campaign to get involved with, which is why Bestival have signed up to it and you can too. It’s quick and easy to do, just click here.
Bestival, with the support of environment specialists Julie’s Bicycle – http://www.juliesbicycle.com/ – set a carbon output benchmark in 2009 and they are already putting in place measures to reduce this by 10% at this year’s event by reducing carbon emissions from onsite energy use, waste and water consumption.
There are lots of amazing initiatives happening across the site which include the Plugged In Bandstand stage which will be totally solar-powered once again this year, all with help from green-minded friends at Southern Electric. What’s more, the whole surrounding area, (previously called The Village), will become Bestival’s version of Tomorrow’s World – envisaging an inspired, sustainable, green and fun future. Plus all the other power generators in the Tomorrow’s World area, that power the WI Tent, Farmer’s Market and Sushi Yurt will be run on local Wight Made Biodiesel – made from the 1,600 litres of used cooking oil collected from the all the food stalls at Bestival 2009.
Over half the waste at Bestival 2009 was recycled which was great but with your help Bestival want to do much better this year, so Bestival have been redesigning our campsites to make it easier for the waste teams and, crucially, you to get waste into the correct bins so it can be recycled properly. Bestival also REALLY need you all to take your tents etc home with you. Tents are tricky devils to recycle due to their mixture of components… and even worse, once they get mixed up with items that could have been recycled they often make the whole jumbled lot utterly unrecyclable which means it all gets sent to landfill, which is a big fat no-no. So if you’re reading this and you usually leave stuff behind, please please don’t. NB: if you’re going to Glastonbury this weekend please check out their Please Take It Home campaign - www.facebook.com/pleasetakeithome
Lots of you will be pleased to hear that there will be even more composting toilets at Bestival this year too. Not only are they cleaner and less stinky, they also don’t need water or nasty chemicals to work.
One big area where Bestival are looking to reduce the carbon footprint is Travel. Coach or Train are easily the best ways of getting to Bestival. And they are also the cheapest. Southern Vectis are offering some great value door-to-door Coach Travel packages. Their coaches will pick you up from 25 towns and cities in the UK and take you direct to the Bestival site (& back), including ferry travel – so no changes and no extra travel costs. Head over to www.islandbuses.info/bestival.shtml for more info and to book. And South West Trains operate fast services to Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton to connect with the ferries to the island… simple. We’ve also created a new onsite bus and coach station, so those of you that do come by public transport will have a much shorter distance to walk with all your stuff.
If you really must drive, please check out our Car Sharing service – www.liftshare.com/event/20 – and fill your car up with people, thus splitting the carbon emissions between more people.
The Bestival Green Team - a select troupe of top-hat-sporting eco-minded volunteers – will return for their 4th year. They will be handing out recycling bags and free cigarette butt bins to help you to do your bit to Keep Bestival Tidy.
And We Are What We Do, the social movement behind the ‘I’m not a Plastic Bag’ shopper and Historypin, will unleash their latest creation onto Bestival this summer: A massive, fantastical, trash-guzzling creature, with a penchant for recyclable waste. Part monster, part foodie snob, he will be roaming the festival munching cigarette butts, paper plates, plastic cups and tin cans out of the hands of festival partiers. And as a sign of his appreciation he will be leaving his bitemark on anyone that feeds him their trash. Bestival are not responsible for any limbs lost.
Bestival are in the process of finalising even more environmental initiatives for this year’s Bestival… watch this space! In the meantime, please sign up to 10:10 yourself; and then get your work, school, friends, parents et al to do the same – www.1010uk.org – we need to work together to achieve a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010.
LIVE MUSIC INCLUDES THE PRODIGY, DIZZEE RASCAL, THE FLAMING LIPS, ROXY MUSIC, HOT CHIP, THE XX, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM AND FEVER RAY.
FESTIVAL HARVEST DOUBLE CD ON SALE HERE!
June 1st, 2010
SOUNDCLASH NORWICH
SOUNDHOUSE DEAL AND BROADSTAIRS
SOUND KNOWLEDGE – MARLBOROUGH
SISTER RAY – LONDON
RESIDENT BRIGHTON
ROUNDER BRIGHTON
TEMPEST BIRMINGHAM
WHOLE WIDE WORLD CREWKERNE
CHALKYS BANBURY
RAPTURE WITNEY
GATEFIELD SOUNDS WHITSTABLE AND HERNE BAY
JUMBO LEEDS
LOST IN MUSIC GLASGOW
ACTION REPLAY WINDERMERE
AVALACHE GLASGOW
AVALANCHE EDINBURGH
Twenty eight of the finest new bands around – all yours and packaged in eco-friendly card too!
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