Festivals have been, and still are, detrimental to the environment. The amount of litter left behind, tents abandoned and pollution released into the atmosphere is shocking - the Powerful Thinking think tank claims that British festivals produce 23,500 tonnes of waste, use five million litres of fuel and emit around 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every single year. However, the famous Cornish beachside festival Boardmasters presents another obstacle: the sea.
The sea is already a fragile environment, so tens of thousands of festival goers can profoundly affect nature; both through the water quality itself and the aquatic organisms. This is usually the result of multiple factors such as the abuse of single use plastics and the abandonment of tents. Boardmasters however, alongside charities such as Surfers Against Sewage, have taken drastic measures to reduce the pollution emitted as much as they reasonably are able to. Examples include eradicating all non-essential single use plastic, establishing beach clean-up schemes and introducing a litter bond.
Reasons for this conviction to the cause of sustainability hark back to the festival's origins: the event began as a surfing competition in 1981, with the live music only coming into play in 2005. The surfing community has a strong passion for nature and the environment, with the aforementioned Surfers Against Sewage charity being a good example of this. This stance has continued throughout the festival’s relatively short history and should be part of the organiser’s core principles for the future.
Considering the usual attitude of money-focused business people would do the bare minimum, the Boardmasters management’s approach is highly commendable. Despite not being perfect yet, the measures taken are beneficial to the local and aquatic environment. With the added factor of the oceanic environment alongside the air, noise, light etc. pollution, it is very good to see the organisers take such strong action, greatly exceeding the ‘acceptable’ threshold set by local authorities.
