Who We Are - The Ethos

Its Fairly Simple

Our approach is simple. We try to approach things fairly, whether it's how we work with the local community, suppliers, staff, our guests (the ticket holders) or how we manage our impact on the environment and wider society. For us, a fair approach is to try and contribute positively to environment which we're in and the people we share it with.

We do this by:
1) Auditing our impact on the environment and communities, at both a local and international level.
2) Reducing and mitigating negative impacts where possible.
3) Compensating for negatives that we can’t remove by getting involved in positive projects.

It is a journey, but our impact on society and the environment will remain central to how we design the event. We hope in the long run this will enable us to have a genuinely positive impact.

Some examples:

Carbon Emissions

We try to reduce our negative impacts by reducing the emissions created by the event and we also get involved in positive activity that helps others to address the problem. For example, we help raise awareness of how others can reduce their impact by introducing fun and interactive activities like our Great Eco Race.

With regards to the reducing our emissions, arguably the most impactful thing we do is provide coach travel from the Universities – travel to festivals is normally responsible for around 80% of total emissions created by the event. Also reducing travel miles of supplies is crucial – so we try as much as possible to source everything from our beer and burgers to our festival infrastructure from local sources. We also use renewable energy on site where possible, use recycled products and then recycle our own.

To put this into context, if the above were correctly implemented we would reduce our emissions by 75% (over 250 tonnes of carbon). Equivalent to not boiling over 2 million kettles or planting rainforest the size of 4 football pitches. Another way of looking at it…. Like removing 15 double-decker buses of carbon (in weight) from the atmosphere! And we're only 1 of 1000's of events.

Harmony With The Area

A professionally organised event that properly considers and engages with local and regional community and wider stakeholders creates significant cultural and economic benefit. However, festivals can be harmful (and distressing!) for the local community.....

We spend a lot of time working with local stakeholders including the Council and responsible authorities (police, ambulance, fire H&S etc), Residents Associations & Parish Council and local business to establish how to run the event in a positive way. Key concerns with festivals typically include excessive noise, traffic congestion & pressure on local facilities.

To mitigate these issues we have:
1. Designed the site layout and acoustics to manage noise pollution.
2. Used coach travel from universities and introduced a park and ride service to reduce traffic problems.
3. Ensured that guests will be on site in the evenings – to prevent problems occurring on the beach at night.
4. Build and run the event in a way that has the minimum disruption to the park and its regular visitors.

To help make a positive contribution to the area we:
• Source supplies (whenever possible) from local businesses – from beer and burgers to stages, sound equipment and event staffing.
• Organise training and provide opportunities for local people interested in getting into event management and related industries.
• Promote the location as an area of outstanding natural beauty and introduce students to the area as an amazing holiday destination (creating tourism now and in the future).
• Actively seek and work with local activities businesses to provide surfing, coasteering and other outdoor pursuits.
• Working with local charities and community projects. Dont hesitate to get in touch if you have any ideas of how we can improve our impact on the environment and the people we affect.