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Festival goers need to shun the car more
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 28 May 2009
God, you’re a lot of petrol guzzling world threatening maniacs aren’t you? Well, you might not be, but two thirds of the UK’s festival-goers are. And I thought tree hugging, not tree slaughtering, was meant to be part of the hippy festival experience.
New research from Julie’s Bicycle, the body which aims to make the music business more eco-friendly, has found that while many festival promoters have been trying to make their events more green in recent years, over two thirds of festival-goers attending music events within or near cities or towns still travel there by car. And 60% of those going by car had two or less people in the car.
With the carbon emissions of all those cars one of the main polluting factors of any one music festival, the report recommends the festival sector work together to develop ways to encourage more festival-goers to find alternative ways to get to an event. Suggested methods include working with local travel operators and local authorities to offer bespoke public transport, and developing information resources to help those choosing to shun their cars plan their trip. Making sure Network Rail don’t shut down the main rail connection to a festival on the very weekend it takes place – as often happens with the Reading Festival – might also help.
As previously reported, AGreenerFestival.com has teamed up with VirtualFestivals.com to offer festival-goers with tips for being more eco-friendly when attending music events.
