How Green was my Festival?

Posted Mon, 12 Oct 2009 (3 years ago)

If you missed this year’s Rocking the Daisies festival out at Cloof Wine Estate , Darling on the West Coast, you missed out.

Not only was the event jam packed with an unbelievable line-up of local talent in the form of live music, DJs and comedy acts, but the ethos of Play Hard, Tread Lightly was more than just ‘green washing’.

The organizers of this eco-friendly music and lifestyle festival, Complete Events, headed up and represented by Craig Bright and Brian Little, can only be praised for their efforts to walk the talk when it came to making Daisies 09 a truly green event.

Teaming up with eco-active partners including Food and Trees for Africa (FTFA), WWF, Hemporium, Greenpeace and Ocean Minded, together with eco-aware brands Red Bull and Levi Strauss South Africa, Complete Events went the extra mile to ensure that resources and infrastructure were, as far as possible, sustainable.

Some examples include:

Visible clearly-marked recycling systems with behind-the-scenes back-up sorting to ensure that recycling did in fact take place.
24/7 janitors to prevent litter from being blown far and wide by the strong winds
The use of wind and bio-diesel generators
Bio-degradable soap in the washroom facilities
Official merchandise made by Hemporium using fabric that is created without the use of harmful chemicals
Walking and cycling challenges to get festival goers to travel by foot / bicycle to the event – those who did were rewarded with free passes or discounted tickets.

An external eco-auditor was on hand all weekend – Grace Stead of Steadfast Greening – to calculate the carbon footprint of Rocking the Daisies 2009. Her role included:

checking that genuine, tangible greening was taking place
determining the number of trees to be planted to off-set the impact of the event on the environment
making recommendations for future RTD events to shrink the carbon footprint further

Joanne Rolt of FTFA explained at a press conference (hosted by Mango Media on Saturday morning at the festival, that the trees would be planted within the local disadvantaged communities. Individuals within these communities would be educated in the care of the trees, and encouraged to take ownership of them. The trees will need around 20 years of growth to off-set the carbon footprint of an event such as Rocking the Daisies.

But what Complete Events and all involved in this initiative really want, above all, is for the message of living responsibly and looking after our planet to filter through to those who attend and read about Rocking the Daisies, in the hope that individuals will make changes in their homes and lives to reduce their impact on the limited natural resources we have.

3 Responses to How Green was my Festival?

Rocking the daisys this year was an utter success! Not only was the campsite kept in pristine condition but the bathroom facilities, the daisy den and the all round decor of the event was of first class standards. :) Daisys can definately put a tick in thier box for this years event!

By Kirstin (3 years ago)

The whole event was magical; it was perfectly organised, excellent fun and Prime Circle totally Rocked my Daisies! :o)

By Jolene (3 years ago)

sure had a blast! was frickn awesome weekend.a lot of fun... just jinger and prime circle were great!!! (but toilets were messed up after only half a day. no toilette paper...frickn dirty... daisy den too far away and no water in the morning??? when everyone got up? water filled up at 10am...??? wrong timing....but all didnt really matter- since you kinda expected that only problem was the drinking water. to fill up your water bottle you had to walk all the way to the "dancefloor" the point furthes away from campsite. and with all the booze and partying...and dancing...you should really have more places to fill up your water bottle!) but hey... im still tired...and my neck hurts...and have a lot of great memories!!! next year again!!! yeeehaa

By anna (3 years ago)