East Devon set to become the home of green festivals

This follows the successful implementation of a blueprint by Exmouth Festival to reduce its carbon footprint.

The initiative was spearheaded by Exmouth Festival organisers, Exmouth Town Council, who aimed to understand the scale of their previous festival emissions and how to reduce them.

They collaborated with South West Energy and Environment Group to create a bespoke calculator tool.

This tool, unique to festivals, enables the calculation of carbon footprint, identification of categories where reductions can be made, and monitoring of changes going forward.

Four of Swords- eco-themed performance (Image: Appleton Event Photography)

The organisers identified several simple steps to decarbonise the event.

These included programming acts and activities that reflected the sustainable ethos of the event, booking local acts, reviewing infrastructure hire, reducing waste through the use of reusable cups and no single-use plastics, and bringing in compost loos.

They also encouraged traders to take action on carbon, waste reduction, and the use of plant-based ingredients before and during the event.

Incentives were provided for festival-goers to promote sustainable travel to the event, and lower carbon sources of energy, such as mains electricity on a renewable tariff, were utilised.

These steps resulted in a 10 per cent carbon reduction for this year's festival, which is set to continue reducing year on year.

Zoey Cooper, climate and ecological emergency resilience officer at Exmouth Town Council, said: "We are very proud of this achievement.

"We aimed to decrease the travel carbon of people performing at and attending the event.

"We booked more local performers and encouraged active travel and use of public transport.

"This led to a 10 per cent reduction in travel carbon.

"The feedback from festivalgoers showed it was great to have climate as a prominent theme."

Around 42 per cent said they had experienced ‘the environment or sustainability’ which is a fantastic result, encouraging local people to think about our environment.

Councillor Marianne Rixson, East Devon District Council portfolio holder for climate action and emergency response, said: "One of the key themes in the East Devon Cultural Strategy is protecting the environment.

"This is a great first step in establishing East Devon as both an innovator and regional beacon of culture-led environmental protection, enhancement, and activism."

Exmouth Town Council is sharing the brand-new carbon calculator and toolkit with other festivals and event organisers.

To find out how to bring this blueprint into reality, interested parties can learn more from Zoey Cooper and Jess Magill, arts manager at Exmouth Town Council, at two upcoming events: the Arts & Culture East Devon (ACED) Network Meeting on October 16, and the East Devon Tourism Network Meeting on November 19.