Sustainable power at festivals is not only about where the energy comes from, but also, how much energy is needed and whether this demand can be met in a responsible, renewable way. Many of our event venues are fixed, as we work with existing businesses all over the Kendal for the weekend. Our Basecamp Village, built for the Festival, requires power for lighting, screens, food vendors, washroom facilities, and heating. We would love to follow in the footsteps of the incredible summer festivals using solar power – however in November, especially in the Lake District, the sun tends to be in short supply. Here’s where we’re at:

• We work with a Cumbrian production company, who provide our electricity, lighting, audio and visual equipment, stages, and expert technicians.
• We work closely with this company to map out our energy needs, determining the most energy-efficient (and cost-efficient!) way to power Basecamp. At present, this power comes from a diesel generator – although we hope that, in partnership with the local authority, an alternative will be available very soon!
• We make use of natural light as much as possible to reduce lighting requirements, and choose energy-efficient LED lighting for our Basecamp stages and flood lighting.

Transport is essential for live events, and there is no way around it. Our Festival brings people together from around the UK and beyond in our beautiful small town. Our 2024 attendees travelled from:Westmorland & Furness: 36.8%Elsewhere in Cumbria 4.4%Elsewhere in England 46.1%Elsewhere in UK 8%Overseas - 4.6%Reducing transport emissions includes looking beyond our audience travel, to our staff, speakers, and suppliers. Here is how we are currently monitoring and managing travel emissions:

• Data collection from our 2024 Festival showed us that 55% surveyed travelled to us by car – this gives us a benchmark to improve on for 2025 and beyond.
• We encourage our audience and speakers to opt for low carbon travel by promoting public transport, carpooling, and cycling. You can find guidance and advice about travel to the Festival HERE.
• Our full-time staff are based locally, many walking/cycling to work every day. We work with local volunteers – 67% of our 2024 volunteers were based within 25km of Kendal.
• As one of the largest events of our kind, we are proud to host some of the worlds’ top athletes and storytellers, although this does incur some overseas travel. We limit the number of internationally-based speakers, and prioritise those closer to home. Guest speakers travelling from further afield often come to the festival as part of a longer working trip within the UK.
• We prioritise working with local presenters, businesses, food vendors, and suppliers.
• Where courtesy vehicles are required over the Festival, we work with electric vehicle providers.

Adventure is thirsty work. With footfall in the thousands, our Festival endeavours to keep all adventure-seekers fed and watered with the best our local area has to offer. As well as partnering with local cafes and businesses, we also work with food vendors to offer refreshments in our Basecamp village:

• We use local food vendors, with sustainably sourced menus and a focus on plant-powered food. All of our food suppliers are based in Cumbria – you can find more information about our vendors HERE.
• We work with these vendors to minimise food waste and ensure food containers are recyclable or compostable.
• To minimise single-use plastic, we encourage and facilitate reusable cup and bottle use with free drinking water stations.
• We provide signposted bins for waste and recycling, working with local disposal companies. Glass, paper and card, and comingled waste are separated and recycled. General waste is made into RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel), rather than being sent to landfill.
• We have a dedicated team of ‘Garbologists’, who work extremely hard over the Festival weekend to ensure as much material is recycled as possible.

From recycled materials to zero-waste targets, we have always carefully considered how we build and break down our Festival space to reduce landfill and resource consumption.

• We use recycled wooden pallets for our Basecamp interior. Our stages are set up with second-hand furnishings, which we source as locally as possible.
• You may have noticed that our Festival decor looks similar every year – this is because we keep everything in storage, and reuse as much as we can. We don’t put dates on our banners, so we re-use them year after year. Anything used at the Festival gets a good life!
• We use local suppliers for production hire wherever possible – this includes our tech set-up, stages, and marquees. Our bespoke yurts have to travel further until we can find a local supplier!
• All tickets are digital to avoid unnecessary paper use.
• We encourage and facilitate reusable cup and bottle use with free drinking water stations to minimise waste.
• We provide signposted bins for waste and recycling, working with local disposal companies. Glass, paper and card, and comingled waste are separated and recycled. General waste is made into RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel), rather than being sent to landfill.
• We have a dedicated team of ‘Garbologists’, who work extremely hard over the Festival weekend to ensure as much material is recycled as possible.

1. As mentioned above, we are working in partnership with the local authority to look at alternative power supplies for our Basecamp.
2. We will review the venues we partner with, aiming to work with local businesses who are making tangible efforts to reduce their energy usage.
3. Moving forwards, we will explore how renewable energy, such as sustainably sourced biofuels, could reduce our reliance on generators – working with our energy suppliers and production team to understand how this would work for our venues and vendors.

• We are working on an ongoing transport strategy to encourage audience members who can’t walk or cycle to our Festival to use public transport instead, reducing carbon emissions and traffic in the centre of Kendal.
• To make train travel to Kendal even more convenient, we are also exploring the possibility of partnering with local rail networks and offering shuttle buses from nearby stations.
• For those that do choose to drive to us, we are investigating options such as a Park & Ride system to reduce congestion and minimise emissions.

• We are reviewing the sustainability efforts of the vendors we work with, and vendors who have contacted us about being involved in future events. This includes their commitment to locally-sourced, organic ingredients and provision of plant-based options.
• We will increase our drinking water provisions and improve signage to encourage our Festival-goers to fill their own bottles rather than buy bottled water from shops around the town.

• As our Festival evolves, we will research and seek suppliers for our production needs based in our local area.
• We will continue to increase our recycling rate by improving our signage and bin provision to make recycling easy and accessible for all attendees.
•  We are researching composting infrastructure for food waste and food-contaminated containers, with aims to work closely with our food vendors to make composting accessible to festival attendees.