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Fields of innovation: What’s new in festivals

IQ investigates some of the cutting-edge ideas, creativity, and innovations that debuted in festival fields this summer

By IQ on 31 Oct 2024


image © Yvette de Wit

This summer saw a host of great new ideas launch… IQ picks a few of note.

NAVILENS AT VESTROCK (NL)
This year, the team at Vestrock, at Hulst in the Netherlands, implemented NaviLens as part of the festival’s ongoing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programme.

NaviLens is a cutting-edge technology for the visually impaired. The system works by utilising NaviLens codes, which look similar to multi-coloured QR codes. These codes can be scanned, at some considerable distance, by mobile phone cameras, and the NaviLens app can contextualise the necessary information for the user.

Because visually impaired people have difficulty using traditional signage and therefore cannot be autonomous in unfamiliar environments, NaviLens was developed to dismantle such barriers.

The system has already been adopted by numerous global brands on packaging, while cities, such as New York, are using NaviLens codes on street signs. However, it’s believed that Vestrock is the first festival to use the system, thereby fully opening its doors to these marginalised fans.

PALÉO INVESTS IN RETURNABLE TABLEWARE (CH)
In an elegant ecru colour with no logo, Paléo invested in a total of 100,000 plates and 40,000 bowls for its 2024 edition. This investment will help to reduce the carbon footprint of tableware logistics and is also being offered to other festivals in the region wishing to introduce this system.

The idea is not only to provide Paléo’s 250,000 festivalgoers with (almost) entirely returnable tableware but also to team up with a company to offer these items to other events for hire at very affordable prices, as part of a circularity strategy with the objective of speeding up the deployment of reuse solutions.

Although reusable tableware is not a new idea, the business model is gaining traction. Paléo has teamed up with a company that specialises in cleaning this type of tableware and who will also take care of stock management.

The initiative has been backed by the Swiss Cantonal Office for Sustainability and Climate.

For years, Romania’s Electric Castle has promoted alternative transportation options

THE MORE THE MERRIER CARPOOLING CAMPAIGN AT ELECTRIC CASTLE (RO)
In a country where public transportation infrastructure often falls short of expectations, organising a festival outside of an urban area inevitably means dealing with thousands of cars.

For years, Romania’s Electric Castle has promoted alternative transportation options, offering a dedicated line of non-stop buses and arranging special trains to bring attendees to the nearest station. These efforts have paid off. Each year, the number of people using alternatives to cars has increased by 20%, with over 42,000 attendees in 2024 opting for buses or trains to reach the festival.

Despite these efforts, many festivalgoers, primarily for reasons of comfort, still prefer to drive their own cars. So, what’s the next best thing? Make those car journeys as efficient as possible.

This year, Electric Castle launched a campaign promoting carpooling. Any car arriving at the festival grounds with full occupancy received free parking. Additionally, drivers had the chance to win one of many prizes for contributing to a greener festival journey.

The results: 30,000 people participated in the campaign, with 6,000 fully occupied cars entering the festival.

Over the past four years, Electric Castle has continuously expanded its efforts to become a greener festival by introducing new initiatives. Last year, they launched a three-year reforestation programme for its camping area. With the help of volunteers, over 2,000 trees have already been planted, with an additional 8,000 waiting to be planted in the months ahead. This initiative aims to transform what is currently just a field into a park that the entire community can enjoy year-round.

MOJO Concerts has launched a new campaign to mitigate camping waste at its Pinkpop, Down The Rabbit Hole, and Lowlands festivals

MOJO CONCERTS’ ZERO WASTE FESTIVAL CAMPAIGN (NL)
As part of its drive to avoid the need for landfill, MOJO Concerts has launched a new campaign to mitigate camping waste at its Pinkpop, Down The Rabbit Hole, and Lowlands festivals.

The promoter reports that the ‘join us on the road to zero waste’ campaign has proven to be a success, with every fan who attended the three- and four-day festivals receiving a Recycle Kit upon arrival.

The kit contained information on waste sorting and included four recycling bags for paper, plastic, cans/bottles, and residual waste. Additionally, visitors could recycle broken camping gear, with the result that almost no camping gear was left at either Pinkpop or Down The Rabbit Hole. In total, 145,000 campers were encouraged to take home camping gear and to help separate waste

In January 2023, MOJO announced its sustainability goals. By 2030, the promoter is aiming for its festivals, concerts, and offices to be climate-neutral and circular. This also applies to music venues AFAS Live and Ziggo Dome. This ambition requires not only a change in behaviour from fans but also significant investments and operational adjustments by MOJO itself.

FESTYVENT (UK)
Having rebuilt its app to make it more customisable than ever, Festyvent has enjoyed a busy 2024, as clients have been able to adapt the platform to their needs to create strong visual identities.

Among some of the innovative app features launched this year are an interactive food vendor discovery tool and enhanced Google Maps – both of which, developers say, have proved hugely successful at several events. According to a Boldyn Networks (2023) report, 94% of event-goers do research before an event, with 43% seeking out food and drinks options at venues both before and whilst en-route to events.

With food options ranking as a highly important part of the festival experience, Festyvent has implemented a highly visual navigation tool for accessing onsite food vendors. Users can browse vendors by thumbnail images and title, search by key terms, and filter food options by dietary or cuisine type. Tapping on a vendor thumbnail provides users with a snapshot of key info, including optional menu links, descriptions, and branded dietary icons, to see where gluten-free or vegan options are at a glance. When a hungry festivalgoer has found their desired option, they simply tap on the pin button to take them through to the precise location of that vendor on the in-app map.

Festyvent’s enhanced map capabilities allow audiences to discover more on busy festival sites. Its maps use custom-illustrated overlays on top of a styled Google Map to bring the festival site to life, highlighting meeting points, on-site activations, facilities, and attractions. Using interactive branded pins, app-users can filter by category to find exactly what they need. From finding accessible amenities such as induction loops or viewing platforms to finding merch stalls and brand activations, the enhanced map ensures that festival-goers can discover arena attractions without stepping outside of the visual identity of the festival.

All features are also available offline.

“At Lost Village, we have been auditing and offsetting our known carbon emissions every year, for many years”

LOST VILLAGE PARTNERS WITH DEFENDER (UK)
One of the most imaginative sponsorship activations of the year involved Land Rover’s partnership with Lost Village Festival in Lincolnshire, where a number of electric hybrid Defender vehicles supported the event’s aim of having every area of its production powered by renewable energy and fuels.

As part of the programme, organisers introduced The Outpost stage by Defender, a unique destination for new and established artists, located in a rugged, isolated part of the wooded site and curated with lighting and architectural installations.

On hand to transport artists and VIPS, Lost Village had access to a fleet of luxury electric-powered Defenders, while the event’s partners worked to harness solar energy to provide power, as well as an innovative new portable battery energy storage system, developed by Allye Energy, to elevate Lost Village’s sustainability efforts.

Jay Jameson and Andy George, co-founders of Lost Village, said: “At Lost Village, we have been auditing and offsetting our known carbon emissions every year, for many years. That’s great, but the aim is to constantly find ways to reduce that output, with every passing year. Using the hybrid Defenders is a huge help whilst still giving us the size and scope to operate effectively. That’s the practical stuff. In terms of the pure fun stuff, we’ve really enjoyed working with the team and reimagining the spirit of Defender within the weird and wonderful world of Lost Village.”

Defender has been building close connections through affiliations with music over recent years, including sponsorships with Glastonbury, Wonderfruit, and Dreamville festivals, and through its partnership with British rapper Kano.

OCESA’S VIBRA PROGRAMME (MX)
With no fewer that 22 festivals in its portfolio, Mexican powerhouse promoter OCESA has been rolling out an ingenious scheme to make performing arts venues more accessible for individuals with hearing difficulties.

The company’s Vibra programme provides sensory vests to help the deaf and hard of hearing to better enjoy live music. The state-of-the-art garments are equipped with sensors on the back, chest, and hip to create an immersive experience for the wearer. The equipment is equipped with a transmitter that, with the artist’s permission, connects to the main audio console and transmits the audio mix from the stage to the vests. It converts the audio into vibrations that allow users to perceive low, medium, and high frequencies, as well as voices. The transmitter has ten channels to prevent interference from radios, monitors, and cell phones.

Meanwhile, specialised interpreters not only translate the lyrics into Mexican Sign Language but also convey the artists’ emotions. Volunteers from OCESA assist the guests during the shows.

At the company’s music festivals, a suite is assigned to guests with hearing disabilities or deafness, while at concerts, they have a designated area near the stage.

OCESA collaborates with various civil associations and foundations to ensure that those in need benefit from the Vibra initiative. The company tells IQ that it invested $100,000 to fulfil the first year of the Vibra programme, which benefitted more than 1,000 people – averaging 40 guests per day at festivals and 25 per concert. At the festivals, the invitation includes the consumption of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

“Without announcing a lineup, our glamping pods sold out instantly”

OLIO: PREVENTING FOOD WASTE (UK)
Founded ten years ago, Olio began as a food-waste fighting app but has since developed to become a platform for people to pass on all kinds of household items such as clothes, books, furniture, electricals, etc.

Its 120,000 UK-based Food Waste Hero volunteers rescue unwanted food from shops and canteens, helping thousands of businesses up and down the country reach food-waste zero. Additionally, Olio has partnered with all 2,700 Tesco supermarkets, amongst many other businesses, taking food nearing the end of its shelf life and redistributing it locally.

Building on this groundwork, Olio has in the past been active at a number of events, such as Summer in the Square in London, but is looking for better solutions at festivals given the logistics of access problems for its volunteers, the high level of input needed from festival organisers, and the requirement to attend multiple stalls.

However, since its launch, Olio-ers have shared 164m portions of food and 11m household items, which has had an environmental impact equivalent to taking 683m car miles off the road, has saved 26bn litres of water, and has prevented 201,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions.

Revealing the size of the food-waste problem, Olio claims that 33% of food produced globally is wasted, while 800m people go to bed hungry every night. In the UK alone, £15bn of edible food is thrown away per annum.

ACCESSIBELLE GLAMPING (UK)
Having started Bass Therapy as a club night for her music-mad sister, Jody, Kyley Dickinson organised J-Fest as a tribute in the months following Jody’s death in April 2021.

“I basically flung myself with every ounce of my being into setting up Bass Therapy properly, and the first J-Fest – which was a celebration of Jody’s life – took place in August 2021, thanks to some friends who had a farm and allowed us use of their land.

“Because Jody was registered deaf-blind, being on a platform at a festival just didn’t work. For her, being right at the front was where she needed to be, and so a lot of artists would see her engaging because she quite visibly had disabilities and additional needs. As a result, we made a lot of friends who are DJs and in bands and who wanted to be part of J-Fest because they knew her.”

Aware of the many complexities people with disabilities face when going to festivals, Dickinson established AccessiBelle Glamping to give patrons of the 1,000-capacity J-Fest the opportunity to enjoy the same levels of freedom and independence as other attendees. And such is the popularity that she’s now hoping to take the concept to other festivals and events.

“There are some good organisations out there, but they tend to gather people in one big marquee to sleep, and then have 20 people in wheelchairs trying to navigate en masse to get to an accessible stage, which sort of assumes they’re all into the same music. So, while it’s well intentioned, it can be a somewhat frustrating experience, and we want to offer something better.”

And with AccessiBelle Glamping selling out quickly at J-Fest this year, Dickinson is now hoping other festivals will be keen to adopt similar facilities. “Without announcing a lineup, our glamping pods sold out instantly, but people were coming from three or four hours away, and that upset me, because they shouldn’t have to travel so far to find a festival that offers genuine accessibility.”

“It’s still quite a hard push to get people to move away from the fossil fuel generator solutions they are used to”

SUNPLUGGED
Determined to offer event organisers a more sustainable solution for their power needs, Sunplugged was established in 2022 by a group of like-minded individuals based in North Devon.

The company uses solar power to generate electricity for the likes of festival stages, carnivals, and fairs using its Victron system. That equipment stores enough solar energy to run Sunplugged’s small stage for 12 hours per day, while the team can arrive equipped with multiple batteries for weekend gatherings, although the system can recharge quickly while in use.

The company’s mission is to provide quality and effective private hire entertainment and temporary power solutions in a carbon neutral, aesthetically pleasing, and sensory stimulating manner.

“We’ve been putting on events and gigs for a number of years, and my brother, Jacob, used to dabble in building portable 12-volt sound systems, so that’s what Sunplugged grew out of,” says the company’s Rachel Collingham.

“We’ve had a lot of interest, but it’s still quite a hard push to get people to move away from the fossil fuel generator solutions they are used to. But we’ve done a lot of private events – weddings, parties, things like this – and this year, we’ve been at quite a few little festivals, so we’re definitely getting busier.”

Among those who have benefitted from having Sunplugged on-site are Bath Carnival, Buddhafield, Balter Festival, TwertLush, and The Land Skills Fair, where the whole site is run on solar power.

Indeed, the Sunplugged founders have also launched their own small festival – the Woodpecker Weekender – in their native North Devon, where they can further showcase their technology.

FYI.AI (RS)
EXIT Festival in Serbia rolled out an exciting collaboration with renowned artist will.i.am, earlier this year, aimed at empowering artists to be part of a creative revolution. The initiative offered a unique opportunity for artists to leverage cutting-edge technology in their creative process by using the AI-powered creative collaboration tool FYI.AI, which was created by the American rapper/songwriter.

EXIT invited talented individuals to explore new dimensions of creativity and innovation, with the opportunity to present their work directly to will.i.am, who, on 12 June, hosted an exclusive Culture FYI’rs meet-up in Novi Sad – home to the iconic festival. The event featured a fireside chat and showcased projects by artists and creators from around the globe.

The projects encompassed not only music but also design, architecture, and other forms of art, and encouraged artists and creators to join FYI.AI, develop their projects, and potentially showcase them at an exclusive Culture FYI meet-up held during the festival. This initiative offered participants the unique opportunity to receive feedback and mentorship directly from will.i.am, whose expertise bridges both the creative and technological worlds.

The broader goal of the collaboration is to inspire a global creative revolution, leveraging the tools and connections offered by FYI.AI to shape the future of various artistic industries. This initiative reflects EXIT Festival’s commitment to not being just a music festival but a platform for wider cultural and technological innovation.

EXIT says that this is just the start of their collaboration with will.i.am.

 


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