crowd on beach watch a performance
Four of Swords eco-themed performance. Photo credit Appleton Event Photography

Arts & Culture East Devon (ACED) and Exmouth Festival are setting out a new blueprint to decarbonise local festivals.

East Devon is set to become the home of green festivals following Exmouth Festival's successful blueprint for reducing their carbon footprint.

Our carbon footprint measures the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide equivalent, generated by our actions. As the climate crisis worsens, it's become even more important to consider our choices, our impact on the planet and how we can tread more lightly.

Exmouth Festival organisers - Exmouth Town Council, wanted to understand the scale of their previous festival emissions and how to reduce it. By working with South West Energy and Environment Group, they created a bespoke calculator tool. It is unique to festivals, enabling them to calculate their carbon footprint, identify categories where reductions can be made and monitor changes going forward.

They identified some simple steps to decarbonise the event, including:

  • programming acts and activities that reflected the sustainable ethos of the event
  • booking local acts
  • reviewing infrastructure hire
  • reducing waste through use of reusable cups and no single-use plastics
  • using new bin toppers to encourage recycling, especially food
  • bringing in compost loos
  • encouraging traders to take action on carbon, waste reduction & use plant-based ingredients - before and during the event
  • incentives for festival goers to promote sustainable travel to the event
  • utilising lower carbon sources of energy, such as mains electricity on a renewable tariff

These steps resulted in a 10% carbon reduction of this year’s festival, which is set to continue reducing year on year.

Zoey Cooper, Climate and Ecological Emergency Resilience Officer, 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% reduction in travel carbon.

The feedback from festivalgoers showed it was great to have climate as a prominent theme. 42% 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 Climate Action & Emergency Response, commented,

"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, discover more from Zoey Cooper and Jess Magill, Arts Manager Exmouth Town Council, at two upcoming events:

  • Arts & Culture East Devon (ACED) Network Meeting: 16 October, 10-12.00 at The Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth - register
  • East Devon Tourism Network Meeting: 19 November, 9.30-12.00at Jurassic Discovery, Seaton - register