Low Carbon: Festivals play the green card

The trend started a few years ago and has really taken off, explains Ben Challis, who founded charity A Greener Festival (www.agreenerfestival.com).

With his team, Challis audits festivals, judging their carbon footprint, their waste and recycling facilities and their environmental impact.

"In the last two years we've seen a significant rise in audience awareness of green issues, particularly the audience's own carbon footprint," he explains.

"As a result organisers are really experimenting with how green they can go - like investing in hydrogen-cell fuelled stages and offering discounted coach rides to the destination."

But it's definitely a case of audiences leading the organisers, says Katrina Larkin, co-founder of the ethical and AGF-award-winning Big Chill Festival.

"It's not that organisers are necessarily more keen to be green themselves, they've just realised the audience aren't going to put up with anything else."

Larkin's own festival pioneered the "Leave No Trace" idea a few years ago.

But unfortunately, as Challis explains, festivals are limited by the technology and infrastructure available to them.

"There are only so many train tickets available, only so much you can power with a wind turbine," he says. "The real key to festivals being green is in getting audience members to reduce their transport emissions, as they're the biggest culprit in a festival's carbon output."

Partying hard and partying green go hand in hand this year. So check out this year's greener festivals and get dancing!

Top tips for green campers

1. Use public transport or lift-share

Transport accounts for 43% of all festivals' emissions, so go public or use www.liftshare.com or www.freewheelers.co.uk to share a ride and make new friends.

2. Be tent aware

Don't ditch your tent when the show's over, take it home or use MyHab (www.myhab.com) or Tangerine Fields (www.tangerinefields.com) to get your own fully set-up tent for two to six that can be reused and recycled.

3. Get recharged

Use rechargeable batteries or buy a portable solar or wind charger for your mobile, MP3 player and radio.

4. Only bring what you need

Don't be a slave to your possessions. Leave anything at home that you don't need, otherwise you might end up dumping it on the field.

5. Reduce, reuse and recycle

Refillable bottles will keep your costs down. Keep a compostable bag in your pocket to see you through until you can chuck your waste in a bin.

The green festival list

July 16-19

Small but green-minded music festival 2000 Trees (www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk) is a favourite amongst indie-music lovers and won an AGF award last year.

British Sea Power are headlining this Cotswolds festival which is run entirely on biodiesel.

The festival recycled 78% of its waste last year, uses biodegradable and reusable food and drink containers and asks only UK-based bands to be in its line-up to reduce CO2 emissions.

Suffolk-based Latitude (www.latitudefestival.co.uk) with its cabaret, comedy, dance, film and music tents should be on every green festival-goer's list. This year it boasts £2 refundable deposits on reuseable cups and will hand out "camper waste kits" to help people separate their waste into recyclables, compostables and landfill.

Stallholders are required to only use food with compostable packaging and encouraged to sell fairtrade and organic products, as well as clean their stalls with chemical-free cleaners.

July 25-26

Scotland's largest eco-festival, Big Tent (bigtentfestival.co.uk), is the place to go if you like eclectic music and green talks. Get engaged with green discussions from WWF Scotland, dance in the Climate Change Ceilidh, gape with wonder at the Creole Choir of Cuba or just sit back and admire the heavenly views of Falkland Palace. Big Tent is also offering free shuttle buses to Falkland from nearby railway and bus stations, so you have no excuse to drive there!

July 29-August 2

Claiming to be "powered by the sun, the wind and the people", Somerset's Big Green Gathering (www.big-green-gathering.com) boasts talks on food and farming, permaculture and sustainable homes plus burlesque cabarets, comedy, theatre, drumming and lots of music acts.

August 6-9

Set to be one of the best festivals this year, the 15-year-old Big Chill (www.bigchill.net) will have a birthday to remember with acts from Lindstrom, Amadou and Mariam, Friendly Fires and Basement Jaxx. With solar panels to charge your mobile and organic, locally-sourced food to eat, be sure you get a ticket that includes a coach ride - the festival's cheap incentive to cut its carbon emissions.

August 14-16

Powered entirely by wind and solar power, Croissant Neuf (www.partyneuf.co.uk) is held in the Brecon Beacons and headlined by The Beat. The Guardian named Croissant Neuf one of its favourite eco-festivals - and the spirit is alive and well, with organisers promising to plant three trees around the site for every car that drives to the festival.

Leicester's Summer Sundae Weekender (www.summersundae.com) won a Greener Festival Award (GFA) the past two years and is continuing the green pledge this year with compostable food and drink containers, camera film canisters handed out as ashtrays, and energy-saving lightbulb donations.

August 27-30

Shambala (www.shambalafestival.org) won Most Sustainable Event In The UK award last year from the National Outdoor Events Association and is one of only three festivals to be awarded and outstanding rating by A Greener Festival. You can expect loads of "hippy" things like talks on permaculture, roller discos, songwriting workshops and free guided cycle tours to the top-secret site in Northamptonshire.

The kings of the rock festivals, Reading (www.readingfestival.com) and Leeds (www.leedsfestival.com), are stocking their showers with eco-friendly Ecover shower gel and asking everyone else to leave their own products at home - if they're not green.

Cup and water bottle deposits, liftshares and chair recycling are also part of the 2009 line-up, which also includes Radiohead and Kings of Leon.

September 11-13

Wiltshire's Waveform Project (www.waveformfestival.com) describes itself as "the sustainable dance music festival" and boasts guilt-free partying. Having been given an outstanding rating by AGF last year for its compostable loos, organic food and wind-powered stages, this year the festival will include eco-workshops and films on solar-powered cinemas shown in between rave, dance and dub-heavy sets.

With Bat for Lashes, MGMT, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk and Soulwax in the line- up, the Isle of Wight's Bestival (www.bestival.net) is sure to be where the party is this year.

After an amazing sell-out last year, organisers are encouraging liftshares for those driving and wetsuits for those swimming across the Channel.

September 18-20

The favoured guest at Out Of The Ordinary (outoftheordinaryfestival.com) this year is the Sun. OOTO is celebrating the solar equinox with a line-up of music and talks with biodiesel and renewable energy-powered acts. Expect compostable loos, chemical-free cleaning and healing tents at this family-friendly fest.