Festival Republic | Green

Every year the carbon footprint of each show is measured and audited across all key impact areas in scope 1&2, including energy use, water, and waste.

Energy is our biggest emissions challenge and a top priority. Here’s how we’re tackling it:

• 100% renewable power for all show generators using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) biodiesel from recycled cooking oil.

• Smart fuel monitoring to right-size generators and cut consumption.

• LED lighting and efficient power planning for every site.

• Active exploration of potential grid connections to reduce reliance on generators.

• Using battery storage and solar hybrids generators where possible, and testing innovations like hydrogen power.

• Through our membership of Powerful Thinking we are constantly working to reduce power consumption at our festivals.

• We encourage everyone to travel via public transport, including Big Green Coach and provision of shuttle buses from local towns and train stations, and encourage carsharing.

• We track staff and contractor travel to understand and reduce impact.

• We work closely with our contractors to find efficiencies when moving equipment between shows, significantly reducing trucking miles.

We apply the waste hierarchy, prioritising waste reduction, followed by reuse and then recycling, energy recovery and disposal. All our festivals are zero waste to landfill, and we aim to achieve a 50% (or higher) material recovery rate by 2030.

• We use compostable serveware only, and plastic cutlery and straws have been banned since 2009.

• Everyone is actively encouraged to bring their own reusable bottle to the festival.

• All water and soft drinks are served in cans. Other drinks are served in paper cups or recycled plastic bottles with a minimum of 30% rPET content.

• In Ireland recycled plastic cups have replaced regular plastic cups.

• Separate waste streams across our sites encourage everyone to sort their waste and recycle.

• Our Recycle to Win scheme gives customers the opportunity to win prizes for recycling in the campsite, incentivising positive environmental practices.

• The deposit return scheme has a 10p return on paper cups, cans, and bottles, encouraging recycling in the arena.

• Recycling bags are distributed to campers, and we have plenty of recycling points in all campsites.

We’re committed to promoting sustainable food and water practices, from sourcing and catering to waste reduction and redistribution.

• We encourage that vendors should be local to the festival and track the vegetarian and vegan options available to festivalgoers.

• We track the environmental credentials of vendors including use of free range, MSC Good Fish Guide, Red Tractor Assured, Fairtrade, and Organic produce.

• Crew catering does not serve high-carbon food such as beef, and we encourage at least one meat-free day per week in crew catering.

• We measure the amount of water consumed at our festivals, and self-stopping taps are in operation to minimise water wastage.

• We are committed to collecting and redistributing any surplus food from the festival, and work with local foodbanks and organisations to help us do this.

We engage with fans, artists, and local partners to make sustainability a key part of the festival experience. Our recent projects include:

• Giving a platform to groups such as Climate Live, Every Can Counts, Greenpeace, Oxfam, and Music Declares Emergency.

• We have a green team at Latitude, Reading, and Leeds, engaging with festival goers in the campsites about the sustainability initiatives.

• We take into account ecologically sensitive areas or artefacts of heritage or cultural significance on our sites and work within any local conditions and carry out environmental impact assessments if required to protect local flora and fauna.

Electric Car Charging

At Latitude 2022, Cinch launched the biggest electric-car charging service at a UK music festival, with 60 charging points set up throughout the event, allowing festival goers to plug-in and charge up.

All spaces were reserved within 60 minutes of launch, with spaces also available for anyone who hadn’t registered but still needed to charge up. We used Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) to fuel our chargers, instead of using diesel. HVO allowed us to reduce our CO2 emissions by up to 90%.

Improving transport efficiency with suppliers

In 2025, we worked efficiently across shows to reduce transport emissions of equipment between locations. Working with suppliers, we were able to directly send and receive infrastructure between shows, avoiding the need to send equipment back to a central hub in between.

William G Search Ltd utilised a temporary storage location between Download Festival to Finsbury Park to store and clean cabins on-site, rather than returning all equipment to a depot. This simple change reduced the mileage of 30 wagons from a 284-mile round trip to 116 miles instead, saving just over 5,000 miles covered by the HGVs.

Similarly for Reading Festival, cabins came directly from earlier shows including Wilderness and Latitude which meant there was a drastic reduction in the HGV miles travelled, from14,520 miles to 5,647 miles, around 38% of what it would have been for all the cabins to come direct from the central depot.

Themed Campsites: Introducing the Meadow

Eco-campsites have been features at Reading and Leeds since 2022 – encouraging campers to reduce waste, recycle, and leave no trace behind at the end of the festival.

In 2025, the eco-camp was revamped as The Meadow - one of the four new themed campsites focussed on community building and connection.

The aim of the themed campsites at Reading and Leeds was to elevate the camping experience, and for campers to feel a sense of community and belonging in their chosen area.

Each offered unique activities and upgraded facilities, including chemical-free vacuum toilets, showers, “Get Ready with Me” stations, and a strong “leave no trace” ethos. Over 10,000 attendees booked into The Meadow, committing to the Planet Pledge:

• Leave the campsite as found—take your tent home.

• Respect fellow campers—be inclusive and curious.

• Respect the environment—recycle and use facilities provided.

The Meadow featured compost toilets, showers, recycling points, and a dedicated green team. In partnership with Climate Live, it hosted eco-workshops like upcycling, jewellery making, and nature poetry, which were well-attended and fostered environmental dialogue.

Take it Home Rewards working with Co-op

In 2025, we worked with partners on the Take it Home Rewards at Reading and Leeds, encouraging people to pack up their tent and take it home with them. We rewarded 10,000 festival goers who were carrying their tent as they left with a money off partner voucher.

Vape recycling

In 2025, we collaborated with Material Focus to help tackle the ongoing vapocalypse and encourage festival-goers to recycle their vapes. Vape recycling points were provided at Wireless, Latitude, Reading, and Leeds, alongside an arena screen video encouraging festivalgoers to recycle their electricals.

Measuring the carbon impact of food with Klimato

We are committed to developing an awareness of the carbon footprint of food and have worked with universities and Klimato to deliver a food carbon rating system to inform customer choices. In 2024, all food options at Reading and Leeds had a carbon rating displayed on the stall.

Donations to local environmental organisations

Reading Festival and Wilderness Festivals donate £1 from their parking passes to local environmental causes.

Since 2023, Reading festival has donated to Trees for Cities, funding the planting of mature trees in the areas surrounding the festival and engaging local people in the tree planting efforts.

Wilderness Festival in 2023 and 2024 also donated to Trees for Cities. In 2025, Wilderness donated to The Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, with funds to be distributed to local environmental projects.

We continue to engage with these funded organisations to understand the long-term impact of the donation.

Working with Climate Live

Climate Live have been coming to our shows since 2022. The big pink bus with its solar powered stage brings new talent to the festivals, from emerging artists to viral TikTok stars, thoughtfully mixed with youth climate and intersectional social justice activists to engage a new audience in the climate movement.

Alongside the bus stage, Climate Live have a campaign stall where festival goers can speak with their team about how they can support, as well as get free temporary tattoos and bio-glitter.