How To Make Your Glastonbury Experience More Sustainable

If you’re lucky enough to have tickets to Glastonbury this year, you’ll probably be getting excited about the lineup being announced and closely following all the rumours about who might be appearing this summer.

But even if you’ve got tickets, there’s still plenty left to organise. As you’ve got time before you head off for the festival of the year, you might also want to think about how you can make your trip more sustainable.

Glastonbury was recently named as one of the world’s top ten eco-friendly festivals by an article for Festicket, with the website pointing out that there are numerous policies designed to make the event as green as possible. Among them is the need to have a fallow year on Worthy Farm after five consecutive festivals.

In case you didn’t know, Worthy Farm is actually a working farm, which also happens to host one of the world’s biggest music festivals.

The organisers also partner with organisations such as Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid to raise awareness of environmental issues.

In 2019, there’s set to be another change coming into force for festival goers at Glastonbury – no plastic water bottles. Last February, Emily Eavis announced that they were aiming to have a site-wide ban on single-use plastic bottles in place by 2019’s event.

They’ve been looking at ways of reducing plastic waste at the festival across the board, so if you’re heading to Glastonbury this year you should be prepared to bring a refillable water bottle with you. There will be WaterAid stations around the festival site, as well as taps, where you can top up your water free of charge.

Other green policies at Glastonbury include providing recycling bins, encouraging all festival goers to take their tents and other camping equipment home with them, and to get more and more people to travel to Glastonbury using public transport.

In fact, 40 per cent of those who attend the festival get there on public transport, so it’s certainly an option. If there is a big group of you heading to the music event of the summer, consider arranging coach hire to Glastonbury to save you all taking cars and creating more pollution along the way.

You should also think carefully about what you’re packing – and what you buy to take with you for the festival.

A post for Eco Warrior Princess offered some great tips on how to green your festival experience, from shopping in vintage and second-hand shops for your festival fashion, to seeking out eco-friendly sunglasses, hats and even shoes rather than buying fast-fashion items.

Useful items to pack include a reusable straw if you can’t be without one, enamel mugs and sturdy camping utensils, and natural and eco-friendly sunscreen and lip balm.

The website also noted that “you will find 1,429 reasons to use wipes” if you attend a camping festival. However, there are some other options here too. “Go zero waste and just bring some reusable cloths and wash them out as you need to,” the blog suggests, or notes that if you really must use disposable wipes, pick the organic, natural and biodegradable variety.