Electric Picnic has become the only Irish festival to win a Greener Festival International Award for 2008.
An independent award scheme, 'A Greener Festival' recognizes environmentally-friendly music festivals.
“This year we worked in partnership with Cultivate, Body and Soul, Edenbee, carbon offsetting partners EmissionZero and BYE to establish a ‘Sustainability Team’ to reduce Electric Picnic’s impact on the environment." John Reynolds of POD Concerts revealed, after the news was announced. "We are delighted that our efforts have been recognized by A Greener Festival.”
Initiatives at this year's festival included the launch of the first dedicated carpooling service by Electric Picnic and Carpool.ie to help reduce road congestion and carbon dioxide emissions; more ‘Bin Your Empties’ teams were on site to encourage people to help make it easier for fans to recycle. An increased number of Recycling Stations for paper, glass and aluminum were also positioned on site to make recycling easily accessible.
A number of solar powered cafés were introduced this year, which also saw the return of the reusable Eco Cup. In the 'Body and Soul' Area, compost toilets were introduced and traders, as always, were requested to use biodegradable and recyclable products only.
Electric Picnic began as a one-day event in 2004, before growing to a weekend-long festival within a year, and becoming a three day affair in 2006.
Electric Picnic 2009 will take place at Stradbally, Co. Laois from September 4-6. On Friday October 10, 2008, a limited number of ‘Early Bird’ tickets went on sale at the price of €199, which includes weekend camping.
