Access All AreasPauline Bourdon, sustainability & social cohesion manager, at Team Love outlines what the team at Bristol’s Forwards Festival is doing to mitigate its environmental impact.
Festivals create beautiful opportunities for people to connect while enjoying their favourite act. But we know that they can be more than that, by gathering people together, we can harness the power of collective joy to raise awareness of climate and social justice and show that a different way of being together is possible.
At Forwards, the idea of festivals as living labs for creation and imagination is essential to the way we see our event. Our ambition is to create a space where people, nature and music can cohabit by partnering with like-minded businesses and organisations, programming thought provoking talks, showcasing new ways of being in communities alongside environmental innovations.
“Our ambition is to create a space where people, nature and music can cohabit.”
Our goal is to play a valuable role in implementing the forward-thinking changes and initiatives that will support local businesses, the creative industries, and wider society to take action on the climate change emergency already in motion. Continuing a conversation on the place of festivals as agents of change and key to creating social connections in the current socio-cultural climate.
Our sustainability ethos is embedded in intersectionality, we believe that there is no climate justice without social justice. Part of this ethos is also to transparently share our values and report on our initiatives so our public can witness the work behind the scenes and the story we’re creating for Forwards. In 2023, Forwards was externally assessed by industry leader A Greener Future and received the Commended certification signifying a well-managed, environmentally aware festival going beyond expectation to make positive change.
Alongside our environmental assessment, we are also very happy to announce that we were certified Silver by Attitude is Everything for our work in making our event more accessible. Forwards Festival also took part in a groundbreaking case study from A Greener Future on the intersectionality of accessibility and sustainability – helping in the creation of a new sustainability toolkit – No Climate Action Without Us.
Some of our key initiatives last year include:
- Introducing a hybrid generator for our production area. This initiative helped us save 220 hours of fuel usage and reduce our carbon footprint.
- Raising climate awareness with attendees and stakeholders. Our audience raised £3,094 for EarthPercent and enjoyed some amazing messaging and videos in between acts from Climate Live and Music Declares Emergency.
- Continuing our work towards a more inclusive and diverse music industry. Capture Forwards, our project in partnership with Big Team, brought four aspiring photographers on a unique festival photography media placement at the event. Alongside this, we offered eight, paid, Big Team work placements at Forwards, in various roles across the site. We also continued our work behind the scenes including outreach sessions, undertaking crew surveys, demographic data collection and ongoing staff training.
The journey towards a fairer and better future for us all is ongoing and requires continuous innovation, collaboration, and commitment. It is important for the festival industry to continue on this trajectory so we can all contribute to a more sustainable future – something that Forwards is dedicated to.