Christopher BarrettThe Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has launched a fund to help independent festivals invest in measures to improve their environmental sustainability.
The AIF Sustainability Step Change Fund has been kick-started with an initial pledge of £40,000 from Ticket Tailor’s Earth Invest fund. The association said the initiative will generate capital to support its work with members to help them adopt more sustainable practices.
AIF has invited its members to form a “coalition of the willing” that it can work alongside to drive environmental sustainability practices and initiatives. It said it will use Vision For Sustainable Events’ recently published Show Must Go On Report and its 30 Climate Actions For Events checklist as a framework for festivals’ climate transition plans.
Ticket Tailor, which is a certified B Corp, said it created Earth Invest to support organisations, partners, and initiatives that are driving meaningful sustainability improvements across the events industry.
“AIF has worked hard over the years in an effort to raise awareness and improve practices among both music festival fans and promoters on this issue,” said AIF CEO John Rostron. “With the Sustainability Step Change Fund, we can now take those efforts to the next level, providing pockets of financial support, new resources, skills and expertise directly to our members to enable them to facilitate real change. This contribution from Ticket Tailor’s EarthInvest is a great launchpad for the fund and for the independent festival sector.”
Ticket Tailor founder and CEO Jonny White said, “Our AIF sponsorship is a big statement that we want to support events in their sustainability journey and, for many, that will require financial support, which our Earth Invest funding can provide.”