Researching environmental sustainability at music festivals. A Dutch case.

Student: Fabi van Berkel

Student number: c1263927, s0709085

Word count: 20.826

MSc. Planet Europe

Supervisor: Andrea Collins & Duncan Liefferink

Cardiff University & Radboud University Nijmegen

June 2014

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors, Andrea Collins and Duncan Liefferink, for their

excellent guidance and constructive input throughout the entire research project. They were able to

keep me motivated and helped me deal with the difficulties I encountered during this study. I would

like to extend my thanks to the interviewees that were willing to spare some of their valuable time

to this project.

A further thanks should go out to my parents, family and friends who have been of great support

during my entire student career. A special thanks go out to Marjolein and Ellen for dealing with my

day-to-day dissertation struggles and making life in the university library a little less solitary and

more enjoyable.

Last, but not least, I would like to express great appreciation to all of my Planet Europe class mates

for making this masters programme a fun and exciting learning experience. We have shared a lot of

great moments, which I am sure I will remember for the rest of my life.

2

Table of content

List of Illustrations 4

Abstract 5

Chapter 1. Introduction 66.1 Context 66.2 Scope of the research 76.3 Research questions 86.4 Structure 9

Chapter 2. Literature review 102.1 Events and festivals 102.2 Events and sustainability 112.3 Event management, stakeholders & operational issues 132.4 The process of greening 15

Chapter 3. Methodology: Research strategy, design and methods 193.1 A qualitative research 193.2 Research design: Multiple case study research 203.3 Sampling the research units 22

3.3.1 Selection of material for content analysis 233.3.2 Selection of the cases 243.3.3 Selection of the interview participants 25

3.4 Research methods 263.4.1 Semi-structured interviews 263.3.2 Open coding 283.3.3 Content analysis 28

3.5 Ethical considerations 29

Chapter 4. Research findings 304.1 Sustainability in the music festival industry in the Netherlands 30

4.1.1 Environmental sustainability at the Dutch music festival 304.1.2 Transferring knowledge in the festival industry 36

4.2 Drivers behind the greening of music festivals 374.3 Barriers and challenges of greening for Dutch festivals 40

Chapter 5. Analysis 445.1 Sustainable festival management: the process 44

5.1.1 Organisational context 445.1.2 External context and catalysts 47

5.2 A sustainable festival: the product 485.2.1 Stakeholders 485.2.2 Operational issues 50

5.3 Festivals as a vehicle for change: Communicating the message 53

Chapter 6. Conclusion 556.1 Summary of the main findings 556.2 Findings in relation to the literature 566.3 Limitations of the research 576.4 Areas for further research 58

Bibliography 60Appendices 64

3

List of Illustrations

List of figuresFigure 1. The development of the Dutch festival-market between 1980 8

and 2013.Figure 2. The sustainable events management wheel. 13Figure 3. Proposed conceptual model of drivers and barriers of corporate 16

greening.Figure 4. Drivers and barriers to festival greening 17

List of tablesTable 1. Levels of sampling of the cases and research units in relation 23

to the research questions.Table 2. Festivals and interview details 26Table 3. Summary of research methods used to address specific 26

research questionsTable 4. Website analysis of 30 festivals 34Table 5. Organisational context studied festival 45Table 6. List of drivers and barriers to festival greening 56

4

Abstract

Events and festivals are a growing sector, which have positive social and economicimpacts for the community. On the other hand they are considered to have a negativeimpact on the environment as well. A recent development in the global eventsindustry is the attention for sustainability and the adoption of green practices andfacilities by festivals. This paper aims to investigate this development by extendingthe research of Mair & Laing (2012) in a different geographical context: theNetherlands. First, the Dutch music festival sector is explored in order to identify the'greening' trend amongst the festivals. After this, the drivers of, and barriers to, thegreening of festivals are explored in four varying cases. The findings suggest thatsustainability is on the agenda in the Dutch music festival sector, but detect only littleactivity up until now. Also, similar drivers were identified in the cases under studyand two barriers could be added to the results of the research of Mair & Laing(2012). A deviating outcome of this study was the significance of the role of theorganisational context and could be considered as point of departure in furtherresearch.

5

Chapter 1. Introduction

'Music is one of the most powerful mediums to communicate environmental messages to

billions of people worldwide – irrespective of race, income, gender or age'

Jones & Scanlon (2010, p. 4)

1.1 Context

According to Getz (1997, p.1) events and festivals are becoming 'one of the most exciting and

fastest growing forms of leisure, business, and tourism-related phenomena'. While they intend to

have positive social and economic impacts for the local community in which they take place, which

has been studied by many academics, the negative environmental impacts of such events have

received much less attention (Collins, [forthcoming]; Langen & Garcia, 2009; Raj & Musgrave,

2010). For this reason Getz (2008, p. 421) asks for attention to environmental outcomes of events

and festivals and appoint this as a priority for research. In the last years, some authors started to

explore this 'new' area of research (for example, Mair & Laing, 2012; Laing & Frost, 2010; Raj &

Musgrave, 2009) focussing on staging green events and the motivations of organisers behind

greening efforts, but still a lot remains to be researched.

At the same time there seems to be a more general trend in which sustainability is becoming

a significant concern for large and small business enterprises in all industries (Raj & Musgrave,

2009). According to Laing & Frost (2010, p. 261) there is a greater awareness on the challenges of

climate change and a growing consciousness that socially responsible activities and operations

should become the modus operandi of business in the 21th century. Nowadays in different sectors of

society a triple bottom line is introduced in management, planning and operations, implied by

national or even global policy. 'In the simplest terms, the TBL agenda focuses corporations not just

on the economic value that they add, but also on the environmental and social value they add – or

destroy', thus Henriques & Richardson (2004, p.1). In the events industry sustainability is also

gaining interest (Raj & Musgrave, 2009). Jones (2011) argues that business as usual within the

events industry can't continue. 'The industry can't keep producing mountain range of rubbish or

leave clouds of CO2 in legacy. No matter the type of event, every coming together of people for a

purpose can be done so with consideration for sustainability' (p. 12).

When it comes to the environmental impacts of events, Buizer (2009) implies that festivals

can be considered as an ecological disaster and that whenever there's a huge gathering of people,

they are going to have an impact on the surrounding air, land and water, with knock-on effects on

the wider environment. Jones (2010, p. 4) states that the myriad activities, logistics, production and

systems required to put on an event, in the end can be distilled down to just two things: resource use 6

or emissions. These are related to different activities around the festival like, travel, transport,

energy use and food consumption (Collins, [forthcoming]), which produce waste, noise and

pollution (Yeoman, Robertson, Ali-Knight, Drummond & McMahon-Beattie, 2004).

According to Laing & Frost (2010) the lack of academic research focused on green events is

juxtaposed with an increasingly sophisticated market that is more knowledgeable about

sustainability practices than ever before. This appears, for example, from the existence of multiple

organisations throughout the globe that promote the greening of events, provide guidelines, offer

certification programs and give advice on how to implement green practices. Some examples being,

Julie's bicycle (UK), the Icarus foundation (Aus), A greener festival (UK) and Green Festival

(USA). Besides this, the development of an International Standards Organisation (ISO) standard for

sustainable events, following of the British Standard BS8901, also reflects the adoption of

sustainability in the events community. According to Hall (2011, p.121) this standard takes a

management systems approach for identifying key sustainability issues and was created in order to

have one internationally recognised framework to implement sustainability in the events industry.

Furthermore on a more practical level, individual companies, musicians, festivals etc. seem to be

'taking matters into their own hands' by creating their own campaigns and initiatives to promote

environmental causes or to 'green' their activities and engage their audiences, thus Jones & Scanlon

(2010). These initiatives can all be considered as part of a wider movement to integrate

sustainability into the planning and operation of festivals and events (Gallagher & Pike, 2011, p.

160). However, these activities and initiatives are currently quite fragmented and not synergetic.

1.2 Scope of the research

According to Getz (2008, p. 404) 'planned events are spatial-temporal phenomenon, and each is

unique because of interactions among the setting, people, and management systems – including

design elements and the program'. Considering the size and diversity of the events industry the

focus of this research is the festival, more specifically the music festival. Smith (1990, in Williams

& Bowdin, 2007, p. 187) defines a festival as 'a celebration of a theme or special event for a limited

period of time, held annually or less frequently'. In this, music festivals can be considered a specific

subset of festivals with unique characteristics (Mair & Laing, 2012). These events are seen as truly

holistic leisure experiences, in which there is often an quite varied musical program, but also feature

numerous catering outlets and bars, and a range of other cultural attractions (Anderton, 2007, p. 38).

Music festivals, mostly outdoor rock and pop festivals, are considered to have their roots in an

alternative counterculture. The music festival industry has however been, transformed,

commodified and modernised over the years into an large and enormously diverse festival market

to various degrees (Anderton, 2007; Getz, 2010).

7

The 'greening' of festivals is a development that has more recently been occurring in the

music festival scenery and seems to be happening as common practice in America, Europe and

Australia (Jones & Scanlon, 2010). In Europe, although wide spread, most attention for this topic

seems to be coming from the UK, in terms of production, as well as research towards the

phenomenon and certification. Where little academic research has been done on green festivals,

Laing & Frost (2010) argue that it can be considered valuable to explore this concept in different

countries. For this reason, as well as practical reasons, the Netherlands is considered as an

interesting case for further exploration of the phenomenon. The country holds a vivid festival

landscape, which has gone through significant growth over the last years (figure 1), and therewith

entails the earlier identified pressures on the environment. Next to this, there seems to be an

increasing interest for sustainability at festivals in this country (Heck, 2014). Buizer (2009)

identifies a growing consciousness on how we treat each other and the environment in the Dutch

sector and argues that some festivals have been exploring the possible implementation of Corporate

Social Responsibility (CSR). A further exploration towards greening in the Dutch music festival

sector thus seems to be relevant for both academic and societal reasons. This research mostly

focuses on the motivations, barriers and outcomes of greening practices and can therewith be

considered as a follow-up of a research done by Mair & Laing (2012), which is now applied to a

different geographical context.

Figure 1. The development of the Dutch festival-market between 1980 and 2013. Source: Respons. (2012)

1.3 Research questions

Three questions have been formulated in order to explore if and why sustainable practices are

gaining increased attention in the Dutch music festival sector.

8

1. To what extent is there attention for environmental sustainability issues in the Dutch music

festival industry?

2. What can be considered the main drivers behind greening practices?

3. What can be considered main barriers or challenges of the greening process?

The first question serves to explore if there is in fact concern for environmental impacts of music

festivals in the Netherlands and if so, what music festivals and other related organisations are doing

to address these issues. Considering there is little evidence that the global trend of greening is also

occurring in the Netherlands, the attention for environmental issues in the industry needs to be

assessed first. The second question then focuses on the motivations of festival organisers to actually

act upon these concerns. Finally, the third questions investigates what the main barriers are when it

comes to adopting green practices and strategies.

1.4 Structure

The study begins with an outline of the existing literature on events and festivals and its relation to

environmental issues and sustainability, in order to position the research in the wider academic

debate. This is followed with an overview of the research strategy and methods being used. The

research findings are then outlined with relation to the research questions, before being further

analysed in accordance with the existing knowledge of the phenomenon. Finally the study

concludes with the outcomes of the research, its limitations and recommendations for further

research.

9

Chapter 2. Literature review

In this chapter the literature on events and festivals, their management and its relation to

environmental issues and sustainability is described. Where the current state of the literature on

green festivals specifically is considered minimal, the literature reviewed here aims to lay some

foundations for this research by introducing main elements involved with the phenomenon. Section

2.1 will give insights in the themes that are researched in festival studies in order to indicate the

existing research gap for sustainable festivals. Section 2.2 discusses the existing literature relating

sustainability to events and festivals. Section 2.3 explains key aspects concerned with staging

(green) events and festivals. Section 2.4 describes the process of corporate greening, which tries to

explain why organisations are shifting to green practices.

2.1 Events and festivals

When exploring the literature on festivals it is noticed that research on this topic is coming from

different study fields, focussing on diverse aspects of the phenomenon. Getz (2010) explores the

nature and scope of festival studies and identifies three major discourses within festival studies.

According to Getz (2010) festivals are an important sub-field within event studies, and of particular

interest to researchers in many disciplines because of the universality of festivity and the popularity

of festival experiences. Getz (2010) argues that because festivals occupy a special place in almost

all cultures, they have been well-researched and theorised by scholars in the disciplines of

anthropology and sociology. Next to this he views festivals also as part from the entertainment

business, for which they are often featured in place marketing and tourism. He argues that in the

most recent reviews of event management and event tourism the most frequent topics were

economic development and impacts of events, followed by sponsorship and marketing from the

corporate perspective (see for example, Tang and Turco, 2001; Gotham, 2002; Barlow and Shibli,

2007; Moscardo, 2007) .

From the three main discourses that are recognised in the literature by Getz (2010), research

on the oldest and most developed discourse focuses on the roles, meanings and impacts of festivals

in society and culture (Quinn, 2003; Gotham, 2005; Matheson, 2005; Wood and Thomas, 2006;

Morgan, 2008; Cohen, 2007; Anderton, 2007). Where the earlier work in this discourse focuses on

the specificity and authenticity of cultural celebrations, later on the issues addressed are more on the

value and worth of festivals to society and culture. The second discourse recognised in the bulk of

literature on festivals is in tourism, in which there is attention for a 'festivalization', an over-

commodification of festivals exploited by tourism and place marketeers (Mitchell, 1993; Dwyer et

al, 2000; Quinn, 2006; Richards, 2007; Hodur and Leistritz, 2007). Dominant in this discourse has

been the assessment of economic impacts of festivals and festival tourism, planning and marketing 10

(Wicks and Fesenmaier, 1995; Grant and Paliwoda, 1998; Gibson and Davidson, 2004; Pikkemaat,

2005; Lee and Beeler, 2007). In the last discourse, also the most recent sub-field, identified by Getz

(2010) festival management is the central binding element. Here there is a focus on the practitioners

point of view and on specific element, like human resources, risks, logistics, and marketing.

From this there appears to be a research gap when it comes to considering negative impacts

of festivals and little attention for issues of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (Getz,

2010, p. 5). In the literature, economic, social and cultural impacts seem to gain lots of attention,

and there even is a focus on personal impacts. It shows that festivals are being used more and more

to implement a wide range of public sector policies, thus Getz (2010, p 12). Getz (2010) calls the

paucity of articles on the environmental impacts of festivals and events appalling. He argues in his

research that there is no correspondence found between popular rhetoric on sustainability and the

entire field of event studies as evidenced by published research articles. Since this thesis will focus

on these issues, festivals will be reviewed from another perspective, linking these events to

environmental studies.

2.2 Events and Sustainability

Where the literature on environmental and sustainability issues related to festivals can be

considered very minimal, there are some that appear very relevant for this research in terms of

laying the foundations for further exploration. First of all it is necessary to come to an

understanding of the different terms used in the literature related to concerns raised over the abuse

of our surroundings in the pursuit of commercial activity. According to Henderson (2011, p. 247)

terms such as 'greening', 'environmentally friendly', 'corporate social responsibility' and 'eco-

friendly' are interchangeably mixed with sustainable, for which it's difficult to focus on one specific

definition. According to Musgrave and Raj (2009, p. 2) sustainability implies a link towards

ecological impacts; namely, the consumption of natural resources and the deliberation of pollution

and energy use, the concern for social inclusion and distribution of wealth, coupled with the

economic themes of growth and longevity. In this context it stands for an enduring, balanced

approach to economic activity, environmental responsibility and social progress and for the event

sector this applies to the entire life cycle and event-management of all core activities of the event.

Within the business context, the three elements of sustainability, economic, environmental

and social have become known as the 'triple bottom line'. According to Elkington (1994, in

Gallagher & Pike, 2011, p. 159) the triple bottom line 'reflects an expanded spectrum of values and

criteria for measuring organisational and business success, and as a means of taking a deliberative

inclusion ethical standards in the business model, with public interest at the forefront of decision-

making'. It means taking a broader view of business behaviour, from one concerned solely with

11

profit to one that includes people and planet as well. Henderson (2011, p. 248) on the other hand

states that today many of the aforementioned terms (greening etc) emphasise either the 'planet' or

the 'people' aspect of sustainable development and herewith mentions that the thinking behind the

use of these terms is too simplistic. He argues that all three elements of sustainable development

should be addressed by those wanting to manage activities in a sustainable matter.

According to Laing & Frost (2010, p. 262) the term 'green event' can be defined as an event

that has a sustainability policy or incorporates sustainable practices into its management and

operations and they argue also that green events often have broader concerns than their direct

environmental impact. Henderson (2011, p. 248) complements this by saying that a service industry

like events management would be well advised to take a wider view of its sustainable development

encompassing both the 'product' the 'process' aspects. According to Gallagher and Pike (2011, p.

158) in many ways festivals represent a microcosm of the global issues relating to environmental

resource use and management since they consume resources, generate waste and lead to

concomitant discharges and emissions into the environment. Jones (2010, p 17) also argues that

'going green' means more than a carbon footprint and some lightweight action. She also claims that

a wider view must be taken, including sustainability and traditional environmental concerns;

resource use is particularly relevant to events.

The challenge for events thus goes beyond solely applying and investing in green practices

and facilities. Getz and Andersson (2008) state that the dimensions of sustainability for events and

tourism are defined by their relationship with the natural resources; with community and political

support; with economics and demand; and with operational management. It is thus the wider

management and general decision-making that lies at the bottom of sustainable events. Musgrave

& Raj (2009) came up with a conceptual framework for sustainable events which provides an

introduction to the fundamentals of sustainability, coherence and integration within the events

strategy (see figure 2). The ten principles represent the underlying philosophy for the way

sustainable events should be considered, and symbolise a vision and overall direction, which must

be accessible and realistic.

12

Figure 2. The sustainable events management wheel. Source: Musgrave & Raj (2009, p. 26)

From the above we can conclude that a distinction can be made between developing a sustainable

event in which the three elements of sustainability are incorporated in the foundations of the

organisation – focus on the process - and to mainly encompassing environmental responsibilities

and therefore investing in environmental friendly practices and facilities - focus on actions (Mair &

Jago, 2010). Becoming a fully sustainable event requires devotion and engagement from the

organisation and is not accomplished within a fortnight. According to Musgrave & Raj (2009, p. 2)

the elements of an event refer to pre, live, and post-event, and as such the life cycle and entirety of

event management must be considered. Next to this, they argue that responsible event management

will represent a holistic understanding of all core and support activities of planned events, raise

awareness of the impacts of these activities and foster a strategic intent to reduce impacts, increase

the effectiveness of actions taken and create a culture that continuously measures and evaluates

these changes, thus Musgrave & Raj (2009, p. 11). Bottom line: Sustainable practices thus occur

when financial benefits are not the obsolete factor in decision-making, but outweighed and

prioritised by minimising negative environmental and social effects, thus Buizer (2009, p. 8)

2.3 Event management, stakeholders & operational issues

According to Ensor, Robertson, and Ali-Knight (2011, p. 317) events are formal organisations with

competencies of management, adaptability, and an ability to ensure financial and political support to

ensure sustainability. In this Yeoman et al. (2004) distinguish four major stages of event

development, namely: decision of design, detailed planning, implementation and evaluation, in

13

which the event basically depends on three components; an organising body; a place to host the

event; and an audience (Musgrave & Raj, 2009, p. 23). Next to this they also depend on the

provision and allocation of resources, including human resources, infrastructure and funds.

According to Musgrave & Raj (2009, p. 24) the ultimate task of the event manager is therefore

based on the concept 'to produce a programme that maintains the support of the various

stakeholders, through the mobilisation and allocation of resources'. The latter brings us to the

importance of various stakeholders, and herewith the key elements when it comes to the

organisation of a festival.

According to Larson & Wikstrom (2008, in Laing & Frost, 2010, p. 262) events are often

organised by stakeholders with divergent and sometimes conflicting interests, requiring

collaborative alliances or partnerships to be developed between the parties. There can be tensions

between the various stakeholders for particular recreational activities, for which the organisers need

to identify ways to minimise conflict and manage competing interests. Apart from this various

forms of cooperation exist among persons and groups that share one or more common goals, thus

Getz & Andersson (2010). Where they investigate stakeholder dependency of festivals, they claim

that there are several general patterns of stakeholder relationships that are linked to dependency, in

which a customer-first, government-first and supplier-first pattern was recognised.

With festivals many stakeholders become involved, if only in terms of their expectations or

perceptions of impacts (Getz & Andersson, 2010, p. 534). Stakeholders who might be involved in

the process are sponsors, contractors and suppliers, traders, regulating authorities,

participants/artists, the venue owner, the contractor, the local community, industry organisations,

community organisations and customers/attendees (Jones 2010, p. 55). Their interests and relation

to the festival can be political, environmental, technological, economic and communal by nature

(Yeoman et al., 2004, p. 36). According to (Getz & Andersson, 2010) a successful event can

eventuate when the needs of each stakeholder are understood, common goals are identified and a

satisfactory investment can be made by each. This said, moving a festival towards sustainability

will only work if all stakeholder and decision makers are actively engaged, participating in change-

making behaviour and committed to reaching greening goals (Jones, 2010, p. 45). According to

Ensor et al. (2011, p. 316) festival leaders have a very significant role. They claim that festival

managers must become skilled at managing the relationships that can generate support and

resources.

When it comes to operational matters Laing & Frost (2010, p. 263) argue that an event

aiming to improve its green, main issues relate to both the events itself, as well as its location,

inputs and outputs. The decision for a certain location is related to the issues as access to transport,

waste management and availability to power, but also to the sensitivity of the site itself.

14

Accessibility matters mostly imply the presence of reliable public transport, since there are

significant negative impacts, like congestion, noise and pollution generated by high car-shares.

Furthermore, possibilities for waste management also differ per venue, which in some cases need to

be arranged externally and in other cases is present at the site. This goes from human waste, in

terms of toilet arrangements, to recycling solutions and general waste matters. As for power options,

minimising oil-based generators and using solar- or wind power entail lesser impact on the

environment. Other operational issues and related to purchases that need to be made and concern

fair trade and labour issues and greening the supply chain, but also minimising chemical usage and

using sustainable materials or recyclable alternatives or considering carbon offsets (Jones, 2010,

p.17).

2.4 The process of greening

This research will focus on identifying greening practices in the Dutch festival sector and

understanding why festival organisations turn to investment in environmentally friendly facilities

and practices. The latter can be considered as the process behind greening, which has been

examined and conceptualised by Mair & Jago (2010). In their research they propose a conceptual

model (see figure 3) that identifies the drivers and barriers of corporate greening. 'It will represent

the dimensions that are influential and also include both the organisational context of the individual

firm and the role of the media in setting the agenda for the salience of environmental issues', thus

Mair & Jago (2010, p. 84). The model is based on an extensive review of the existing literature in

the areas of general corporate greening and greening in tourism and events in which overall drivers

and barriers were identified. Mair & Jago (2010) argue that not all drivers are expected to be

similarly influential in all sectors, but the model allows the researcher to move beyond the

descriptive to the explanatory.

The model suggests that the organisation provides the context for the process, and the

organisation is faced with a number of drivers (both internal and external) that exert pressure

towards greening. The main driving factors may differ per sector or case. Next to this there are also

a number of barriers, which may withhold an organisation from greening. Furthermore in the model

three catalysts are identified, which intent to put further pressure on the decision for further

greening. These are identified as increased media attention for climate change, and herewith a

changing eco-culture, and also the presence of eco-champions that encourages and/or advocate a

sustainable way of thinking. The latter are considered to accelerate the agenda-setting for

sustainability in the organisation and or sector. Overall, the framework proposed by Mair & Jago

(2010) provides a structured approach to greening and allows guidance to investigating greening in

other sectors.

15

Figure 3: Proposed conceptual model of drivers and barriers of corporate greening. Source: Mair & Jago

(2010, p. 85)

Where Mair & Jago (2010) apply this model to the business events sector, Mair & Laing (2012)

explore the greening process of the outdoor festival sector. In their research they explain greening

behaviour through concepts such as environmental values, stewardship, environmental ethics and

green advocacy, emphasising the managerial and/or personal values of the owners of organisations.

They adopt the importance of the eco-champion and introduce the concept of the environmental

steward. According to them there is a slight difference between the two in which the steward fosters

a belief in the seriousness of environmental problems, where a champion also advocates this way of

thinking and acts upon it. Alongside this, Tzschenke, Kirk & Lynch (2004) argue that personal

values and beliefs play an important role in decision-making in the small business context, when it

comes to the adoption of sustainable measures in organisations. According to them there is some

kind of unintended discretion, through which personal values are exhibited, which are not bestowed

by someone but exercised nevertheless.

When it comes to environmental advocacy there appear to be different views to where an

eco-champion is found in the organisation, but it seems to be acknowledged that environmental

champions need to have a level of autonomy and encouragement if they come from the lower

echelons of a company, thus Mair & Laing (2012). It is argued that any employee can become an

environmental champion, but that it is necessary that this interest or passion needs to be picked up

and encouraged by the management so that it can be beneficial for the organisation. Next to this it is

argued that in small and medium enterprises (SME's) owners/managers generally have the

autonomy to exercise a more personalised style of management and that since these businesses are

16

dominant in the event sector, a close match between personal and organisational values can exist.

This could mean that if environmental values exist with the owner or management of the festival,

this could be translated to festival management.

In the research of Mair & Laing (2012) three significant drivers and five barriers were

identified as being important factors in the greening process of festivals (figure 4). These drivers

and barriers were found after interviewing six festival organisers, from the UK and Australia, that

had won an award for organising a green festival. From the list presented in figure 4, similar drivers

were identified in comparison with the business events context, except for 'desire to educate'. It

appeared that the organisational contexts of festivals allows festival directors to take upon the role

of an eco-champion and therewith also to advocate pro-environmental behaviour. The festivals

appeared to represent an excellent opportunity to bring like-minded people together and provide

both information, and represent an example of good practice sustainable behaviour. Different

festival organisers acknowledged the position of influence they had on the audience that is present

at their festival for a considerate amount of time. This latter relates to the idea of Sharpe (2008) that

festivals can be considered as 'vehicles of change' and the possible existence of an intersection

between pleasure and politics at events, which is in this case recognised and anticipated by the

festival organiser.

Figure 4. Drivers and barriers to festival greening. Source: Mair & Laing (2012, p. 690)

Finally, as opposed to Mair & Jago (2010) Mair & Laing (2012) found that, although

important, the external and organisational environments did not play a large part in determining the

level of sustainable practices undertaken by the festival (p. 695). From the interviews it appeared

that the relationships with the local community and government were very important and that also

consumer trends in which sustainability was sought were gaining attention. Next to this for the

festival-sector it appeared that catalysts were only found in the presence of an eco-champion and no

reference was made to the role of media and culture. Overall, the findings from the research of Mair

17

& Jago (2010), as well as Mair & Laing (2012) will help identify important factors related to green

elements in the Dutch festival sector.

18

Chapter 3. Methodology: Research strategy, design and methods

This chapter will discuss the research methodology used to collect the data for our research. The

research methodology described here indicates the 'logic of inquiry' for the research and sets out the

plan for the project. Section 3.1 discusses the epistemological and ontological considerations that

define the qualitative research strategy. Section 3.2 will elaborate on the research design chosen for

this thesis. Section 3.3 then explains the selection of the units with reference to the research

questions. Section 3.4. will discuss the research methods applied in this thesis and finally section

3.5. concludes the chapter with a brief explanation of any ethical issues encountered throughout the

study.

3.1 Research strategy

According to Bryman (2012, p. 35) a research strategy is focused on the general orientation to

conduct social research for which several fundamental assumptions need to be distinguished. First

of all the research that is conducted for this thesis can be considered as inductive and therewith

theory-developing or building. This, because the findings of the research will support, complement

or dispute the outcomes of an earlier parallel study, but will either way contribute to the general

understandings of the greening process at festivals. According to Verschuren and Doorewaard

(2007, p.43) for this type of research it is possible that there are theoretical concepts existing for a

phenomenon, but that the question remains if these explanatory concepts are also tenable when they

are applied to new empirical material. This is the case in this research as it explores the drivers and

the barriers for greening in the Dutch music festival context, which is later compared to the

outcomes of earlier research of a different geographical context. The theoretical insights that are

described in the previous chapter are thus not necessarily guiding the research, but are little more

than the literature on a certain topic in the form of accumulated knowledge gleamed from books and

articles (Bryman, 2012, p. 25). Theory is therefore used as the background to a qualitative

investigation. An iterative strategy is applied, in which data and theory will be constantly linked to

one other and an open research approach exists. According to Vennix (2010, p. 90) an iterative

working method beholds a constant interchange between collected data, analysis and reflection,

which describes the ongoing process in this research.

When considering epistemological issues an interpretivist approach is adopted for this study.

This means that we primarily attempt to understand human action rather than explaining the forces

that are deemed to act on it. In this research it is important to gain access to people's 'common sense'

thinking and hence to interpret their actions and their social world from their point of view, thus

Bryman (2012, p. 30). In this research this is quite clear, as it is concerned with understanding why

certain drivers and barriers are important in determining organisations behaviour and how the 19

people working at these organisations interpret environmental values and give meaning to them. In

this study an phenomenological approach can be distinguished, since there is a focus on a person's

meaning to act and their interpretation of reality. Green practices are considered to be the result of

actions taken by people, who act upon meanings and ideas that are shaped by society and processes

of socialisation. Their behaviour can therefore be considered context dependant, since it is shaped

by either personal motivation, policy or other incentives and herewith socially constructed.

This leaves us at the ontological considerations of the research, which in this case focus on

the position of constructionism (Bryman, 2012, p33). Greening practices are created and shaped by

interpretations, since actors give meaning to environmental values on which they base their

greening strategies and measures. Festival organisers and involved stakeholders give meaning to

concepts, such as sustainability or environmental concern, which guides their action and shapes

greening practices. Next to this considering the significant differences between festivals in terms of

location, genre, nature and so on, and the different interpretations and perceptions of the earlier

mentioned concepts by the festival organisers, greening practices can be considered very

diversified. For this the phenomenon of 'greening practices' is produced through social interaction

and are in a constant state of revision, because they are examined, discussed, constructed and

reconstructed. It is for this that in this research people will be actively involved in reality

construction.

From the above it is argued that the research strategy is qualitative by nature, in which the

focus lies on words, rather than quantifiable elements and the phenomenon is perceived as a whole

and analysed extensively. According to Flick (2011, p 12) the aim is not so much to test what is

known, but rather than to discover new aspects in the situation under study and to develop

hypotheses or a theory from these discoveries. The research can be considered exploratory, for

which an open approach to our data collection has been adopted and the applied methodology is

guided by the research and findings itself. To date there has been relatively limited research

published on sustainability in the Dutch festival sector for which the research strategy was not very

clear-cut at the beginning. For this it was necessary to have a first phase of exploration to get

insights in the field and to get a better and overall understanding of (sustainability in) the sector,

before a thorough research process could be established. This required a certain level of flexibility

of the researcher and a large dependence on respondents in the field.

3.2 Research design: Multiple case study research

According to Flick (2009, p. 68) the use of the term research design in qualitative research refers to

planning a study: how to plan data collection and analysis and how to select empirical material in

order to be able to answer the research question in the available time and with the available

20

resources. In this research the case study is considered as an appropriate research design for

investigating greening practices of music festivals in the Netherlands. Yin (2009) identifies three

conditions that make the design of a case study suitable for this research. The first relates to the

condition that 'case studies are the preferred strategy when “how” or “why” questions are being

posed' (Yin, 2009, p.1). Since this research aims to understand why festival organisations in the

Netherlands are greening their practices, this matches the first condition. Next to this, the case study

is considered suitable 'when the investigator has little control over events, and when the focus is on

a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context.' (Yin, 2009, p.1). It is not possible to

influence, reconstruct or control the way organisations develop their festival(s), for which their

'greening practices' need to be examined in its particular real-life situation.

According to Simons (2009, p. 21) a case-study is an in-depth exploration from multiple

perspectives of the complexity and uniqueness of a particular project, policy, institution, programme

or system in a ‘real life’ context. The case study is valued for its detailed and intensive analysis of

the phenomenon under study. It relies on multiple sources of evidence and uses different methods

for data collection and analysis, in order to identify and make claims on significant concepts that are

relevant for an emerging theory (Bryman, 2012, p.74). In this research the case study design will

help identify key characteristics and elements of the greening process of festivals and investigate

how they relate to each other by using the theoretical model of Mair & Jago (2010). Thomas (2011,

p. 15) argues that 'the case that is the subject of the inquiry will be an instance of class of

phenomena that provides an analytical frame – an object – within which the study is conducted and

which the case illuminates and explicates.' The subject or case of this study can be considered 'the

festival', which is examined on its 'greening practices' – the object -, in order to get a general

understanding why organisations are focusing on green practices.

The decision for this type of research is based on the fact that we would like to investigate a

phenomenon and discover its processes and relationships, which will be studied in multiple cases

(Denscombe, 2007, p. 12). According to Thomas (2011, p. 141) with the multiple case study, the

interest is not in the case itself but on the phenomenon of which the case is an example: the focus is

on the object. The phenomenon that is researched in this study is 'environmental sustainability in

music festivals', which will be explored and researched in different cases by using the same, but

multiple methods. A good argument for multiple case study research is that it improves theory

building, (Bryman, 2012, p 74). By comparing two or more cases, the researcher is in a better

position to establish the circumstances in which a theory will or will not hold (Yin, 2009). The key

to a multiple case study research is its ability to allow the distinguishing characteristics of two or

more cases to act as a springboard for theoretical reflections about contrasting findings, thus

Bryman (2012, p 75). The study of multiple cases allows for analytical generalisation, which

21

relates to how well the researcher is able to generate theory out of the findings. The use of

sensitising concepts derived from earlier research on greening practices of music festivals by Mair

& Laing (2012) will guide this process and will give a general sense of what to look for in the

research findings (Bryman, 2012, p. 716). It could also be argued that we are confronted with a

nested case study, since the Netherlands as a whole can be considered the wider case, compared to

an international context. According to Thomas (2011, p. 155) comparisons are at the heat of each

kind of study, but in the nested study, these occur in a wider, connected context. It could be

imaginable that the national context has an influence on the greening practices of festivals and

should thus be borne in mind.

3.3 Sampling the research units

In case-study research the selection of the cases is considered to be a very important part of the

research. According to Denscombe (2007, p. 33) a good case study requires the researcher to defend

the decision by arguing that the particular cases selected are suitable for the purpose of the research.

Because of this, discussions of sampling in qualitative research tend to revolve around the notion of

purposive sampling (Bryman, 2012). This type of sampling is essentially to do with the selection of

units, with direct reference to the research questions being asked (Bryman, 2012, p. 416). The

research questions of this research can be divided into two sections, for which there is also a

difference in sampling and the levels of sampling in the two sections (see table 1). The first section

focuses on reviewing the presence of environmental sustainability at music festivals in the

Netherlands on a more general basis. Here, the objective is to get insights in the greening activities

of the entire music festival sector, for which sampling relates to the selection of a different of

research units.

In the second section there is a focus on the main drivers and barriers of greening practices

in several specific cases, for which the sampling relates to the selection of the case/context and to

some extent the participants as research units. For this section a sampling procedure was initially

followed in order to select the specific cases. According to Bryman (2012, p. 422) when using a

generic purposive sampling approach with respect to the selection of cases or contexts, the

researcher establishes criteria concerning the kinds of cases needed to address the research

questions, identifies appropriate cases and then samples from those cases that have been identified.

Even though multiple appropriate cases were identified, based on the selection criteria formed a

priori, convenience sampling was finally applied, due to practical implications and negative

responses of the participants (described in section 3.3.2). In the end the cases that were most easily

accessible under the given circumstances were chosen for study (Flick, 2011). The appropriate cases

that were identified on the base of the selection criteria, finally resulted in the selection of the

22

festival websites as research units related to the first research question (see table 1.)

Table 1. Levels of sampling of cases and research units in relation to the research questions.

Section Research question Cases Research units

1 (1) To what extent is there attention for environmental

sustainability issues in the Dutch music festival

industry?

- 32 festival websites

1 interviewee Multiple media articles

2 (2) What can be considered the main drivers behind

greening practices?

(3) What can be considered main barriers or challenges

of the greening process?

4 festivals 4 interviewees of different festival organisations

3.3.1 Selection of material for content analysis.

As mentioned in the literature review (see chapter 2) limited research on sustainability in the Dutch

music festival sector has been published. For this, newspapers, magazines and other mass media

documents are considered to be potential sources for this research. The information derived from

these sources can mostly be considered valuable for answering the first research question, and is

expected to give insights in the attention for environmental sustainability at Dutch music festivals.

Articles were searched for on the internet by using a combination of key word searches for

'sustainability', 'greening' and a number of other terms, in relation with 'festivals' or 'events'. Since

the articles were searched for in Dutch, the key words were also translated into the Dutch language,

examples being 'groen', 'duurzaam' and 'duurzaamheid'. About 20 articles were reviewed, which are

included in the bibliography. According to Bryman (2012, p. 553) the use of this material can entail

some authenticity and credibility issues. First of all, the outputs can often be deemed to be genuine.

Since the authorship of articles is often unclear, it is difficult to judge if text is written by someone

in a position to provide an accurate version. Furthermore, there is no insight in the way the analysis

is conducted for there can be possible distortions.

Other material that is selected in order to answer the first research question are virtual

documents and refer to the websites of multiple Dutch music festivals. The websites of festivals that

are reviewed correspond with the festivals that were considered as appropriate cases for case

selection. More details on the criteria of the appropriate cases is described in section 3.3.2 and a list

of these festivals can be found in the appendix B. For the use of this material the same issues for

authenticity and credibility need to be taken into account. Still, these webpages can be considered as

a valuable data source, since they function as primary means of communication for festivals.

23

3.3.2 Selection of the cases

As mentioned in section 3.3.1 the initial case selection for this research focused on a purposive

sampling approach, in which multiple festivals were considered as appropriate cases on the base of

certain criteria. In contrast with the study done by Mair & Laing (2012), in which there was no

specific attention for the different characteristics of the festival, this study does consider the

different characteristics important for the outcome. In the study of Mair & Laing (2012) the cases

that were selected all won an award for their environmental focus, but there was no concern for

other criteria. In this research the initial aim was to select 6 to 10 festivals, based on criteria that did

take several differences between festivals into account. The first criteria for the festival, which was

also included in the research of Mair & Laing(2012), was that its key focus was needed to be music.

According to the festival-monitor executed by Respons (2013), 520 of the 715 arts festivals in the

Netherlands in 2013 are typified as a music festival, which thus concerns the majority of the

festivals in the country. The second criteria was that the festival should be an outdoor festival,

which means that it is not located in an urban area. It could be hypothesised that outdoor festivals

have significant different implications for greening, for example because there is no connection to

the energy grid. Finally, the third criteria was related to the size of the festival, for which there was

a focus on large-scale festivals with attendances in excess of 50,000, as categorised by Anderton

(2007). Other significant characteristics, such as duration, genre, age or organisation form were not

considered as significant selection criteria, which can therefor vary over the cases.

Unfortunately it appeared very difficult to do a purposive sampling and therewith select the

festivals based on these criteria. This, firstly because there was no existing data source or list of

festivals based on these criteria, from which the festivals could be selected. An attempt was done to

identify, and collect data on, festivals that would meet these criteria, but this appeared to be an time-

consuming task, due to the lack of insights in visitors numbers. Where it was possible to verify if a

festival was outdoor by researching the festivals website or other informative websites, the number

of visitors could not be determined. Therefor, the size of the festivals was no longer as a vital

characteristic, at least not as a selection criterion. Finally, based on the researchers knowledge and

several websites that did list festivals (like www.festivalinfo.nl and www.dancefestivals.nl), 30

appropriate cases could be identified, of which music was the key focus and the location was

outdoor. A list of these 30 festivals can be found in Appendix B.

In order to select 6 to 10 festival, all the festivals that were considered appropriate cases

were contacted through an email address obtained from their website and asked whether somebody

in the organisation was able to discuss the role of sustainability issues in the management of the

festival. Unfortunately, a lot of festivals refused to do an interview and others did not respond at all.

The main argument for refusing our request was that the festivals were very busy with the

24

preparation for the upcoming festival season. The research period seemed to overlap with the

preparation period for a lot of festivals, for which a lot of festival organisers claimed to have no

time to do an interview. Another argument that was frequently mentioned was that the organisation

often received similar requests for which they had to be selective in agreeing on them. The lack of

telephone numbers on the websites also made it also difficult to get in contact with the festival

organisations in case of no response on the sent email. Finally from this sampling only 2 cases

could be selected for further investigation, which were Into The Great Wide Open Festival and

Extrema Outdoor. A full list of the approached festivals and the corresponding refusals, non-

responses and affirmations can be found in Appendix B.

Other sampling approaches that were applied in order to select the cases for this research

were snowball sampling and convenience sampling. These strategies allowed me to reach out to my

own network and approach 4 more festival organisations. This resulted in the selection of 2 more

cases, which were Mysteryland and Magneet festival. Unfortunately the initial aim of 6 to 10 cases

was not achieved due to practical implications. Next to this it needs to be said that the cases that

were chosen to be studied, were mostly selected because of there willingness to cooperate and less

on their specific characteristics. Even though the selected festivals, in most cases do meet the

criteria of being a music and outdoor festival, Magneet festival deviates from this, since it is

considered to be a multidisciplinary festival. An overview of the festivals and their characteristics is

provided in table 2.

3.3.3 Selection of the interview participants.

In total, interviews were conducted with five individuals. In this, the selection of four of these

individuals was guided by the selected case studies discussed in section 3.3.2. In the case of Into

The Great Wide Open the interviewee was nominated by the festival organisation as having the

expertise to discuss the role of sustainability issues. For the festivals of Extrema Outdoor and

Mysteryland the representatives of festival organisations Extrema & ID&T were selected by the

researcher, based on a web-search and in the case of Magneet festival, the interviewee was

introduced by a friend working in the field. Finally, for two cases the interviewee was thus selected

deliberately, and for the other two cases the interviewees were chosen because of their accessibility.

The details of the interviewees of the cases can be found in table 2.

The last individual was selected based on the expected knowledge of the greening of

festivals in the field. A telephone conversation with industry organisation VNPF on sustainability in

the festival sector lead to the interest for an interview with Kim Rekko, innovation manager at the

Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven. Considering that she had organised a range of sessions with

multiple festivals on becoming more sustainable, called 'A greener festival NL', this individual was

25

seen as a valuable interview participant. Next to this, another expert was approached in order to

discuss sustainability in the music festival sector, but due to personal circumstances this interview

had to be cancelled after rescheduling several times. Where this was at a late stage of the research

process, it was not possible to trace another valuable interview participant.

Table 2. Festivals and interview details. (Source: interviews/websites)

Festival(Organisation)

Age Average attendance

Music/Genre Location/venue type

Duration Interviewee title

Into the great wide open

6 years 6.000 Alternative rock/pop

Small island, Vlieland

3 days Technical production

Magneet festival

4 years 25.000 Multidisciplinary

Empty Sand Bank 4 weeks Founder

Extrema Outdoor(Extrema)

19 years

30.000 Electronic/Dance

Recreational area, Best

1 day Project & Sustainability manager

Mysteryland(ID&T)

21 years

60.000 Electronic/Dance

Recreational area, Floriade Haarlemmermeer

1 day Head of sustainability

3.4 Research methods

Since the data collected in this research solely has the form of texts, as in documents, websites and

transcribed interviews, it can be characterised as qualitative. Because of this the research methods

used to collect and analyse the data are also considered qualitative. Three research methods used in

this research will be described here and are summarised in table 3.

Table 3. Summary of research methods used to address specific research questions.

Research questions Semi-structuredinterviews

Open coding Contentanalysis

To what extent is there attention for environmental

issues in the Dutch music festival industry?

X X X

What can be considered the main drivers behind

greening practices?

X X

What can be considered main barriers or

challenges of the greening process?

X X

3.4.1 Semi-structured interviews

The main method for data collection used in this research is the semi-structured interview. In this

26

type of interview the researcher has a list of questions or fairly specific topics to be covered during

the interview, but the interviewee has a great deal of leeway in how to reply (Bryman, 2012, 471).

Considering the qualitative inductive approach of this research, certain openness in the data

collection is desirable, in order to discover ideas, concepts and relationships between them that have

not yet been identified or described by the literature. The semi-structured interview is argued to

provide the necessary flexibility, since this allows the interviewee to give input in stead of

answering to predefined options. Bryman (2012, p 469) mentions that this type of interview allows

for much greater interest in the interviewee's point of view and gives insights in what the

interviewee sees as relevant and important. Even though an interview guide was devised, based on

general themes found in the literature, in order to frame the conversation, the interviewees were

given the opportunity to elicit on matters they considered important.

As mentioned in section 3.3.3, two types of interviewees were identified for this research,

one being a key informant and four being representatives of the cases selected in this study. Since

the information generated by these two types of interviewees aims at answering different research

questions, the questions and topics discussed in the interviews also slightly differed. The key

informant was mostly inquired for a more general understanding of what sustainability means for

festivals. Topics covered in this interview included amongst others: a definition of sustainability,

attention for sustainability in the sector, main elements of sustainability at festivals, drivers and

barriers of the greening process and important stakeholders in the greening process. For the

interviews with the representatives the questions were more focused on their own experiences and

motivations, as well as perceptions in relation to sustainability at their festival. Similar topics were

covered in the interviews conducted with the representatives, but the focus was more specific on the

selected festival. For both interviews, the interview scheme can be found in Appendix C.

From the five interviews, four were carried out face-to-face and lasted between 50 and 70

minutes. At the request of one of the interviewees, the fifth interview was conducted via the

telephone and lasted about 30 minutes. The interviews were conducted by the researcher in Dutch,

as this was the native language of all interviewees. With prior permission, all interviews, except for

one, were audio-recorded and later transcribed. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties with the

recording program, the interview conducted via the telephone was not recorded properly. Based on

the researchers notes, an attempt was made to restore the conversation, of which finally only the

main outcomes could be saved in a small report. Each transcript and also the report were sent back

to the interviewees so that it could be checked for accuracy and possible withdrawal of statements.

This process is also known as respondent validation (Bryman, 2012, p 391) and demonstrates

credibility and trustworthiness and diminishes concerns surrounding the validity of the data and

therewith the research. Considering the size of the transcripts and the fact that they were elaborated

27

in Dutch, it doesn't add any value to include them in this report. All transcriptions are available on

request, but summaries of the statements made by the interviewees are included in Appendix D

3.4.2 Open coding

For the analysis of the interviews conducted in this research we will be using open coding.

According to Bryman (2012, p. 565) for qualitative data analysis there are only broad guidelines for

the codification of analytic procedures. Here the researcher's interpretations of data shape his or her

codes. Coding entails reviewing transcripts and/or field notes and giving labels to component parts

that seem to be of potential theoretical significance and/or that appear to be particularly salient

within the social worlds of those being studied. Coding in qualitative data analysis tends to be in a

constant state of potential revision and fluidity (Bryman, 2012, p 568) and for this multiple levels or

rounds of coding are applied, considering it an iterative process. While there are three types of

coding practices identified by Strauss and Corbin (1990, in Bryman, 2012) open coding refers to

'the process of breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualising and categorising data'. The

process of coding mainly existed of rereading and repeating the labelling of parts of texts, which

finally ended up in deciphering overall themes or categories.

Considering the inductive approach of this research, the coding in the first stage of the

process was solely focused on the identification of codes separately from the literature, but with

relevance to the research questions. After this first conceptualisation of the data, the identified codes

were compared with the theoretical principles identified in earlier research, in order to examine

similarities and differences between themes discussed in the material. In this the theoretical

understandings from the research executed by Mair & Jago (2010) and Mair & Laing (2012) were

considered as sensitising concepts that further guided construction of themes. Main themes for

which codes were identified were drivers and barriers, personal or organisational attitude towards

sustainability, organisational structure and approach, sustainable festival production and efforts to

transfer a sustainable narrative.

3.4.3 Content analysis

According to Bryman (2012, p 557) a qualitative content analysis compromises a searching-out of

underlying themes in the materials being analysed, in which the process through which the themes

are extracted is often not specified in detail. In this case the articles and documents will be scanned

for greening and sustainability issues and other related information. As for the festivals websites a

more structured content analysis will be done for all the festival that have been approached in this

research (see findings in chapter 4). A list of the websites of the festivals that were assessed in the

analysis can be found in appendix A. Where the websites of the festivals are the primary reference

28

point for the visitor, information on these sites is very important, especially when considering pro-

active environmental behaviour. It is for this reason that an analysis of these sites is conducted in

order to examine to what extent green activities are communicated through the website and make

statements on the attention for environmental issues in the festival industry (read: research question

1). First, the websites will be checked for the presence of green elements and if they explicitly carry

out green values. Next, we will analyse these website on four main elements of sustainability

(Jones, 2010) waste, water, transport and food & beverages, to see if the are some significant green

element mentioned less explicit. Even though the outcome of these analysis is questionable, since

communication doesn't necessarily have to mean action (greenwashing) and not communicating

doesn't mean no action, these insights could still be considered valuable.

3.5 Ethical considerations

Even though no vulnerable people were included in this research, there were still some ethical

issues that needed consideration in order to make sure no harm was done to the voluntary

participants of the research. First of all, the participants were fully informed on the objectives and

the wider nature of the research before interviewee consent was sought. This was done by

explaining to the respondents what the research was about and what would be done with the

information once obtained. This clarification was given at the first moment of contact, when the

request for an interview was sent in an email, and again at the second moment of contact, before the

interview was conducted. Next to this, at both contact moments the interviewee was also asked for

his/her permission to record the interview. Issues related to anonymity and confidentiality were not

considered for this research, since the participants clearly knew that they would be identified in the

report. Even though it was made clear that anonymity was possible, this was not requested by any

of the participants. In order to overcome any issues related to data protection, all the interview

transcriptions/report were sent to the participant, which allowed them to withdraw any statements

that were made.

29

Chapter 4. Research findings

In this chapter the empirical findings of the research will be discussed. The three research questions

developed for this research will provide the structure for this chapter. Section 4.1 focuses on the

attention for environmental issues in the Dutch music festival industry. In section 4.2 and 4.3 the

drivers and the barriers of the greening process identified in the four cases are discussed. Section

4.4 concludes with a summary of the main findings.

For this research the majority of the data was supposed to be derived from interviews with

individuals from the field (see chapter 3). Unfortunately, only a minimal amount of interviews could

be conducted, due to practical implications and the tight time schedule. While it could be argued

that the research would have benefitted from a larger quantity of interviews in order to find more

evidence for the identified drivers and barriers of the greening process, the small amount of cases

did allow for a broader focus when interpreting the data. Because of this, more attention could be

paid to the contextual setting of the festivals and the external context, which are identified as

important elements of the greening process by Mair & Jago (2010). Where Mair & Laing (2012)

argued that this did not play an important role for their cases, it was found to be of significant

influence for the cases studied in this research. The latter is an unexpected outcome that requires

further explanation, but will be discussed in chapter 5.

4.1 Sustainability in the music festival industry in the Netherlands.

This section aims to answer the first research question 'to what extent is there attention for

environmental sustainability issues in the Dutch music festival industry?' cannot be answered

uniformly. Where on the one hand it can be said that environmental issues and sustainability are on

the agenda in the Dutch music festival industry, the degree to which environmental sustainability is

addressed by the music festivals varies significantly. There are a couple of festivals that appear to be

very much ahead in greening their operations or management, while others are not really bothered

by the ecological impacts of their festival. What seems to be the overarching statement is that

overall, festivals in the Netherlands are considered to be behind on addressing environmental

sustainability, when comparing it the international context.

'In the Netherlands, we are now getting acquainted with greening, but we miss experience

and know-how'

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, date 18/04/2014.

4.1.1 Environmental sustainability at the Dutch music festival

There appear to be a couple of frontrunners in the Netherlands when it comes to the greening of 30

festivals. Music festivals that are mentioned repeatedly in newspaper articles on their sustainable

activities are Lowlands, Pinkpop, Indian Summer festival, Mysteryland, Welcome to the Future and

Into The Great Wide Open (Baaz, 2014). From these festivals, Lowlands appears to receive the most

attention from the media, possibly partly due to its popularity in the festival scene. This festival

organisation claims to focus on the most optimal long-term improvements, instead of taking

superficial measurements and aiming for fast results (Smit, 2012). They aim for large-scale

infrastructural changes and are being supported by the sustainability organisation 'Club van 30'1since 2010, with which they developed the ‘Roadmap to a Sustainable Lowlands’. In this roadmap

the steps for a sustainable management are stated until 2014, in which they focus on energy, water

& sanitary facilities, waste & packaging and mobility, and includes several baseline measurements

(Club van 30, 2012)

Another festival, similar to Lowlands in capacity, genre and set up is Pinkpop, which has

also been dealing with green adjustments, for which it already received a Green ‘n’ Clean Award in

2008 from Yourope, a European festival organisation (Yourope, 2014). Some examples of their

activities are segregating waste, using biodegradable cups, hosting civil society organisations, re-

using decoration material, fair trade festival t-shirts made from biological cotton and offering

biological and/or fair trade catering (Pinkpop, 2014). Next to this they developed a green campsite,

which has solar powered shuttle buses and catering services and uses grey water for the toilets. In

comparison with Lowlands these greening practices seem less focused on large scale infrastructural

changes, but aims at annual small scale solutions (Hetkanwel, 2011).

Two festivals, hosted by the company ID&T, Mysteryland and Welcome to the future also

show significant attention for environmental sustainability. The company states on their webpage to

act according to their ‘company soul’. This means that they are passionate about investing in

personnel development and innovation, since their core values are celebrating unity, nature and

talent. The companies sustainable philosophy is translated to these two festivals, in which

Mysteryland mentions its ‘festival soul’ and Welcome to the future also expresses its ‘Green Future’.

Both festivals received a high appreciation for their efforts by independent greening organisations

‘Julie’s Bicycle’ 2 and ‘A greener festival’ 3. Most notable initiatives in their sustainability policy

are: generators partly fuelled by waste vegetable oil, recycled building material, a recycle plan, free

water in water bags, a food line-up and a voluntary project called 10.000 hours, which inspires

1 'Club van 30' is a Dutch organisation that supports the management of companies and organisations with the making business operations more sustainable. (www.clubvan30.nl)2 'Julie's Bicycle' is established as the music industry authority on climate change impact in the UK. (Jones &

Scanlon, 2010). The organization works with over 1000 arts organisations across the UK and internationally, large and small to help them measure manage and reduce their environmental impacts (www.juliesbicycle.com)

3 'A greener festival' is a not-for-profit company committed to helping music and arts events and festivals around the world adopt environmentally efficient practices. (www.agreenerfestival)

31

young people to donate their time for a good cause.

Mid 2012 Indian Summer festival came with the ambition to become 100% sustainable in

the future (Baaz, 2013). In order to reach this objective the Director asked for help from Syntens, a

centre for innovation supported by the Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven. This organisation

advised to start with measuring the festival’s environmental footprint in order to get insights in its

impacts and to prevent that green ambitions end up in greenwashing, where the claims made about

green content overstate or misinform consumers about the true situation (Henderson, 2007;

Ongkrutraksa, 2007, in Laing & Frost 2010, p. 264). After the baseline measurement a

Sustainability Coordinator was appointed to get started with the points of improvement in five

overarching theme’s. An interesting and innovative approach in this was that the suppliers of the

festival were invited to share their thoughts on how the festival could become more green (Syntens,

[no date]). This way involved parties receive good insight in the entire value chain of a festival, so

that they can see how they can contribute. After this it was possible to make specific agreements

with different suppliers. The festival also received an award from industry organisation ‘A greener

festival’4 as a ‘well managed and environmentally aware’ festival (Labsessies, 2013).

The support of innovation centre Syntens did not only benefit Indian Summer festival, but

by facilitating a series of meetings, called ‘A greener festival NL’, six other festivals were sharing

knowledge and learning how to make the industry more sustainable. In the spring of 2013 a

workshop was organised by Syntens in order to support these festivals with the greening of their

operations in a structured way. Here representatives of important parties in the field, like Julie’s

Bicycle, A Greener festival Award and ID&T, as well as facilitating companies knowledgeable on

for example energy or waste management or knowledge institutions, were invited to share their

knowledge and inspire participants.

‘The most important element was the baseline assessment on the festival’s CO2 impact. This

allows a festival to get good insights in where they stand, cause there is a lot of perception

concerned with the theme of sustainability’

Interview with Kim Rekko, Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven, 08/04/2014.

By doing this it was possible to identify on which elements it is easy to make changes and gain

advantages fast, like saving energy. The impact assessment showed that transportation by visitors,

fuel for generators and waste could be identified as the main polluters of the six festivals (Rekko,

2013). The participants of the workshops, managers or directors of the festivals, showed that they

4 This organization holds an awards program, in which festivals submit themselves for scrutiny and are independently asses (Jones & Scanlon, 2010)

32

were motivated to address sustainability, but that often knowledge and skills lacked in order to

implement green practices (Livewire, 2013). The workshop was considered to be a success. It

ensured insights in sustainable practices, knowledge sharing and the formulation of specific

environmental goals for the upcoming years, all under the guidance of Syntens.

‘Our goal is to put sustainability on the map and to make sure they implement this in a

strategic policy document, thus formulating objectives, which they can monitor and steer’

Interview with Kim Rekko, Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven, 08/04/2014

Another method that was used in order to explore environmental sustainability at festivals in the

Netherlands was a website analysis. As part of the research methodology 30 festivals were assessed

for their green efforts or values (see table 4). This was done by systematically reviewing their

websites for elements related to greening practices. Considering there are about 500 music festivals

in the Netherlands, this analysis is only a snapshot of reality. Next to this it solely gives insights in

the efforts and values that are communicated, which do not necessarily have to correspond to what

is happening in reality. Still, it does give insights to whether or not there is attention for

environmental sustainability at festivals in the Netherlands, and can thus be seen as a replenishment

to the information derived from the content analysis of the media articles. From the 32 festival

website, 10 websites communicated environmental related concerns or activities, of which 5 did this

explicitly on the front-page. Interesting in this was that Lowlands festival, Indian Summer and Into

The Great Wide Open didn’t make notice of their green efforts at all, even though other data shows

that they are engaged with sustainable practices. The interviewee from Into The Great Wide Open

festival, Govert Reeskamp, mentioned that perhaps it would be valuable to communicate their green

efforts better on the website, but on the other hand also argues not to be an accomplice of

greenwashing. A further interpretation of these research findings in relation to operational issues

will be given in section 5.2.2.

33

Table 4. Website analysis of 30 festivals

34

Green practices on website Transportation Food & Beverages Water WastePublic transport Biking Car-sharing Shuttle Buses Vegetarian Organic/local Fair trade

Lowlands No Yes + free bus from CS x x Yes from 570 cities x x x x xMagneet festival Yes, minimal Yes (promoted) Yes promoted Yes promoted x Yes Yes Yes x Leave no traceDGTL Yes, little on sustainable set up Yes + Shuttle bus Yes promoted x x Yes Yes Yes x Promote keeping the field cleanExtrema Yes, but hidden. Yes + Special ticket Parking spaces Yes promoted Yes from 145 locations Yes Yes Yes Free water Yes, promote separation and recyclingSolar Yes, but hidden Yes + Special ticket Parking spaces Yes Promoted x x x x Yes, promote separation and recyclingPinkpop Yes, but hidden Yes + extra trains Yes promoted Yes promoted Yes from 150 locations Yes Yes Yes Free water Promote clean campings + separate & recycle wasteCAS Yes very clear Yes + Shuttle bus Parking spaces x Yes from 100 locations Yes Yes Yes x Yes, suppliers have to separate wasteWelcome to the future Yes mentions awards clearly Yes + Shuttle bus Yes promoted x x Yes Yes Yes Free water Yes recycle plan for plastic cupsMysteryland Yes mentions award clearly x x x x Yes Yes Yes Free water Yes, recycle planVestrock Yes very clear Yes, bus x x x x x x x Separation and recyclingWoodlands festival Yes very clear Yes (promoted) + bus Yes promoted Yes promoted x Yes Yes Yes x Separation and sigarettes ashtraysIndian Summer No, while having green award Yes + Shuttle bus Yes promoted Yes Promoted x Yes x x Free water xSoenda No Yes (promoted) + bus Yes promoted x x x x x x xHet lente kabinet No x x x x Yes Yes Yes x xBest Kept Secret No Yes (promoted) + bus Yes promoted Yes promoted x Yes Yes yes Free water xPaaspop No Yes + Shuttle bus Parking spaced x x x x x x xMegabase outdoor No x x x Yes from 121 locations x x x x xAppelpop No Yes promoted x x x x x x x xITGWO No Yes + boat x Yes promoted Yes from 2 cities x x x x xDefqon 1 No Yes + bus from CS x x Yes from 300 locations x x x x xPitch No x x x x x x x x xEmporium No Yes + bus from CS Parking spaces x Yes from 150 locations x x x x xAwakenings No Yes + Shuttle bus Parking spaces Yes Promoted Yes from 150 locations x x x x xDance-Valley No Yes + Shuttle bus Parking spaces x Yes from 150 locations x x x x xHunten pop No Yes + Shuttle bus x x x x x x x xSmeerboel No Yes + Shuttle bus Parking spaces x x x x x x xFortarock No x x x Yes from 125 locations x x x x xEdit Festival No Yes x x x x x x x xLief festival No x x x x x x x x xZwarte Cross No Yes + Shuttle bus x x x x x x x x

4.1.2 Transferring knowledge in the festival industry

Attention for environmental sustainability in the music festival industry is also apparent from

several knowledge sharing and awareness creating initiatives. One example is the introduction of

the ’Innovative Production Fair and Conference programme’ at the annual Eurosonic Noorderslag

conference in Groningen, the most important platform for the European music scene. At this

conference the discussion was opened on the question ‘What will festivals look like in 2030?’

(Eurosonic-Noorderslag, 2014). Experts presentations were provided and innovative products and

ideas for sustainable festivals were showed in order to improve the cooperation between Dutch

festival organisers and facilitating companies. Next to this, the topic of environmental sustainability

was already part of the conference program in the previous two years, where there were a couple of

discussion panels on event sustainability and green issues hosted by European key players, like

Europe’s leading music industry sustainability think tanks, the GO group 5 and the Green Music

Initiative 6(GO-group, 2014).

A similar conference day was organised in October 2013 for the electronic dance music scene at

Amsterdam Dance Event, called ADE Green. This event is considered to be the world’s leading

platform for electronic music and includes a conference and festival program that reaches out to

audience from all over the world (Music in control, 2013). The conference day was organised by

ADE and ID&T and was targeted at event organisers, artists and their management from the

electronic music scene. This event is comparable to the Eurosonic Noorderslag conference, but here

the focus lies solely on the dance music scene. It was the first time that this event was organised and

it aimed to kick-start a global Green Dance movement (Johnson, 2013)

Another mentionable sustainability concept that has been initiated at different festivals in the

Netherlands, which focuses on transferring knowledge, is the so-called Innovative Sustainability

Lab. This concept was initiated by Jan Douwe Kroeske at Lowlands festival in the form of Llowlab

and is now being introduced at other festivals in the Netherlands, like Indian Summer Festival in

2013 and Solar Festival in 2014 (Labsessies, 2014). The concept of Lab-sessions is a sustainable

initiative that brings science, technology and sustainability to the people in combination with music.

Together with different partners, like knowledge institutes and sustainable companies, sustainable

innovations and solutions are shared with the festival audience. The idea behind it was that new

creative ideas for sustainability shouldn't be introduced from a distance, but should be brought to

the audience at an early stage and involve them in the process. In this way they tried to get the

visitor interested and excited for sustainable solutions. At Lowlands festival it started as a physical

5 The GO-group is an independent, pan European and cross industry think-tank to inspire people in the music festival and events industry to run their operations greener and smarter. (www.go-group.org6 The Green Music Initiative serves as a national platform to promote a climate friendly music and entertainment

industry through the initiation and implementation of joint activities, whose goal it is to reduce CO2 emissions in all areas. (www.greenmusicinitiative.de)

35

floating platform, on which curious festival-goers were given the opportunity to get insights in

creative ideas for a new, better, cleaner and more sustainable environment (Club Green, 2013).

The idea of an interactive Lab has also made its entrance at other festivals. LabVlieland is

the interactive workspace initiated by Into The Great Wide Open festival, a festival located at one of

the Dutch Islands. Where this festival distinguishes itself from other festivals due to its unique

location (the island of Vlieland, a Unesco Heritage site) it’s challenges for sustainable practices are

also rather specific. At Lab Vlieland innovative festivalmakers, students and progressive

manufacturers come together to initiate with creative sustainable ideas for dealing with energy and

(re)using resources at festivals (Labvlieland, 2014).

‘It’s more than just a think-thank. It’s a place where we collect and share knowledge with

important stakeholders and other festival organisers. It’s not only focused on Into The Great

Wide Open festival, but it strives to share knowledge and experience with the local

community and similar festivals’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

This concept is therefore less focused on creating awareness amongst visitors at the festival itself,

but more on developing knowledge and know-how for sustainable practices.

The following section will now continue with discussing the key drivers of greening identified in

this research.

4.2 Drivers behind the greening of Dutch music festivals

In this section the second research question will be answered, which is 'What can be considered the

main drivers behind greening practices?' After analysing and coding the data derived from the

interviews, four drivers could be identified. Where the drivers identified in this research seem to

overlap with the drivers found by Mair & Laing (2012), similar wordings are employed to indicate

the driving factors. These four drivers will be discussed subsequently, starting with (1)

organisational and personal values, followed by (2) consumer demand/social norm (3) desire to

educate or inspire the audience and (4) financial benefits.

1. Organisational and personal values

The main driver for greening identified by all interviewees were the organisational values or the

personal values of the festival director. In all cases the personal ideology of the festival organiser or

manager arises from concerns about the way we treat each other and nature nowadays. How this

36

manifests itself in the festival organisation differs.

'The ecological values can be found in the base of the entire organisation. In fact, if you

want to do something, this can’t go without ecological consequence, since we are located in

a natural area. For this it is a requirement to pay attention to the ecological aspects before a

decision is made.’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

'It's not that sustainability is something that is fundamentally within the organisation, but to

the board it is very important'

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

'Sustainability is very much reflected by the personal values of the director. He is very

driven and committed with making ID&T and its festivals more sustainable.'

Interview with Carlijn Lindemulder, ID&T, 02/05/2014

Kim Rekko (Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven) also argues that this personal motivation is a

necessity for greening, since it goes hand in hand with a willingness for change. In her experience a

festival dropped out on the gatherings she organised, due to lack of motivation. She mentions the

importance of being open for social innovation, which relates to an initial resistance to change by a

lot of people. Initiating change requires commitment and leadership from the director. She argues

that it is important that the festival organiser or the initiator within the organisation knows how to

communicate these sustainable values to the rest of the employees within the organisation. A good

example of this is the deployment of Carlijn Lindemulder at ID&T. Even though it was the personal

motivation of the head of this organisation to focus on and incorporate sustainability in the business

management, Carlijn was hired to make this happen. Considering the size of this event company

appointing a sustainability coordinator was necessary to train and inform the employees of the

organisation. Where the directors motivation are reflected in those of Carlijn, a change in the

business mentality of ID&T was made possible and resulted in two awarded festivals.

For Laura van der Voort (Extrema outdoor Festival) there was always an interest for the

topic, but action was triggered by the meeting organised by Syntens (Chamber of Commerce

Eindhoven), where she got more excited on this topic to actually get started.

2. Desire to educate or inspire the audience

Another driver that emanated from the interviews was the desire to educate or inspire their visitors.

37

‘I like to set an example and to bring about small mentality changes to people by provoking

them and demonstratively clean up. I would like the see that the current polluting standard

changes.’

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

This festival propagates a leave-no-trace policy and therewith tries to create awareness amongst its

visitors about what to do with waste. At the festival waste is turned into art and actively engages

visitors to rethink the way garbage is used. Isis argues that they are in the position to actually

contribute and make a change. Next to this she indicates that she thinks it is very important to have

some kind of intensification at the festival, which translates into workshops and presentations.

‘We have the information, so I think it is some kind of moral duty to act on it.’

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

Into The Great Wide Open doesn’t indicate to have the desire to educate by actively trying to bring

about changes, but Govert Reeskamp argues that their inspiration level can be considered very

important.

‘Visitors are constantly surrounded by nature and therewith also constantly drawn to the

values of nature. This has more impact than presenting sustainable practices on a flyer.’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

3. Consumer demand/Social norm

Another important driver identified by some festival organisers relates to consumer demand and has

to do with a changing social norm in general. Environmental sustainability is gaining more and

more attention in society and festival attendees expect a certain level of sustainability from the

festival organiser.

'I think we are heading for a direction in which you have to take responsibilities, mostly

because you will be judged on your actions if you don't do it'

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

‘I am not convinced that people will come to your festival, because you claim to be very

38

green. I do think that visitors will not come again if they see the dirty production, because

this generates aversion.’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

‘If a few festivals set the good example, festival attendees will set certain standards and have

expectations for other festivals’

Interview with Carlijn Lindemulder, ID&T, 02/05/2014

There seems to be a societal pressure that drives the festival organisers to green their festival

practices, for which sustainable practices are expected to become the social norm.

4. Financial benefits

Even though financial benefits were not named by one of the festival organisers as being of

significant influence on their decision to be more sustainable, it was mentioned as a possible driver.

According to Kim Rekko (Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven) by saving energy and water and by

optimising waste management, it is easy to take saving measures and reduce costs.

‘In some cases your doing something for financial reasons, like saving energy, which then

also appears to be sustainable.’

Interview with Laura van der Voort, Extrema, 07/05/2014

The next section will discuss the barriers and challenges identified in this research.

4.3 Barriers and challenges of greening for Dutch festivals.

In this section the third research question will be answered, which is 'What can be considered main

barriers or challenges of the greening process?' From the data, five barriers and challenges could

be identified, of which three overlap with the barriers found by Mair & Laing (2012). These five

barriers and challenges will be discussed subsequently, starting with (1) ad-hoc organisation,

followed by (2) lack of time and finances, (3) lack of control over patron behaviour (4) availability

of sustainable supplies and/or suppliers and (5) temporality of the festival.

1. Ad-hoc organisation.

An often mentioned challenge is the ad-hoc organisation that dominates at some festivals, for which

things can change last minute and environmental ideals can fade away when the focus is on getting

the end product ready. Gallagher & Pike (2011, p. 164) also argue that this aspect makes it difficult

39

for festivals to manage sustainability. 'Given the ephemeral nature of festivals and events, it is

perhaps not surprising that many do not routinely gather or use information in order to manage

sustainability'

‘We don’t have an old-fashioned organisation structure where we work with an script and

our festival is very dynamic’

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

‘The concept or plan for our festival is different every year and is therefore open to a lot of

changes. I can imagine this can be different for larger festivals that have been running for a

longer time.’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

Next to this, even when the foundation of the festival concept is well structured and things are well

planned and organised, there can always be problems with implementation and coordination.

‘I set up a good plan, but with the implementation of this plan, some things went wrong.

This is not a problem, but allows us to learn for next year’

Interview with Laura van der Voort, Extrema, 07/05/2014

2. Lack of time and finances

One festival organiser mentioned that a lack of finances was a significant difficulty to focus more

on green practices. It was because of lack of time and financial means that environmental

sustainability was not going to be the main priority the upcoming year.

'Everything comes from goodwill and participation, but that doesn't mean we can organise it

all. We do our best with the best intentions and the means we have. '

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

Another festival argued that they were a little too enthusiastic in the beginning, but in the end didn’t

have enough time to implement all strategies.

3. Lack of control over patron behaviour

According to the interviewees another challenge lies with the lack of control over visitors

behaviour. Even though it is argued that at some festivals the attendee seems to be more

environmentally aware, high amounts of waste produced by the festival-goer are difficult to control.

40

This especially applies for the festivals, where there is a camping site.

‘Where at the festival it is possible to control the waste stream, by creating a mono-stream or

segregate waste, we can’t control what people leave behind in the camping area’

Interview with Laura van der Voort, Extrema, 07/05/2014

'Nowadays the tents are considerably cheap, for which they are left at the camping site. It is

difficult to control of influence this kind of behaviour'

Interview with Kim Rekko, Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven, 08/04/2014.

Another thing that is difficult to influence or control is the way visitors travel to the festival. Even

though in most cases, festivals in the Netherlands are accessible via public transportation or buses

(see website analysis in section 4.1.1), festival organisers can’t force people to use this form of

transportation. Next to this, even though car sharing is encouraged at some festivals and public

transportation is promoted, in the case of Extrema Outdoor and Solar festival even with special

tickets, it is still up to the people if to how they will eventually travel to the festival.

4. Availability of sustainable supplies and suppliers

Another important barrier identified by different interviewees, is the lack of sustainable supplies

and suppliers. ‘Suppliers have a certain power, and as a client you depend on them’ (Nuchelmans,

[no date]. Pinkpop for example mentioned that they wanted to make use of hybrid buses, but

unfortunately the local transporter Veolia, didn’t own these (Smeets, in Hetkanwel, 2011). Carlijn

Lindemulder (ID&T) identifies this challenge as well. She indicates the fact that the hardware scene

is not yet attuned to the sustainable demand. ‘There is a lot of good will, but there is a lack of new

methods and systems from the rental market to realise a more sustainable business operations’

(Nuchelmans [no date]). One of the interviewees argues that it's up to the larger festivals to guide

this process and to influence suppliers.

'If the larger festivals, that can pressure suppliers, don’t ask for greener facilities or

technologies the manufacturer won’t invest in innovative solutions’

Interview with Isis van der Wel, Magneetfestival, 18/04/2014

5. Temporality of the festival

A last challenge noted by one of the interviewees is the issue of temporality that is related to

festivals. It could be argued that it is more difficult in this industry to make strategic long-term

41

decisions or to invest in long-lasting sustainable products or facilities, for which organisers are left

with renting material or using disposables, like plastic cups or chemical toilets. Next to this, at

outdoor festivals often, the whole site needs to be build up from scratch and since in most cases

there is only a temporary permit it wouldn’t make sense to initiate permanent changes to the site.

‘Since you’re never sure for how long you will stay at a certain venue, it’s difficult to make

long-term investments, like solar panels or a connection to the energy grid’

Interview with Carlijn Lindemulder, ID&T, 02/05/2014

42

Chapter 5. Analysis

In this chapter the empirical findings will be linked to the existing academic literature and theory on

sustainable events. Based on the literature and the collected data, thee overarching components have

been identified as being relevant when it comes to staging a sustainable festival. These three

components will provide the structure of this chapter and will be explained in three sections.

Section 5.1 will discuss the first component, which is the process of greening and relates to the

engagement of the organisation and its management to sustainability. Section 5.2 focuses on the

second component, which reflects on the actions and operations regarding the production of a

sustainable festival. Finally, section 5.3 will elaborate on the third component, which has to do with

the communication function of a festival, identified by Laing & Frost (2010).

5.1 Sustainable festival management: the process

The first component relates to the way that environmental sustainability is addressed by the

organisation in order to ensure a sustainable festival. A model developed by Mair & Jago (2010),

described in chapter 2 (figure 3), aims at explaining what influences organisations to adopt green

practices. Next to drivers and barriers, discussed in the previous chapter, Mair & Jago (2010)

identified a number of other dimensions and indicators that can play an important role in this

greening process. These are considered to relate to the organisational context, external context and

the presence of so-called catalysts. Where in the study of Mair & Laing (2012) it was argued that

these matters did not appear to play a large part in determining the level of sustainable practices

undertaken by the festival, particularly the organisational context seemed to play a more significant

role in this research.

5.1.1 Organisational context

For the cases studied in this research there seemed to be a significant difference in the way

environmental sustainability is being addressed by the organisers of the festivals. While, one reason

for this could be the lack of industry wide regulations (Jones & Scanlon, 2010, p. 3), this is

probably mainly due to complexity and diversity which is related to the festival sector. Since the

latter is not only reflected by the enormous diversity between different festivals, but also by the

reciprocal differences between the organisations that host these festivals, the organisational context

deserves some attention. According to the model of Mair & Jago (2010) the organisational context

is determined by the industry sector, the business type, the business size and the organisational

values. Although it is difficult to explain exactly which characteristics determine the way

environmental sustainability is addressed, the organisation structure does affect how a festival is

managed and thus influences the engagement of the organisation to sustainability. It is considered 43

valuable to shed a light on the specific characteristics of and differences between the organisations

that are responsible for the festivals that were selected as a case in this research. Table 5 provides a

summary of the characteristics of the organisations that staged the studied festivals, in which the

colours show remarkable similarities and differences.

Table 5. Organisational context studied festivals

As mentioned in the literature review (chapter 2) a distinction can be made between organisations

taking green actions and investing in green practices and organisations fully embracing

sustainability in their management and operations (Musgrave & Raj, 2009; Mair & Jago, 2010).

Jones (2010, p. 17) explains that 'going green' means more than a carbon footprint and some

lightweight action and that a wider view must be taken. When reviewing the way that the

environmental sustainability is addressed by the organisations, this distinction can also be

identified. First of all this is related to the way that sustainability is integrated in the organisation.

For two cases (ID&T and ITGWO) it can be argued that the sustainability values are fully embraced

by the organisation and therewith incorporated within the management of the festivals. But even

though this seems to be a shared mentality, other organisational differences still affect the way they

address sustainability. Second to the fact that ITGWO is a single festival with a rather small

organisation, it was also founded upon green values, in which the natural location is the main

element of the organisation. ID&T on the other hand, is a large international events agency that

organises multiple festivals, in which sustainability was incorporated at a later stage following its

setup. At ID&T a sustainability coordinator was appointed to implement sustainability throughout

the entire organisation, by rewriting the business philosophy and instructing the employees in order

to introduce the new sustainable strategy that reflected the directors personal values.

44

Organisation Organisation type Business type Size Sustainable values in the organisation

ID&T International Event Agency (10 festivals)

Profit 140 employees Organisational values

Extrema International Event Agency (5 festivals)

Profit 7 employees10-15 freelancers

Personal values project manager

Magneet festival Foundation (1 festival)

Non-profit 3-10 board members100+ participants & volunteers

Personal values directors

Into The Great Wide open festival(ITGWO)

Foundation (1 festival)

Non-profit 10-30 board members50 festival staff

Organisational values

In the other two cases (Magneet festival & Extrema) sustainable values also play a

significant role, but appear not (yet) to be included in the entire management and operations and are

therefore not fully embraced in the organisation. For Magneet festival this is due to the ad-hoc

organisation that they have, and that their organisation and entire festival is based on a crowd-

sourcing principle, for which it has a variety of participants that are not necessarily focused on

sustainability. In the case of Extrema only one project manager seemed to be focused on

incorporating sustainability into the organisations festivals. But considering this is because of her

personal values, this does not yet have a prominent place in the management and operation of the

entire organisation. It could be argued that these two organisations are not yet at the same stage of

the greening process, as the level of uptake of sustainable practices and facilities (as described in

the model of Mair & Jago, 2010) also differs.

It is important to highlight that becoming more sustainable is indeed an ongoing and

dynamic process, which not accomplished overnight and never 'finished', since a festival is different

every time. It should therefor be acknowledged that in order to stage a sustainable festival,

organisers need to take small steps and perhaps start by taking lightweight actions previous to

implementing time-consuming or expensive measurements. Musgrave & Raj (2009, p. 9) also

indicate that the vision and overall direction for a festival needs to be accessible and most of all

realistic. A learning-by-doing approach can in this be considered valuable, since there is no standard

manual how to implement sustainability at different festivals.

'Most of all it is important to get started, take action and closely follow the processes of the

festival.'

Interview with Laura van der Voort, Extrema, 07/05/2014

The different approaches to sustainability seem to be related to the structure of the organisation.

One thing that stands out is that both ID&T and Extrema adopt some kind of policy or a plan for

their festivals, in which measurements and goals are included, while the other two organisations

don’t set out their efforts in script. In the case of ITGWO this is caused by the fact that they have a

very flat and non-hierarchical, but dynamic organisational structure, which allows for, and perhaps

requires, a very open approach to sustainable challenges.

‘If someone identifies a problem or a good initiative is raised, this is discussed with the

entire board and from there measurements and actions are taken. It’s not that there is just one

person who is responsible for this and coordinates such things.’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

45

In the case of Magneet festival this is explained in a similar way, although in their case it seems to

lead to less concrete actions. This is most likely because sustainability is to a lesser extent adopted

in the fundaments of the organisation, for which not all participants share the same sustainable

attitude as the directors. A further difference in approach is the use of audits. Both ID&T and

Extrema make use of audit schemes in order to measure their carbon footprint and monitor progress

in achieving green objectives, whereas this method wasn't applied in the case of Magneet Festival

and ITGWO .

‘Our organisation is too dynamic, for which it doesn’t make sense to base our efforts on

audits, since we don’t have one core concept and everything is different each year.’

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

5.1.2 External context and catalysts

The external context, did not seem to play a large part in determining the level of sustainable

practices undertaken by the festival. Although it could be argued that consumer trends and a

changing social norm, which were identified as a driver in chapter 4, could be related to this

dimension. Different interviewees mentioned that noticed a change in the expectations of festival

attendees, even though the audience is considered to be very mixed. Some interviewees even went

further, by suggesting that the Dutch festival industry is currently in a transition phase and that

sustainable practices should become the standard practice. This matter can be related to another

concept of the model of Mair & Jago (2010), which is the ‘hygiene factor’, and refers to a factor or

service that is assumed to be there and tends to provide the basic conditions for satisfaction.

As for catalysts only the presence of an eco-champion was considered important in this

research. Mair & Jago (2010) describe an eco-champion as an individual that encourages or is an

advocate of a particular cause or way of thinking (Mair & Laing, 2012). Kim Rekko (Chamber of

Commerce Eindhoven) also recognises that the most important in greening is to have committed

individuals that are willing to put their energy in the matter.

'The initiator or champion, may it be the director, the manager or other employees, needs to

have the drive, but also the skills to engage the people involved in the festival in becoming

more sustainable.'

Interview with Kim Rekko, Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven, 08/04/2014

In this study for two cases an eco-champion can be identified, which are Carlijn Lindemulder

(ID&T) and Laura van der Voort (Extrema). Interestingly enough the efforts of these two

46

individuals do solely focus on their festival or the event agency, but also aim at making a change in

the entire Dutch music festival industry. The other two catalysts, the media and culture, proposed in

the Mair & Jago model (Mair & Jago, 2010), weren’t identified in this research as important change

makers. What can be mentioned as a change-maker is the series of meetings organised by the

Chamber of Commerce. One of the participants of these gatherings, Laura van der Voort (Extrema),

argued that because of these meetings she got more enthusiastic about the topic and was provoked

to take action. According to her these gatherings stimulated her to get more acquainted with the

issue and to formulate goals and take measurements.

5.2 A sustainable festival: the product

According to Laing & Frost (2010) there are a couple of elements that are important when hosting a

sustainable festival. One of them relates to the engagement of the stakeholders and the other deals

with the operational issues of the festival.

5.2.1 Stakeholders

When directing the festival towards sustainability the most important is to get the management and

employees of the organisation on board. Where in the case of Into The Great Wide Open this

engagement was not relevant, ID&T clearly communicated their sustainable objectives through

their management by giving trainings to its employees. In the case of Extrema this was a little

difficult in the beginning, but when some results were booked her colleagues became more

interested.

'Apparently it is not that easy to initiate such a ‘social change’, but I notice it’s getting easier'

Interview with Laura van der Voort, Extrema, 07/05/2014

For Magneet Festival this is also more difficult, since it is not really possible to make the anarchic

participants of the festival work according to certain regulations or principles. Since these

participants cannot be considered as volunteers that work for the organisation, it is difficult to

impose green principles to them.

Other important stakeholders in the production of a sustainable festival are the suppliers,

with which a certain interdependent relationship can be identified. On the one hand it is argued that

as a festival you depend on what your supplier has to offer, especially in case of the hardware,

which is at the moment not yet focused on offering green alternatives. On the other hand one of the

interviewees mentions that they do pressure their suppliers to a certain extent, or at least discuss the

matter with them, so that they can look for alternatives. This interdependency is also recognised by

47

(Getz & Andersson, 2010, p. 12) who notice that 'the festival and one or more stakeholders would

enter into a state of mutual dependency, in which they would cooperate in mutual beneficial ways

and become interdependent.' Another interviewee also argues that if the demand for innovative

solutions increases, suppliers ultimately have to react to this. This individual also argues that large

festivals should take responsibility in this, because they have the ability to influence this and sign

partnerships.

The government can also play a significant role, although it seems that in the Netherlands

the cooperation of the government depends on their attitude towards sustainability in general. In the

case of Into The Great Wide Open, a close cooperation between the municipality and the province

exists and can be described as supporting, although the initiative to focus on sustainability comes

from the festival organisers. In the case of Magneet festival the director was given the opportunity

to start a new festival concept at a deserted sand spot, but here the municipality only sets out the

legal framework, related to safety regulations and energy supply. This also applies to the festivals of

Extrema and ID&T, where the cooperation between the festival and the municipality solely relates

to applying for a permit and in which there aren't any specific requirements for sustainability

measurements. In some municipalities in the Netherlands there seems to be a lot more attention for

hosting a sustainable festival by the government. In Utrecht for example the government signed an

agreement with the events in the municipality in order to share knowledge and gain experience on

how to host green events (Duurzame evenementen Utrecht, 2014). This corresponds with the

sustainability ambitions the municipality of Utrecht has for itself and is also reflected by stricter

permit requirements for festivals, in which there is a focus on taking measurements that reduce the

environmental impact.

Currently there are no specific regulations for festivals that apply to all municipalities in the

Netherlands and from our cases it appears that the initiative to host a sustainable festival lies with

the festival organisation. One of the interviewees argues to suspect that the municipality is open to

ideas on sustainable solutions to the site, but also indicates that these need to be initiated by the

festival. In the future, it could be imaginable and perhaps even desirable that municipalities

stimulate sustainable behaviour of festival organisers, for example by setting stricter authorisations,

like in the municipality of Utrecht. The representative of Into The Great Wide Open also mentions

that there are opportunities for stricter regulations by municipality, although he does argue that these

governments have little practical insights and knowledge. Another interviewee also mentions that

first there needs to be more clarity on successful and effective measurements, before stricter

requirements can be demanded by the government.

As mentioned in chapter 4 festival attendees play a very important role when hosting a

sustainable festival. Firstly, since their demand can enact change from the festival, but secondly

48

because without the audiences engagement and participation a festival is only limited in the way it

can reduce it's impact, like for example for audience travel. According to Jones & Scanlon (2010, p.

12) artists performing at the festival can be considered as an important stakeholder and are in the

position to influence the decisions and opinions of their audiences or festival producers. In the case

of ID&T, Carlijn Lindermulder, mentioned that when one of the artists inquired the company on

their sustainable practices this affected people's thinking in parts of the organisation.

5.2.2 Operational issues

Even though operational issues were not the main matter of discussion during the interviews, some

insights on these environmental practices are explained here. The main operational issues that come

to the fore can be brought back to five aspects, which are: waste management, purchasing &

materials use, transportation, energy and water & sanitation (Jones & Scanlon, 2010; Live Earth,

2009; Graci & Dodds, 2008; Mair & Laing, 2010). In this, transport, energy and waste are

presumed to have the most significant impacts, according to different interviewees as well as

industry stakeholders surveyed by Jones & Scanlon (2010, p. 12). The results of a CO2 footprint

executed for 5 Dutch festivals, with which a benchmark for the Dutch festival was strived for, also

indicated that these three elements had the most significant environmental impacts (Rekko, 2013).

Where both ID&T and Extrema made use of an audit, these two organisations were able to

achieve direct results on these aspects. For Extrema Outdoor this lead to a reduction of 28% of

energy use in the first year, after introducing a new energy plan and also a reduction on landfill. For

Mysteryland (ID&T) the amount of diesel was reduced with 4.000 litre over 2 years and 100 tonnes

for landfill, which equals a total decrease in CO2 emissions of respectively 7 and 30 tonnes

(Latham, Ramsay & Buckley, 2014). At Magneet festival the focus seemed to lie on on minimising

and recycling waste, by adopting a leave-no-trace policy. Furthermore they have a playful way of

dealing with waste, by creating art with it at the festival.

For transportation it is more difficult to diminish impacts, as most impacts comes from

audience travel, which festival organisers have less control over. 'Congestion, noise, visual intrusion

and deterioration of local air quality are all important externalities generated by high car-shares'

(Laing & Frost, 2010, p. 263). It is said that some festival locations are almost impossible to reach

by other modes than car, particularly the remote or rural locations, although it could be argued that

this applies to a lesser extent in a Dutch context. From the website analysis executed for 30 Dutch

festivals (see table 4), almost all festivals communicated accessibility to reliable public

transportation, mostly by train and often accompanied by a shuttle bus from the station. Next to this,

1 out of 3 festivals promoted car-sharing as a good alternative on their website. The festivals

Extrema, Mysteryland and Pinkpop started a collaboration with Toogethr, an innovative carpool-

49

service that offers diverse tools to easily organise shared rides (Thoolen, 2014). Car-sharing is

considered to be thé new offensive to diminish CO2 emissions caused by audience travel.

Another often and elaborately discussed element for a sustainable festival is the food supply.

Although it is difficult to measure the impacts of the catering, there seems to be a shift towards a

more sustainable food supply that is more varied and less focused on ‘junk food’. For example both

Magneet festival and Into The Great Wide Open mention that they don't want to work with the ‘fast-

food commercial big boys’ and that they only select caterers that ensure 'high quality and culinary

products, who consciously prepare their food'. These comments indicate signs of slow food

concepts, which is about ‘real food, regional identity, something that is ethical, natural and

honest’(Yeoman et al, 2007, in Laing & Frost, 2010). A new phenomenon of the so-called ‘rolling

kitchen’ seems to have become quite popular at Dutch festivals over the last three years. These are

old vans, buses or campers that are transformed into a mobile restaurant and are focused on serving

a high quality food experience. The rise of these mobile kitchens relates to the more general societal

demand for high quality food products, that are pure and honest (Verheul, 2012, p. 48), which

appears very successful in the festival-scene. Often caterers work with local and organic products

and provide vegetarian or vegetarian options, which corresponds to sustainable purchasing policies

for festivals (Live Earth, 2009; Graci & Dodds, 2008).

Over all, food seems to be getting a more prominent place at music festivals. From the

website analysis (see table 4) it shows that 1 out of 3 festivals offers a diverse menu to their

audience, in which vegetarian, vegan and organic food dishes are offered. Next to this offering fair

trade products, mostly coffee, is also common, and corresponds to a global movement that

considers a more stable and advantageous system of trade for goods under favourable social and

environmental conditions (Raynolds, 2000, in Laing & Frost, 2010, p. 265). Furthermore it must be

stipulated that even though at some websites there was no communication about food efforts, this

doesn’t mean there is no attention for this aspect. The emergence of the organisation ‘Food Line-

Up’ 7 also indicates that there is an increasing attention for a creative good food supply at festivals.

This organisation helps a festival with setting up a diverse, special and healthy food program, which

indicates the increasing attention for the subject. Next to a music line-up of bands and artists, a

‘food line-up’ is considered a dignified component of the festival programme in order to optimise

the festival-goers festival experience.

For water and sanitation little measurements have been taken or at least mentioned by the

interviewees. Only the representative of Magneet festival mentioned to be interested in eco-toilets,

because of all the chemical products used in regular mobile toilets. Unfortunately it didn't met the

7 The Food Line up is an organisation that considers them self as a 'Good Food Manager', which is able to select the right food makers for any event. www.thefoodlineup.nl

50

requirements from the municipality, for which they couldn't be installed at the festival. Furthermore

in the case of Mysteryland the report of Julie's bicycle on the assessment of the festival shows that

at this festival they were able to diminish the water use between 2012 and 2013 with 43%. On the

other hand absolute sewage volumes increased by 100%, but no significant reason could be

identified for this by the assessing organisation Julie's Bicycle. Another sustainable change that was

implemented at the festivals of Extrema, Into The Great Wide Open and Mysteryland was the

provision of tap water in stead of bottled water. In this way visitors were able to re-use drinking

packaging and therewith minimise a considerate amount of waste.

The operational issues that are addressed here only represent a fraction of actions that can be

taken by festival organisers, but give insights in the main elements of attention for sustainable

festival. Most of the interviewees identified these key factors in their process, but did not discuss

their activities in detail. Only in the case of Mysteryland there is an elaborate report available on

sustainable objectives and activities (Latham & Buckley, 2014). Based on their efforts they were

certified with 3 stars (the highest ranking) for committing to 'going green' by an independent

organisation. Their certification scheme is compatible with other international accepted

environmental certification schemes, including both the British and the International Standard for

Sustainable Events Management (BS8901 and ISO20121). Considering the credibility of this

organisation it can be concluded that the Mysteryland festival can be identified as sustainable and

greenwashing can be excluded.

For the other three festivals there is no evidence that the illustrated intentions also lead to

concrete objectives and sustainable outcomes. There is no assessment executed by an independent

organisation and no observations at the festival could be made by the researcher due to time-frame

matters. For these festivals a possible gap between intentions and implementation needs to be taken

into account. The level of uptake of sustainable practices and facilities, as indicated by the model of

Mair & Jago (2010), can not be determined for the other cases. Next to this a mismatch between

intentions and implementation can also arise because of lack of knowledge on what sustainability

implies for a festival. There seems to be a lot of perception surrounding the concept of

sustainability, for which it is not clear what can be accepted as a sustainable festival. As Jones

(2010) puts it 'going green means more than a carbon footprint and some lightweight action', but

this doesn't mean that this is widely agreed upon.

'It is very easy to say that you're sustainable and only take a few measurements'.

Interview with Govert Reeskamp, Into The Great Wide Open, 27/03/2014

51

5.3 Festivals as a vehicle for change: communicating a sustainable message

Another important aspect when hosting a sustainable festival relates to carrying out the ideals on

which the festival is built to your audience. According to Jones & Scanlon (2010, p. 16) green

music event address both greening of the production and using it to communicate environmental

issues and enacting change. First of all this is important since the audience needs to be aware that

they will be visiting a sustainable festival, before they can engage with this and act on it.

Considering the visitor as one of the stakeholders, their participation is needed to produce a green

festival. This means communicating the efforts a visitor can undertake in order to contribute to a

festival's 'green', like for example encouraging the use of public transport at the website before the

event or promoting recycling at the event itself. As is implied by different greening guidelines

(Graci & Dodds, 2008; Live Earth, 2009; eThekwini Municipality, 2011) it is important for festivals

to pay attention to the way they communicate their sustainable objectives, since it will impact how

it is seen in the minds of the audience.

The second step in communicating the message is to propagate certain ideas and enact social

change. With this there is an interest to create environmental awareness that expands the boundaries

of the festival itself and which impacts the attendee after the festival is over. According to Getz

(2009, in Laing & Frost, 2010, p 264) festivals are often political in nature and may liberate

participants from social constraints. Furthermore Goulding and Saren (2009, in Laing & Frost,

2010, p 264) argue that events have often been seen as liminal spaces, which facilitate radical,

almost subversive experiences, based on their roots in the festival. At these festivals it could be

imagined that an environmental message is embedded throughout the festival if this lies in their

interests. Sharpe (2008) also dwells upon this statement, but argues that the intensified

commodification festival sphere raised questions about their potential as vehicles for change.

'Although festivals have long blended commerce and culture, current trends suggest a changing

relationship whereby festivals are increasingly becoming a vehicle for the expansion of economic

interests', thus Sharpe (2008, p. 219). According to Seiler (2000, in Sharpe, 2008, p. 219) a growing

number of festivals are corporate properties developed by an event management arm of the

corporate parent.

The latter applies to two festivals (Mysteryland and Extrema Outdoor) included in this

research, although here it doesn't appear that the economic interest of the organisation of these

festivals necessarily means that this yields to the promotion of an environmental message. For

Mysteryland next to communicating sustainable practices on the website a short documentary on the

social change of the organisation of ID&T, called 'Celebration Life' is promoted. This short film

tells the story of behind the sustainable ideals of the organisation and the reasons for pursuing a

change in their business management. In this video the directors state that they notice to have some

52

kind of influence and power in society and mention that they want to use this to spread a positive

message with respect to people and planet. Where this is a very clearly example of making a

statement, the other events agency Extrema takes another strategy for creating awareness amongst

their audience, by hosting a sustainability lab at the Extrema Outdoor. As discussed in chapter 4,

this lab can be considered as a large environmental awareness booth, in which the audience is

confronted with innovative and sustainable ideas for contemporary challenges. In this way the

festival visitor is presented with concepts that create awareness and elicit thinking.

According to Laing & Frost (2010, p. 264) the event itself can be used to promote a green

message through avenues such as themed displays or stalls, presentations and sale of food and

beverages that fit with the green theme. In the case of Magneetfestival the green message is mostly

communicated through its leave-no-trace policy. This motto makes clear that durability plays an

important part during the festival. Next to this, the representative of Magneet festival explains that

there is also room for other sustainable initiatives, like presentations or art performances, but that

this is up to the participants of the festival. In this way this festival can be more characterised as a

liminal space for change (Goulding and Saren, 2009, in Laing & Frost, 2010, p. 264), since it is the

creative community of Amsterdam that gathers at this event and expresses their progressive

philosophy at the festival. The festival of Into The Great Wide Open also has its own way of

communicating the sustainable message. In their case it is the specific context of the festival, being

located in a forest, that carries out the message of music, peace and respect for the environment.

Furthermore the sustainable message is integrated in the festival, in its art route and in the way

sustainable solutions, are purposively showed to the audience, like solar panels.

The way the festivals express their sustainable ideals differs per festival, but it appears that

in all four cases the message is being carried out in one way or another. Here, the food element can

be considered as overarching element that is touched upon by all of them, as discussed in the

previous section. This outcome corresponds with one of the key drivers behind the greening process

identified in chapter four, which is the desire to educate. Apparently for all organisers there is a

motivation to transfer their personal values to the crowd, which is made possible through diverse

channels of communication. What remains is the question to what extent their activities actually

have an influence on the audience and even though measuring this can be considered challenging, it

could be an interesting aspect for future research.

53

Chapter 6. Conclusion

Section 6.1 summarises the findings with relation to each individual research question. Section 6.2

elaborates on the contribution to the literature & recommendations for the Dutch music festival

industry. Section 6.3 discusses the limitations of this research and section 6.4 outlines areas for

future research.

6.1 Summary of the main findings

To what extent is there attention for environmental sustainability issues in the Dutch music

festival industry?

From this research it can be concluded that there is a growing interest for the sustainability in the

Dutch music festival sector, but that the actual production of these festivals is still in its infancy. In

the last five years the negative environmental impacts of festivals have been gaining more and more

attention and have been put on the agenda in the Dutch festival landscape.

The subject is now being stipulated at different music conferences with (inter)national importance,

for which awareness on the matter is being raised and the discussion on how to produce a

sustainable festival is opened. Few festivals have actually been actively engaging with the

implementation of sustainable practices, and for some of these festivals it can be questioned wether

or not they can pass for an actual 'green' or sustainable festival. The latter is difficult to indicate,

since there is no widely accepted definition of a sustainable event (Henderson, 2011, p. 254) and

there is no single method for the production of such a festival. Overall it seems that there is a focus

on sharing knowledge and experience within the sector and creating transparency in order to tackle

issues of sustainability in the entire industry.

What can be considered the main drivers behind greening practices?

When looking at the reasons for festival organisers to address environmental sustainability at their

music festival, the same drivers were identified as in the case of Mair & Laing (2012). The most

significant driver, mentioned by all the interviewees, were the organisational values or the personal

values of the manager or director. Another driver that was mentioned a couple of times was the

desire to educate or inspire the audience. Some of the interviewees indicated that they were keen on

modifying patron's behaviour on site and making them aware of the fragility of the natural

environment. The third driver that was identified was consumer demand, which related to a

changing social norm in general. Not only music festival organisers, but also music festivals

attendees are becoming more aware of environmental sustainability, for which sustainable practices

are expected to become the norm. Financial benefits were mentioned by one interviewee, but were

not considered as a driving factor, but more as nice bonus.54

What can be considered main barriers or challenges of the greening process?

The challenges and barriers that were mentioned by the interviewees were also similar, although

some additional factors identified could be identified. One significant challenge that was mentioned

by some of the interviewees is the ad-hoc organisation that is related to the music festival industry.

The other challenge that was identified, which also relates to this industry, is the temporality of a

festival. Other barriers mentioned by the interviewees were also identified by Mair & Laing (2012),

of which the lack over patron behaviour was considered the most significant challenges. One of the

barriers that wasn't mentioned by the interviewees was the lack of control over individual venues. It

could be hypothesised that this due to the fact that solely outdoor events were included in this

research. It could be argued that at these festivals a lot of facilities need to be build from scratch, for

which there is little dependancy on what the venue has to offer or at least is not considered as

restrictive. Considering the small sample of cases in this research this is quite a bold statement to

make and requires further research.

In table 6 an overview is provided of the drivers and barriers identified in this research and in the

research of Mair & Laing (2012). Overall, it could be argued that the drivers and the barriers

identified by Mair & Laing (2012) are also valid in the Dutch festival context. Next to this, the

barriers and challenges identified in this research could be considered as a valuable contribution to

the existing literature and could be encountered when conducting further research.

Table 6. List of drivers and barriers to festival greeningDrivers Barriers & challenges

Identified in both researches1. Organisational and personal values2. Desire to educate or inspire the audience3. Consumer demand/Social norm4. Financial benefits

Identified by Mair & Laing (2012)5. CSR policy/mission statement6. Competitive/marketing advantage7. Image/reputation

Identified in both researches1. Lack of time2. Lack of finances3. Lack of influence over patron behaviour4. Availability of sustainable supplies and suppliers

Identified by Mair & Laing (2012)5. Lack of control over individual venues/split incentive6. Lack of financial/other support from stakeholders

Identified in this research 7. Ad-hoc organisation8. Temporality of the festival

6.2 Findings in relation to the literature

Another notable result from this research relates to the importance of the organisational context.

What is interesting in this is that although it did comply with the model of Mair & Jago (2010) it

was not considered as a significant element in the research executed by Mair & Laing (2012). Mair

55

& Laing (2012) mention that all the festival organisers interviewed for their research were managed

by small teams and not associated with large organisations. In the Dutch research scenario there

were reciprocal differences between the involved organisations, that seemed to affect the way

sustainability was addressed within the organisation and at the festivals. No firm claims can be

made for the relation between these organisational specificities and the sustainable outcomes of the

festival, considering the small sample, but it could be an interesting matter for future research.

What did correspond with the research of both Mair & Jago (2010) and Mair & Laing

(2012) is the significance of an eco-champion as a catalyst for adopting environmental practices. In

two cases examined in this paper, the presence of a director or manager whose personal values are

linked to sustainability matters, were considered crucial for the outcome of the event. What is

interesting in this is that these two eco-champions were not only concerned with making sure their

own festival(s) would be sustainable, but that they were also very committed with creating

awareness on the topic amongst their colleagues in the Dutch music festival sector. Where one of

them organised the ADE green event, in order to put the topic on the agenda in the dance scene, the

other is currently trying to set up an organisation in which Dutch music festivals can join in order to

enact a change in the industry together.

Overall, based on the findings and the literature, it can be argued that there are three main

elements that should be considered to be important when hosting a sustainable (music) festival. The

first is concerned with the process of greening and relates to the way that environmental

sustainability is incorporated in the organisation. This thus aims at the drivers, barriers and other

components discussed above. The second element focuses on the festival itself and deals with the

issues related to staging a sustainable event. Important in this is the engagement of the

stakeholders, but also the operational issues. Finally, there needs to be attention for the way the

environmental message is communicated at the festival. This firstly, because the festival attendee

needs to be aware of the sustainable mentality of the festival before it can act on it. But secondly,

because a festival can function as a vehicle for change and there is an opportunity to create

awareness of environmental issues amongst its visitors

6.3 Limitations of the research

Some limitations can be identified for this research. First of all, it is difficult to make strong claims

about the Dutch festival industry based on the limited material available. Even though the content

analysis could be considered successful and valuable information was found, the reliance on

newspaper articles as the main data source makes the findings less reliable. Triangulation was

strived for by means of conducting several interviews with experts from the field in order to

complement and verify the findings from the data analysis. Unfortunately only one expert interview

56

could be arranged, due to a last minute cancellation. It could have been a contribution to the validity

of the results if more stakeholders were questioned for their insights on topic.

In addition, only a small sample of event organisers from music festivals were interviewed.

Although the researcher aimed to select more cases, just four individuals agreed to participate in the

research. Considering that there are over 500 music festivals in the Netherlands, it could be

questioned if the results are relevant to other music festivals as well, or even other arts festivals.

Next to this, the diversity of the music festival sector makes it is difficult to draw firm conclusions

on 'the music festival' as such. There are many differences in size, location, indoor/outdoor,

local/national, music genre, profit/non-profit, which could be determinative for the green outcomes

of a festival. In this research it was aimed to focus on a couple of festivals with the same

characteristics, but due to practical reasons this couldn't be achieved.

Another limitation of this research lies in the fact that the level of uptake of sustainable

practices could not be determined or verified for all festivals. Since interviews were in most cases

the only data source the outcomes of the research are mostly focused on perceptions and there was

no clear oversight on green strategies. Only for one festival there was a report available on their

sustainable practices and therewith insights in sustainable outcomes was given. It could be possible

that there is a discrepancy between the intentions of organisers of the festival and the final

outcomes, but this couldn't be identified since the festivals didn't take place yet.

6.4 Areas for further research

Considering the paucity of conducted research regarding sustainability and festivals, still a lot

remains to be investigated. First of all, it could be valuable to verify the findings from this research,

by conducting a large-scale, quantitative research in the future. Here, a large amount of festivals

could be reviewed in order to examine the relationship between the drivers and barriers and the

sustainable outcomes of a festival. Next to this it would be possible to identify if the reciprocal

differences between festivals are of influence on their engagement with environmental

sustainability. It could be imaginable that for dance festivals are less concerned with their

environmental impacts, than pop festivals.

Another element that needs further investigation, is the relationship between the

organisational context of the festival and the way that sustainability is addressed by the

organisation. Since there are not only differences between the festivals itself, but also between the

organisations that host them, it could be interesting to explore how this relates to the sustainable

outcomes of a festival. For example, is the challenge of the ad-hoc organisation reduced when an

organisation hosts multiple festivals?

Also, it could be interesting to investigate whether or not the intentions of the organisation

57

correspond with the sustainable activities surrounding the festival. Considering the ease with which

festival organisations can claim that they are being sustainable, this requires some further

investigation and could examined by doing observations on site. Furthermore, it could be valuable

to get more insights in how successful some greening strategies are and under what circumstances

they are effective. Best practices could be investigated in a single case-study, in order to review all

aspects of the greening process, as well as the sustainable outcomes of the festival and its function

as a vehicle for change.

A final recommendation for research focuses on the role of the stakeholders. Since the

festival organisation is very dependent on the cooperation of different stakeholders, it could be

interesting to investigate what the best way is to engage them. This could apply to the government,

suppliers, sponsors and other stakeholders. Special attention should be paid to the festival attendees,

since their role at the festival attendee is seen as crucial. Surveys could be conducted at different

festival, in which questions are asked in relation to their motivations to attend the event, but also

their expectations to the green contents of festivals. Where, Bergin-Seers and Mair (2009) mention

that sustainability and climate change is affecting the way consumers behave, this could also be

applicable to the behaviour of the 'green' event-goer.

58

Bibliography

Baaz. 2014. Duurzame festivals niet langer meer toekomstmuziek [online]. Available at: http://www.baaz.nl/content/duurzame-festivals-niet-lang-meer-toekomstmuziek [Accessed: 12 may 2014].

Baaz. 2013. Indian summer festival gaat op voor duurzaamste festival [online]. Available at: http://www.baaz.nl/content/indian-summer-festival-gaat-op-voor-duurzaamste-festival-van-europa [Accessed: 14 may 2014].

Barlow, M., & Shibli, S. 2007. Audience development in the arts: A case study of chamber music. Managing Leisure 12 (2/3), 102-119.

Bergin-Seers, S. & Mair, J. 2009. Emerging green tourists in Australia: Their behaviours and attitudes. Tourism and Hospitality Research 9, pp. 109-119.

Buizer, J. 2009. De betekenis van Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen (MVO) voor de festivalsector. Bsc. Dissertation, Utrecht University.

Bryman, A. 2008. Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Collins, A. [forthcoming]. The Pursuit of a Sustainable Rural Event: a Case Study of the Hay

Literary Festival (UK)' in: K. Dashper and R. Thomas (eds). Rural Tourism: An International Perspective. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge.

Cohen, E. 2007. The "postmodernization" of a mythical event: Naga fireballs on the Mekong River. Tourism Culture and Communication 7 (3),169-181.

Club van 30. 2012. Lowlands: Op weg naar een duurzaam paradijs [online]. Available at: http://www.clubvan30.nl/portfolio/lowlands-op-weg-naar-een-duurzaam-paradijs/ [Accessed: 16 may 2014].

Club Green. 2013. Wat is llowlab? [online]. Available at: http://www.clubgreen.nl/vraag/Llowlab.html [Accessed: 17 may 2014]

Dwyer, L., Agrusa, J., & Coats W. 2001. Economic scale of a community event: The Lafayette Mardi Gras. Pacific Tourism Review 5 (3/4), 167-179.

Flick, U. 2011. Introducing Research Methodology: A beginners guide to Doing a research Project.London: Sage.

Flick, U. 2012. An introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage. Denscombe, M. 2007. The Good Research Guide: for small-scale social research projects. Philadelphia: Open University Press.Duurzame evenementen Utrecht. 2014. Convenant Duurzame Evenementen Utrecht [online].

Available at: http://duurzameevenementenutrecht.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ondertekende-convenant-duurzame-evenementen-2-april-2012.pdf [Accessed: 23 may 2014]

Eurosonic-Noorderslag. 2014. Debatlab: Greener festivals 2030. Innovative Production Fair & Conference [online]. Available at http://conference.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl/nl/programma/panel-overzicht/panel/404-debatlabb-greener-festivals-2030/ [Accessed: 17 may 2014].

eThekwini Municipality. 2011. Green Event Guideline. Hosting Green Events in Durban. Durban: eThekwini Municipality, Environment and Management Unit.

Gallagher, A. & Pike, K. 2011. Sustainable Management for Maritime Events and Festivals. Journal of Coastal Research 61(1), pp. 158-165.

Getz, D. 1997. Event management and event tourism. New York: Cognizant Communication Corp.Getz, D. 2008. Event tourism: Definition, evolution, and research. Tourism Management 29(3), pp.

403 – 428. Getz, D. 2010. The nature and scope of festival studies. International Journal of Event

Management Research 5(1), pp. 1-47. Getz, D. & Andersson, T. 2008. Sustainable festivals: On becoming an institution. Event

Management 12(1), pp. 1-17.Getz, D. & Andersson, T. 2010. Festival Stakeholders: Exploring relationships and dependency

through a four-country comparison. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research 34(4), pp. 531-59

556.Gibson, C., and Davidson, D. 2004. Tamworth, Australia‟s „country music capital‟: Place

marketing, rurality, and resident reactions. Journal of Rural Studies 20 (4): 387-404. Go-Group. 2014. GO group returns to Eurosonic Noorderslag [online]. Available at: http://go-

group.org/2014/01/go-group-returns-to-eurosonic-noorderslag/ [Accessed: 21 may].Gotham, K. 2005. Theorising urban spectacles. City 9 (2), 225-246. Gotham, K. 2002. Marketing Mardi Gras: Commodification, spectacle and the political economy of

tourism in New Orleans. Urban Studies 39 (10), 1735–1756. Graci, S. & Dodds, R. 2008. Green festivals and Event Guide, a how to. Toronto: The Icarus

Foundation.Grant, D. & Paliwoda, S. 1998. Segmenting Alberta arts and festival consumers (Part 1). Festival

Management and Event Tourism 5 (4 ), 207–220. Ensor, J. Robertson, M. & Ali-Knight. 2011. Eliciting the dynamics of leading a sustainable event:

Key informant responses. Event Management 15, pp. 315-327.Hall, M. 2012. Sustainable Mega-Events: Beyond the myth of balanced approaches to mega-event

sustainability. Event Management 16, pp. 119-131.Heck, W. 2014. Duurzaam Dansen [online]. Available at:

http://www.nrc.nl/next/van/2014/april/19/duurzaam-dansen-1367035 [Accessed: 01 june 2014]. Henderson, S. 2011. The development of competitive advantage through sustainable event

management. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes 3(3), pp. 245-257.Henriques, A. & Richardson, J. 2004. The triple bottom line, does it all add up?: Assessing the

sustainability of business and CSR. London: Earthscan.Hetkanwel. 2011. Groen Pinkpop is een feit [online]. Available at:

http://www.hetkanwel.net/2011/06/14/groen-pinkpop-is-een-feit/ [Accessed: 4 may 2014].Hodur, N., and Leistritz, L. 2007. Estimating the economic impact of event tourism: A review of

issues and methods. Journal of Convention and Event Tourism 8 (4): 63-80. Johnson. 2013. ADE Green is born! [online]. Available at: http://kambe-events.co.uk/shambala-

burning-man-and-julies-bicycle-at-ade-green/ [Accessed on: 18 may 2014].Jones, M. 2010. Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide. London: Earthscan.Jones, M. 2011. Sustainable Event Management. IFEA's ie: The business of international events,

Spring, 12.Jones & Scanlon. 2010. Singing to a greener tune. Current status of the music industry in

addressing environmental sustainability [online]. Available at: http://www.grida.no/files/workshops/music-environment/Singing%20to%20a%20Greener%20Tune%20DRAFT%20REPORT.pdf [Accessed: 4 may 2014].

Karlsen, S. & Stenbacka Nordstrom, C. 2009. Festivals in the Barents Region: Exploring festival-stakholder cooperation. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 9(2), pp. 130-145.

Labsessies. 2013. Indian Summer Festival wint Greener Festival Award [online]. Available at: http://www.zapnow.nl/wms/fm/userfiles/content/5E23F84B-0434-79EA-D1FC-7E023D808916.pdf [Accessed: 20 may 2014].

Labsessies. 2014. Wie en Wat [online]. http://www.labbsessies.nl/wie-en-wat/ [Accessed: 16 may 2014]

Labvlieland. 2014. Labvlieland. Werkplaats voor vernieuwing en verbeelding [online]. Available at: http://labvlieland.nl/ [Accessed: 17 may 2014].

Laing, J. & Frost, W. 2010. How green was my festival: Exploring challenges and opportunities associated with staging green events. International Journal of Hospitality Management 29, pp. 261-267.

Latham, L., Ramsay, L. & Buckley, C. 2014. Industry Green Festivals: 3 stars. Mysteryland 2013 Report. London: Julie's Bicycle.

Lee, J., & Beeler, C. 2007. The relationships among quality, satisfaction, and future intention for first-time and repeat visitors in a festival setting. Event Management 10 (4), 197-208.

Livewire. 2013. 'Zelfs een groentje kan dat rekensommetje maken' [online]. Available at:

60

http://www.livewire.nl/nl/blog/1474/zelfs-een-groentje-kan-dat-rekensommetje-maken [Accessed: 16 may 2014].

Live Earth. 2009. Live Earth. Green Event Guidelines [online]. Available at: http://www.greeneventbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/liveearthgreenguidelines.pdf [Accessed: 17 may 2014].

Mair, J. & Laing, J. 2012. The greening of music festivals: motivations, barriers and outcomes. Applying the Mair and Jago model. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 20(5), pp. 683-700.

Mair, J. & Jago, J. 2010. The development of a conceptual model of greening in the business events tourism sector. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 18(1), pp. 77-94.

Matheson, C. 2005. Festivity and sociability: A study of a Celtic music festival. Tourism Culture and Communication 5(3), 149-163.

Mitchell, C. 1993. Economic impact of the arts: Theatre festivals in small Ontario communities. Journal of Cultural Economics 17 (2), 55-67.

Moscardo, G. 2007. Analysing the role of festivals and events in regional development. Event Management 11 (1/2), 23-32.

Morgan, M. 2008. What makes a good festival? Understanding the event experience. Event Management 12 (2), 81-93.

Music in Control. 2013. ID&T en ADE presenteren ADE green [online]. Available at: http://www.musicincontrol.nl/nieuws/idt-en-ade-presenteren-ade-green/ [Accessed: 16 may 2014].

Nuchelmans. [no date]. Lowlands een groen festival in de polder [online]. Available at: http://www.boekman.nl/sites/default/files/reportage_andre_nuchelmans.pdf [Accessed: 17 may 2014].

Impacts 08 - Langen, F. & Garcia, B. 2009. Measuring the Impacts of Large Scale Cultural Events: A Literature Review. Liverpool: University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University.

Quinn, B, 2003. Symbols, practices and myth-making: Cultural perspectives on the Wexford Opera Festival. Tourism Geographies 5 (3), 329-349.

Quinn, B. 2006. Problematising „festival tourism‟: Arts festivals and sustainable development in Ireland. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 14 (3), 288-306.

Raj, R. & Musgrave, J. 2009. Event Management and Sustainability. Oxfordshire: CAB International.

Richards, G. 2007. Culture and authenticity in a traditional event: The views of producers, residents, and visitors in Barcelona. Event Management 11 (1/2), 33-44.

Pinkpop, 2014. Pinkpop. Groen [online]. Available at: http://www.pinkpop.nl/2014/festival-info/groen/ [Accessed: 13 may 2014]

Rekko, K. 2013. Groen in het Festivalseizoen? Samen doen! Syntens Leren van elkaar kring 'Een groener festival'. Eindhoven: Syntens.

Respons. 2014. Festival Monitor Online (FMO) [online]. Available at: http://www.respons.nl/uploads/FestivalMonitorOnline1.pdf [Accessed: 5 juni 2014].

Sharpe, E. K. 2008. Festivals and social change: intersections of pleasure and politics at a community music festival. Leisure Sciences 30, 217-234.

Simons, H. 2009. Case study research in practice. London: Sage.Smit, P. 2012. Lowlands droomt van duurzaam paradijs [online]. Available at:

http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2844/Archief/archief/article/detail/3302781/2012/08/18/Lowlands-droomt-van-duurzaam-paradijs.dhtml [Accessed: 13 may 2014].

Syntens [no date]. Indian Summer Festival gaat voor duurzaamste festival Europe [online]. Available at: http://www.zapnow.nl/wms/fm/userfiles/content/5E23F84B-0434-79EA-D1FC-7E023D808916.pdf [Accessed: 10 may 2014].

Tang, Q., & Turco, D. 2001. Spending behaviors of event tourists. Journal of Convention & Exhibition Management 3 (2), 33-40.

Thomas, G. 2011. How to do your Case Study. A guide for students & researchers. London: Sage.Thoolen, E. 2013. Extrema, Mysteryland en Pinkpop gaan ook groen! [online]. Available at:

61

http://www.dj2dj.nl/blog/extrema-mysteryland-en-pinkpop-gaan-ook-groen/ [Accessed: 22 may 2014].

Tzschentke, N., Kirk, D. & Lynch, P.A. 2004. Reasons for going green in serviced accommodation establishments. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 16(2), pp. 116-124.

UMEF. 2014. Happy green year! [Online]. Available at: http://umef.net/2014/01/happy-green-year/ [14 may 2014].

Verschuren, P. & Doorewaard, H. 2007. Het ontwerpen van een onderzoek. Den-Haag: Boom Lemma Uitgevers.

Vennix, J. 2010. Theorie en praktijk van empirisch onderzoek.Harlow: Pearson.Wicks, B., & Fesenmaier, D. 1993. A comparison of visitor and vendor perceptions of service

quality at a special event. Festival Management and Event Tourism 1 (1), 19-26. Wood, E., & Thomas, R. 2006. Measuring cultural values – the case of residents‟ attitudes to the

Saltaire Festival. Tourism Economics 12 (1), 137-145. Verheul, G. 2012. Puur & Eerlijk zonder zegeltjes. Een analyse van de claim op 'kwaliteitsvoedsel'

van Nederlandse topkoks. MSc. Thesis, Wageningen University.Yeoman, I., Robertson, M., Ali-Knight, J., Drummond, S. & McMahon-Beattie, U. 2004. Festival

and Events Management. Oxford: Elsevier.Yin, R. 2009. Case-study Research: Design and Methods. Los Angeles: Sage.Yourope. 2014. Green 'N' Clean [online]. Available at: http://www.yourope.org/content.aspx?

navi=29&sprache=en&bereich=1&ym=16&c=17 [Accessed: 10 may 2014].

62

Appendices

63

Appendix A – List of consulted webpages

Below, an overview of the webpages of festivals assessed in the website analysis

http://www.lowlands.nlhttp://www.magneetfestival.nlhttp://dgtlfestival.com/http://xofestival.nlhttp://www.solarweekend.nlhttp://www.pinkpop.nlhttp://www.concertatsea.nlhttp://www.welcometothefuture.nlhttp://www.mysteryland.nlhttp://www.vestrock.nlhttp://www.woodlandsfestival.nlhttp://www.indiansummerfestival.nlhttp://www.elevation-events.comhttp://www.hetlentekabinetfestival.nlhttp://www.bestkeptsecret.nlhttp://www.paaspop.nlhttp://www.megabase.nlhttp://www.appelpop.nlhttp://www.intothegreatwideopen.nlhttp://www.defqon1.nlhttp://pitchfestival.nlhttp://www.emporium.nlhttp://www.awakenings.nlhttp://www.dancevalley.comhttp://www.huntenpop.nlhttp://www.fortarock.nlhttp://www.editfestival.comhttp://www.lieffestival.nlhttp://www.zwartecross.nl

64

Appendix B – List of approached festivals and organisations

This table gives an overview of the festivals approached for the interview and their final status. Next to this it also indicates if the website was included in the website analysis.

Festivals Status Website analysis

Lowlands Rejection Yes

Into the great wide open Interview Yes

Solar/Extrema Outdoor Interview Yes

Best kept secret No time Yes

Pitch Rejection Yes

Emporium Rejection Yes

Pinkpop Rejection Yes

Awakenings No response Yes

Dance-valley No response Yes

Mysteryland No response Yes

HuntenPop No response Yes

CAS No time Yes

Indian Summer Festival No time Yes

Soenda No response Yes

Paaspop No response Yes

Mysteryland (ID&T) Interview by telephone Yes

Megabase outdoor No time Yes

Smeerboel No time Yes

DGTL No response Yes

Welcome to the future No response Yes

Het lente kabinet festival No response Yes

Fortarock No response Yes

Vestrock No response Yes

Free your mind festival No response Yes

Woodlands festival No time Yes

Edit Festival No response Yes

Lief festival No response Yes

Magneet festival Interview Yes

Appelpop No response Yes

Zwarte Cross No response Yes

65

Appendix C – Interview schemes

Here, two interview schemes are given, in which the interview questions that guided the interviews

are stated. The first scheme provides the questions that were asked during the interview with the

representative of the Chamber of Commerce. The second scheme provides an insight in the topics

that were raised in the interviews with the festival organisers.

1.Interview scheme - expert interview 6. What does environmental sustainability mean for the festival industry?7. To what extent is there attention for sustainability in the sector?8. How are festivals addressing environmental sustainability?9. What role does your organisation when it comes to making the festival sector more

sustainable?10. What do you consider to be the main drivers behind the greening of festivals?11. What do you consider to be the main barriers or challenges when it comes to addressing

sustainability at festivals?12. Who are the most important stakeholders when it comes to

2. Interview scheme – festival organisersFestival Background

5. What is your function6. When was the festival set up and why?7. What type of organisation is the festival? Profit/non-profit/public?8. How many staff are involved in organisaing the festival? (permanent and volunteers)

Sustainability 1. How is the festival's understanding of 'sustainability'?2. How important is it for the festival and why?3. Who is responsible for sustainability at the festival?4. Does the festival have a sustainability or environmental policy?5. What do you consider the most significant impacts of the festival?6. What is the festival doing to address sustainability related issues

1. Organisation2. Communication3. Festival attendees4. Suppliers5. Location,6. Energy use7. Transportation8. Waste9. Water10. Purchases11. Resources

7. What are the most significant practical issues you encounter

Drivers/barriers1. What are the main reasons for you/the organisation to address sustainability?

1. Personal/Organisational values2. Consumer demand

66

3. Financial benefits (reducing costs & efficiency)4. Competitive advantages5. Creating an image6. Pressure of stakeholders7. Desire to outdrive regulations8. Corporate Social Responsibility (policy)

2. What do you consider to be the main barriers/challenges of addressing sustainability?1. Lack of resources/financial means2. Lack of time 3. Lack of knowledge4. Lack of control over the venue5. Lack of control over patron behaviour

Stakeholders7 Who do you consider to be the most important stakeholders in the greening process?8 What other organisations are involved in helping your festival address environmental

sustainability issues? And why?9 What is their contribution?

Communication1. To what extent is the organisation promoting an environmental message to its visitors?2. To what extent is the organisation raising awareness on sustainable practices amongst its

staff?

67

Appendix D – Summary of statements per interviewee

Considering the size of the interview transcripts and the fact that these were conducted in Dutch, a

short (English) summary of the quotations is given in order to highlight the most important points

derived from each interview. For each interview the statements made by the interviewee throughout

the dissertation are collected and reported, together with the most significant information on the

interview.

1. Interview Kim Rekko – Chamber of Commerce Eindhoven

Date interview: 08/04/2014Duration interview: 67 minutesLocation: Eindhoven

‘The most important element was the baseline assessment on the festival’s CO2 impact. This

allows a festival to get good insights in where they stand, cause there is a lot of perception

surrounding the theme of sustainability’

‘Our goal is to put sustainability on the map and to make sure they implement this in a

strategic policy document, thus formulating objectives, which they can monitor and steer’

'Nowadays the tents are considerably cheap, for which they are left at the camping site. It is

difficult to control of influence this kind of behaviour'

'The initiator or champion, may it be the director, the manager or other employees, needs to

have the drive, but also the skills to engage the people involved in the festival in becoming

more sustainable.'

2. Interview Govert Reeskamp – Into The Great Wide Open

Date interview: 27/03/2014Duration interview: 67 minutesLocation: Amsterdam

'The ecological values can be found in the base of the entire organisation. In fact, if you

want to do something, this can’t go without ecological consequence, since we are located in

a natural area. For this it is a requirement to pay attention to the ecological aspects before a

decision is made.’

68

‘It’s more than just a think-thank. It’s a place where we collect and share knowledge with

important stakeholders and other festival organisers. It’s not only focused on Into The Great

Wide Open festival, but it strives to share knowledge and experience with the local

community and similar festivals’

‘The concept or plan for our festival is different every year and is therefore open to a lot of

changes. I can imagine this can be different for larger festivals that have been running for a

longer time.’

‘Visitors are constantly surrounded by nature and therewith also constantly drawn to the

values of nature. This has more impact than presenting sustainable practices on a flyer.’

‘I am not convinced that people will come to your festival, because you claim to be very

green. I do think that visitors will not come again if they see the dirty production, because

this generates aversion.’

‘If someone identifies a problem or a good initiative is raised, this is discussed with the

entire board and from there measurements and actions are taken. It’s not that there is just one

person who is responsible for this and coordinates such things.’

‘Our organisation is too dynamic, for which it doesn’t make sense to base our efforts on

audits, since we don’t have one core concept and everything is different each year.’

'It is very easy to say that you're sustainable and only take a few measurements'.

‘I think it would be great if there would be a viable standard for the way to produce a

festival, a reference framework. The only thing is that I think that the festival world is too

diverse, which makes this impossible’

3. Interview Isis van der Wel – Magneet Festival

Date interview: 18/04/2014Duration interview: 58 minutesLocation: Amsterdam

'I think we are heading for a direction in which you have to take responsibilities, mostly

because you will be judged on your actions if you don't do it'

69

'In the Netherlands, we are now getting acquainted with greening, but we miss experience

and know-how'

'It's not that sustainability is something that is fundamentally within the organisation, but to

the board it is very important'

‘I like to set an example and to bring about small mentality changes to people by provoking

them and demonstratively clean up. I would like the see that the current polluting standard

changes.’

‘We have the information, so I think it is some kind of moral duty to act on it.’

We don’t have an old-fashioned organisation structure where we work with an script and

our festival is very dynamic’

'Everything comes from goodwill and participation, but that doesn't mean we can organise it

all. We do our best with the best intentions and the means we have. '

'If the larger festivals, that can pressure suppliers, don’t ask for greener facilities or

technologies the manufacturer won’t invest in innovative solutions’

4. Interview Laura van der Voort – Extrema

Date interview: 07/05/2014Duration interview: 71 minutesLocation: Eindhoven

‘In some cases your doing something for financial reasons, like saving energy, which then

also appears to be sustainable.’

‘I set up a good plan, but with the implementation of this plan, some things went wrong.

This is not a problem, but allows us to learn for next year’

‘Where at the festival it is possible to control the waste stream, by creating a mono-stream or

segregate waste, we can’t control what people leave behind in the camping area’

70

'Most of all it is important to get started, take action and closely follow the processes of the

festival.'

'Apparently it is not that easy to initiate such a ‘social change’, but I notice it’s getting easier'

5. Interview Carlijn Lindemulder – ID&T

Date interview: 02/05/2014Duration interview: 30 minutesLocation: -

'Sustainability is very much reflected by the personal values of the director. He is very

driven and committed with making ID&T and its festivals more sustainable.'

‘If a few festivals set the good example, festival attendees will set certain standards and have

expectations for other festivals’

‘Since you’re never sure for how long you will stay at a certain venue, it’s difficult to make

long-term investments, like solar panels or a connection to the energy grid’

END

71