The international Game On! project has developed a guide on how to organize a nature- and climate-friendly event based on its own experience. This is how the Festival Greening Handbook was born. The Guide has since been translated into eight languages ​​and made available for free. The mission of the manual is helping festival organizers worldwide to organize sustainable, environmentally conscious and climate-friendly events in harmony with nature.

“Each of the major music festivals in the US, such as Coachella, Stagecoach and Desert Trip, generate around 100 tonnes of solid waste every day, while an estimated 23,500 tonnes of waste are produced by music festivals in the UK each year – about the same as weight as 78 fully loaded Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets” said the BBC. This was the result of a study made in the United Kingdom. This increased environmental impact is even more noticeable in settlements where one can hardly see people outside the summer event. The infrastructure is often non-existent in those places. 

An environmental-conscious event organizer must plan and organize a festival in a way to keep the event's environmental impact as low as possible. Planning and organizing a festival is a complex and multi-layered process, in which five main aspects are to be taken into consideration. These are: catering, waste, energy and water, transport, and location. The recommendations and checkpoints were broken down by the creators according to these five aspects.

Environmentalist organizations, event organizers and various businesses have been working on how to organize nature- and climate-friendly events for quite some time. This new handbook answers that need and helps you organize an event or festival in an environment-friendly way. Whether it is a friend's birthday, a garden party, a wedding or a huge music festival.

Free and downloadable checklist for climate-friendly events

GameOn proudly presents the Festival Greening Handbook, what was created by the Latvian Fund for Nature (LFN) on how to organize a nature- and climate-friendly event based on its own experience. The LFN has more than 30 years of environmental experience. The Guide has since been translated into eight languages ​​and made available for free and was adapted by eight partner countries. In each country they already use the guidance on organizing environmentally friendly events and festivals. 

GameOn has created a webpage offering event organizers a thematic list of what to do when preparing various categories of events specifying precise parameters for each of them, hoping to provide valuable help in organizing festivals. The first step in planning an event is therefore preparing a checklist to ensure that the event will be nature- and climate-friendly. 

When preparing the checklist, users automatically record the parameters of the planned event, and will thus receive suggestions tailored to their own event in conformity with its five main criteria. Those are: catering, waste, energy and water, transport and location. The checklist can then be downloaded free of charge. The organizations of the project's partner countries are also ready to provide assistance in the practical implementation of green festivals, and users may contact them with their specific questions.

"We hope that the recommendations of this manual will serve as an incentive for greener procedures in organizing and conducting events and promote real change. These tips can be useful for event organizers and participants alike: performers, caterers, retailers, cleaning and delivery contractors, technical staff, venue owners, communication experts, sponsors and venue authorities," the authors of the Festival Greening Handbook wrote.

The Festival Greening Handbook answers the challenges faced by organizers of concerts, conferences, weddings and sports competitions. These tips can be useful for event organizers and attendees alike.

The Handbook is open to the public and can be used free of charge for any festival or cultural event.