THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF GLASTONBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL essay
It is found that today many people from different countries of the world have a great desire to take part in cultural and artistic events that are specially held to attract tourists from all over the world and satisfy their spiritual needs. Arts tourism is on the peak of its popularity (Shaw & Williams, 2003: 28). According to Melanie Smith, Nicola MacLeod and Margaret Hart Robertson, “arts tourism refers to travel which is motivated by an interest in the performing and visual arts including opera, ballet, music and arts festivals”(2010: 9). The most popular music festivals that are successfully held in the United Kingdom include the Edinburgh Festival and Glastonbury Festival, Chichester Festival and Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Africa Oye and London Notting Hill Carnival. Most of these events have an international reputation (Faiella, 2005: 53). Moreover, it is found that music festivals in the United Kingdom represent music of different genres and styles: from ethnic and folk music to pop and rock music (Hughes, 2000: 29). One of the most popular music festivals in England is the Glastonbury Festival which covers such genres as folk music, rock music, electronic music, Reggae and hip hop, etc. (Shearlaw & Aubrey, 2005:12). Moreover, this festival is known for its performing arts: theater, comedy, circus, cabaret, etc.
However, those cultural and artistic events that attract tourists from all over the world have positive and negative impacts on the social and cultural life, the economy of the country and environment (Taylor & Holloway, 2006: 64). The Glastonbury Festival is one of the music events that have an enormous impact on environment (Ghosh, 2008: 27). Such issues as transport pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, land pollution, damage to flora and fauna and a number of other negative impacts are widely discussed in media. At the same time the Glastonbury music festival has environmental positive impacts: public awareness of the role of environmental protection, the opportunity to hold environmental protection campaigns, etc. The major goal of this paper is to analyze the major environmental impacts of the Glastonbury music festival.
ENVIRONMENTAL POSITIVE IMPACTS OF THE GLASTONBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL
The major environmental positive impacts of the Glastonbury music festival that positively influence the society and environment include not only public awareness of the necessity to protect environment, but also the opportunity to organize and conduct different environment protection campaigns. It is clear that festival-goers who come to the United Kingdom each year to have a good rest at the Glastonbury become aware of the necessity to protect environment. It is known that the festival is held outdoors and gives an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of local nature. What is more important is that “Glastonbury organizers are consistently the first to embrace new ideas and implement new pioneering policies and ground breaking practices designed to encourage and enable others to follow up on ideas long after the festival has finished” (Glastonbury and the Environment, 2008: 1). It means that due to the festival, more and more people are ready to change their attitude to the major environment issues on our planet, such as air pollution, water pollution and land pollution. They have an opportunity to act as the confirmed environmentalists whose goal is to protect environment on our planet. (Glastonbury and the Environment, 2008: 1).
In addition, during the Glastonbury music festival, the organizers of the event and some world famous environment protection organizations (Greenpeace and others) conduct environment protection campaigns which contribute to the protection of our planet. For example, they try to educate festival-goers on reducing their waste. Samuel deBlanc Goldblatt states that they try “to stop people bringing staff they don’t need” (2011: 104). In 2004, the majority of festival-goers were given an opportunity “to plant a tree to offset the fuel consumed by the generators powering their entertainment” (Barkham, 2004: 1). More than 1700 trees were planted in the special woodland of the festival site. There are some other campaigns, such as “Love the Farm … Leave No Trace” campaign, which encourages people not only to protect river and land from pollution, but also to travel by public transport (Green Glastonbury, Official Site, 2012). In addition, tin 2011, the Glastonbury has implemented the “Glastonbury Festival Green Traveller package”, “which ensures anyone arriving by public transport gets exclusive use of solar showers and “access to compost toilets” (Hickman, 2011: 1). These campaigns help to educate people and to be kinder and more sensitive to such global issue as environment protection.
Moreover, the festival organizers try to do everything possible to maintain and protect the rich and diverse environment. The festival is held once a year in the middle of the growing season. It is forbidden to use any environmentally damaging conventional farming practices which could have a more intrusive impact on the local ecology (Glastonbury and the Environment, 2008:1).
In addition, the Glastonbury music festival pays millions of pounds each year to different charities and good causes, “with the main beneficiaries being Oxfam, Greenpeace, Water Aid, and some other local good causes”, according to Julia Tum and Philippa Norton (2012: 23). The festival also provides support to the Fair Trade Foundation and Future Forests and tries to find the appropriate ways to operate without any damage to environment providing numerous environmental charities.
ENVIRONMENTAL NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE GLASTONBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL
It is known that the Glastonbury music festival is very popular in the UK. Moreover, it is found that thousands of people come to the UK in order to participate in this event. The statistical data shows that about 140,000 people gather in such a small area practically each year. In accordance to the report, in 2005, the enclosed area of the music festival was over 900 acres, or 3.6 km, with more than 150,000 festival-goers (Glastonbury Festival, 2011: 11). However, the event organizers often ignore the environmental impact of such large-scale events (Yeoman et al., 2012: 317). Rozaq Ray, one of the professionals of the UK Center for Event Management, discusses this issue in his article The Impact of Festivals on Cultural Tourism. He states that it is very important “to adopt strategies to take into control the social and environmental impacts of festivals” (2003: 5). It is known that in 2003, the Glastonbury music festival organizers had to pay “13,500 pounds in fines and costs for polluting the river Whitelake that runs through the site of the world famous festival”, in accordance to David Burningham, John Davies and Susan Grant (2004: 106). The officers of the Environmental Agency detected a considerable concentration of ammonia in the water of the nearby river. The major cause of that violation was connected with the problems with toilet facilities at the festival site. In addition, “about 120 fish were found dead in the river Whitelake” during one of the festivals (Burningham et al., 2004: 106). Taking the above mentioned facts into consideration, it is possible to conclude that there are a number of environmental negative impacts of the Glastonbury music festival. The Glastonbury music festival causes serious pollution problems, including air pollution, water pollution and land pollution (Pow, 2009: 11).
One of the environmental impacts of this event is the so-called “earliest form of pollution – urinating in a river stream” (Goldblatt, 2011: 30). It is not a secret that the major duties of Glastonbury Green Police that is formed of those volunteers who have a great desire to spread environmental awareness among visitors at the iconic UK music festival, is to prevent festival-goers from urinating in the river stream.
In addition, such cultural events as outdoor music festivals often carry negative environmental impact from transportation (Goldblatt, 2011: 86). It is clear that transportation is still a major challenge for music festivals. According to Samuel deBlanc Goldblatt, “the mere arrival of the attendees is one of the most negative environmental impacts of any meeting or event”(2011: 95). It is very important to understand the negative impact on environment of the thousands of festival-goers who drive to the remote location of the Glastonbury music festival. When people arrive to the festival by their cars, they park them for several days and live in tents. The pollution of air from the vehicles’ fumes as well as noise pollution caused by the festival-goers’ lead to serious health problems(Ryding, 1994: 337).
Moreover, waste pollution is also a serious problem for local community. Samuel deBlanc Goldblatt states that many festival-goers “litter not just food wrappers, but larger objects as well” (2011: 104). According to the study, many visitors who live in tents during the festival – just leave these tents behind because they are cheap and useless to take them home. Ben Challis, the lawyer of the Glastonbury festival says: “we have huge amounts of poles and tents which go straight to landfill” (Goldblatt, 2011: 104). Besides abandoned tents, there is another problem: “litter in the form of discarded paper, food packaging and drink containers”, in accordance to Samuel deBlanc Goldblatt (2011: 105).
SOLUTIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE GLASTONBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL
It is known that the Glastonbury music festival organizers realize that this popular event, that is held at Worthy Farm and gathers thousands of people from all over the world, has its direct impact on environment, both positive and negative. That is why the Glastonbury music festival organizers have already done considerable to reduce environmental negative impacts of the event (Soller, 2007: 21). It means that today the festival is committed to enhancing the environment through different initiatives minimizing environmental negative impacts. For example, the official site of the Glastonbury provides the appropriate information for the festival-goers in the section What Can You Do To Reduce Your Impact. The organizers ask people to take tents and all camping equipment home, limit the amount of things and always clean up the territory, reduce the consumption of bottled water and conserve water at the festival, put all rubbish into the special bins and bin-bags, etc. (Green Glastonbury, Official Site, 2012).
Besides, it would be better to position plenty of waste receptacles which should be “well labeled, well positioned and well maintained” (Goldblatt, 2011: 105). One of the best solutions to reduce pollution is to launch a mandatory recycling program which is focused on three bin trash receptacle system: trash (plastic coffee cups, candy wrappers, potato chip bags, etc.), recycling (glass bottles, paper, steel tin cans, etc.) and compost (left-over food, compostable plastics, used napkins, etc.) (Goldblatt, 2011: 106). According to Steve Roskams, “the biggest output from the Glastonbury was not the music, the theater, the veggie food or the vibes, it was the rubbish!” (2000: 35). However, today more than 500 litter-pickers are working during the three or four days of the festival (Roskams, 2000:35). In addition, it is necessary to provide more toilets in order to minimize the potential risk of pollution during the event (Bowdin, 2010: 179). The organizers of the festival try to investigate further technological developments in order to minimize water and land pollution (Mair & Laing, 2012: 684).
It is known that such outdoor event as the Glastonbury requires the use of mobile generators for supplying power. Today most generators run on mineral diesel and polluting fuel, that is why it is necessary to use sustainable fuels or the so-called “zero emission technology” (Jones, 2010: 85). The solution is to reduce the environmental negative impact of mobile generated power through the use of sustainable biofuels and alternative energy and reducing the demand of power during the event. Moreover, festival-goers should be encouraged “to reduce the carbon footprint of their food by opting for organic food that is fresh, local and, in season, as well as eating less meat” (Smithers, 2007: 1).
Additionally, there is one more solution to minimize the environmental negative impact of the Glastonbury music festival – to provide effective water management. It means that the organizers of the festival should take control over the major operations with water. They should pay special attention to water conservation: “to reduce water use through water saving devices on taps, hoses, showers, and drinking water standpipes, to use chemical free cleaning products, etc.” (Jones, 2010: 182). Moreover, it would be better to protect the riparian zone, the territory between land and a waterway from any type of activity and from any impact. Of course, excessive urination direct to the water of land should be prevented. It means that it is very important to conduct an effective water conservation campaign to encourage the festival-goers to save water and protect land form pollution. One more solution is to launch free water bottle refill stations (Jones, 2010: 182). The above mentioned solutions will help to make the Glastonbury festival an “eco-friendly” festival (Smithers, 2007).
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that the Glastonbury music festival, one of the largest green field open-air music and performing arts festivals in the world, has both positive and negative impacts on environment. Although it enhances public awareness to protect environment through numerous initiatives and environment protection campaigns, the festival still has a serious negative impact on water, land and air. The major solutions to negative impacts of the event are focused on tightening control over the festivals and implementation of new technological developments.
