"Love this place, leave no trace" is Splore's sustainability mantra, with the festival internationally recognised as being at the forefront of event sustainability.
Sustainability efforts at last summer's festival saw Splore awarded a 'highly commended' in the A Greener Festival Awards - the first New Zealand festival to receive this accolade.
Initiatives to reduce the festival's carbon footprint included car-pooling, reusable drinking vessels, manned recycling stations, compostable food vendor utensils and plates, and saw the event diverting 74 per cent of waste from landfill and reducing car trips to the site by 25 per cent.
The Slew by Kid Koala, who is set to perform at Splore 2015:
Festival director John Minty is looking to smash that goal this year with the help of the festival audience.
He says the festival bars and market operators were able to keep 92 per cent of waste from being sent to landfill but rubbish left by campers - everything from tents and leaky airbeds to $2 shop costumes and food packaging - brought that total down.
"That's one operational area we can make a lot more efficient to keep more out of landfill," Minty says.
Ticket holders are being encouraged to think about what they pack for the event, including "pre-cycling" unnecessary packaging.
Manned sorting tables will be located in the campsites to separate recyclables from waste.
The aim is to have 85 per cent diverted from landfill at the next event in February, with zero waste in 2016.
New environmental initiatives in 2015 will be biodiesel for the onsite generators and service vehicles, plus a push for people to jump on subsidised bus transport instead of taking a car.
A bird's-eye of Splore 2014:
Splore founder and director of event sustainability advisory firm Green Shoot Pacific Amanda Wright says sustainability wasn't a widely used term when Splore began 16 years ago but even then it was part of the festival's ethos.
With less than 1000 people at the first event in 1998 it was easy to manage the waste but difficult to find experts to help at an organisational level, Wright says.
Even getting skip bins and wheelie bins delivered to the regional park festival sites was a challenge, she admits.
"Waste is the low-hanging fruit with any event and also the most visible, so it's a really important one to actually nail, but there's lots of other things that contribute to running a true sustainable event and that's energy, water, greenhouse gas emissions and the whole social/ethical side of it as well," says Wright.
Minty says the audience experience of sustainability initiatives at Splore helps to shape their behaviour in day-to-day life.
"It can actually spread that message because we've got an almost artificially controlled environment; we've 'got' them for three days," he says.
Check out splore.net for more information and the full line-up. Tickets ($235), pre-booked camping, glamping and car passes can be purchased from iticket.co.nz.
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